The Mobile Phone Revolution in Morocco: Cultural and Economic Transformations

Description

In The Mobile Phone Revolution in Morocco, Hsain Ilahiane examines how Moroccans use the mobile phone to redefine core notions of gender and space, honor and shame, placemaking, and surveillance and control. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with urban street vendors, urban micro-entrepreneurs, urban female domestic workers, and smallholder farmers in urban and rural Morocco, Ilahiane illustrates how the mobile phone has the endowed capacity to inform, rearrange, and transform almost every aspect of Moroccan society. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Figures List of Figures Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration Introduction Introduction The Mobile Phone as a Total Social Artifact The Global and Local Context of Mobile Phone in Morocco Study Areas: Mohammedia and Errachidia Research Methods and Book Organization Chapter 1: Street Vendors: The Mobile Phone Is a Cleaner Occupation Historical and Economic Context of the Informal Economy The Making of the Informal Economy Entrepreneur Economic Relations and Trading in joutia Conclusion Chapter 2: Urban Micro-Entrepreneurs: The Mobile Phone Is the Sixth Pillar of Islam Theorizing the Mobile Phone Study Findings Making Sense of Mobile Phone Use Employment Search and the Entrepreneurial Spirit Mobile Phones and Differential Benefits Conclusion Chapter 3: Female Domestic Workers: The Mobile Phone Is like a Saint Employment Search before the Mobile Phone The Social Context of Female Domestic Workers Study Findings “Saint Mobile Phone”: Mobile Phone Charisma and Economic Effects Mobile Phones, Mediated Sociability, and Social Control Conclusion Chapter 4: Smallholder Farmers: The Mobile Phone Is neither a Snowmobile nor a Truck Theorizing the Mobile Phone in the Farming Sector Background on Moroccan Agriculture and Study Findings The Mobile Phone and the Spirit of Risk Taking Information Search and the Flattening of Information Asymmetry The Mobile Phone Is neither a Snowmobile nor a Truck Conclusion Chapter 5: The Makings of Shame, Gender, and Place: The Mobile Phone Is Satan Number 71 The Mobile Phone, Shame, and Domestic Space The Mobile Phone and Gender Agility A Mobile Phone Is a Thing and a Place Is a Knot Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Index About the Author