The blessings and burdens of communication

Cell phones in Jamaican transnational social fields

Bibliographic Data

ID4262995
AuthorsHeather A Horst (0000-0002-7391-7616, University of Southern California, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume6
Issue2
Pages143-159
Publication date2006-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Networks (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1470-2266 • E-ISSN: 1471-0374
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1471-0374.2006.00138.x
OpenAlexW2080884553
LanguageEN
Citations received133
References cited19

Although much mention has been made of the importance of ICTs for transnational migrants, we know relatively little about how these technologies affect or change everyday transnational communications. Tracing the shift from community phone boxes to individually owned mobile (cell) phones in rural Jamaica, in this article I focus on the integration of mobile phones in Jamaican transnational communication. Equipped with a mobile phone, rural Jamaicans no longer rely on collect phone calls and expensive calling cards to initiate the connections between their friends and relatives living abroad. For many Jamaicans without access to a regular or reliable phone service prior to 2001, the mobile phone is viewed as an unadulterated blessing, transforming the role of transnational communication from an intermittent event to a part of daily life. For others, however, the mobile phone remains an object of ambivalence, bringing unforeseen burdens and obligations

Ambivalence · Blessing · Geography · Internet privacy · Mobile phone · Phone · Telecommunications · Computer Science · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access