Catenating the local and the global in Morocco

How Mobile Phone Users Have Become Producers and Not Consumers

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3979318
AutoresHsain Ilahiane (University of Kentucky, autor de correspondencia)
Año2013
Volumen18
Número5
Páginas652-667
Fecha de publicación2013-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629387.2013.849894
OpenAlexW2316041247
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas35

Over a decade ago, a major intellectual shift occurred in global development thinking, stressing local and ‘bottom-up’ market-driven approaches to poverty alleviation over top-down, statist planning. Many principles of this shift are embedded in a development approach referred to as the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. At the same time, some of the claims and outcomes associated with such approaches have met with scathing critiques. I examine some of these debates in the context of mobile phone use among low-income labourers in Morocco. There is no doubt that access to productive resources and greater access to markets can benefit people with low incomes. As I argue, however, there are a number of factors that limit the success of such top-down interventions, perhaps none more so than the level to which economic actors have the ability to shape the use of productive resources and to build local productive networks via such resources. In this sense, perhaps not surprisingly, economic and social development can never be disconnected from empowerment and participation.Keywords: Moroccotelecommunicationslabourmobile telephonydevelopment AcknowledgementsI express my gratitude to Intel Corporation for funding this research project and to our colleagues at L'Institut National des Postes et Télécommunications (INPT), Telecom Partners, Maroc Télécom, Meditel Télécom, Secretariat d'etat auprès du Premier Ministère Chargé de la Poste et des Technologies des Télécommunications et de l'Information (SEPTI), and the Agence Nationale de Réglementation des Télécommunications (ARNT) for their assistance. Special thanks also go to the hrayfiya (and professors of bricolage) of Mohammadia for their time and willingness to share their knowledge and mobile phone usage with us.Notes1. ‘Modernisation theories’ are a composite of perspectives that, while prominent in the 1950s and 1960s, continue to dictate development discourse and practice today. They refer to the evolutionary process of transitioning from a traditional society to a modern one; and tend to view countries as a being at different stages of a linear path which leads ultimately to an industrialised, rational, and secular society. Much emphasis is put on rooting rationality and scientific knowledge in the economic, political, and social spheres: inculcating the spirit of free enterprise in poor, irrational, and profit-unmotivated people; replacing tribal authority with democratic rule; and stressing secularisation and individual achievement (Sztompka Citation1993). For a typical example on the linkages between the concept of modernisation and economic growth, see Rostow (Citation1960).2. Harvey defines neoliberalism ‘as a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterised by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade.’ (Citation2005, 2). The neoliberal agenda, known also as the ‘augmented’ Washington Consensus, rests on the following principles: liberalisation and free trade (free markets); deregulation of markets and business; removal of government controls on wages, prices, etc.; privatisation of state enterprises and functions; and individual responsibility

Bottom of the pyramid · Business · Context (archaeology · Corporation · Empowerment · Geography · Mobile phone · Phone · Political science · Poverty · Sociology · Telecommunications · Computer Science · ICT in Developing Communities · Innovation and Socioeconomic Development · Law · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Marketing