1 online resource (viii, 155 leaves) / This study explores the ways in which female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa use their cellular phones, as well as their interests and needs in using this technology. The findings in this study are therefore crucial to the body of knowledge on programmes that seek to uplift women's lives through the deployment of ICTs, since current policies do not make full provision for the use of mobile phones in female entrepreneurship. Information on female entrepreneurs and cellular phones was collected in the literature review. The scrutiny of various literature sources and the analysis of the responses from the interviews with the female entrepreneurs were carried out to arrive at answers to the following research questions: 1. Can telecommunications (specifically, cellular phones) increase the participation of women in the economy? 2. What are the consumer habits of female entrepreneur cellular phone users in Zambia and South Africa? 3. Are the communication needs of business women in Zambia and South Africa adequately met? 4. What are the obstacles that female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa face in the use of cellular phones? 5. What are the similarities and differences in the consumer habits of female entrepreneur cellular phone users in Zambia and South Africa? In order to gather information on the consumer habits of female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa, a survey was conducted of 100 female entrepreneurs. The female entrepreneurs identified in this survey consist of female business owners with no more than 50 employees each, from Gauteng Province in South Africa, and Lusaka Province in Zambia. The female entrepreneurs were identified through the accidental sampling technique, and a structured questionnaire was used to collect information from them. The findings of the investigation reveal that cellular phones have the potential to increase the participation of women in mainstream economic activity, since they are a useful means of communication that allow women from diverse backgrounds to communicate easily for both business and social purposes. Accordingly, national policy-makers in South Africa and Zambia need to investigate further the potential of using cellular phone or similar technology to empower small-scale businesswomen. The investigation also shows that the cellular phone consumer habits of female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa differ when it comes to using cellular phones for business and social communication purposes. More Zambian women indicated that they use their cellular phones in business operations, while South African women showed a tendency to use their phones more for social purposes. The results of this investigation further illustrate that despite the importance in value which the mobile phone has for women entrepreneurs in both Zambia and South Africa, the communication needs of women's entrepreneurship are not adequately met. The main obstacles in meeting the communication needs of female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa are inadequate network coverage and high prices. The study shows that a number of women (52,2%) indicated that they are inhibited from effective communication services and therefore resort to borrowing other people's mobile phones. The lack of empirical studies on the use of telecommunications by female entrepreneurs in both Zambia and South Africa attests to the fact that women's entrepreneurship is still an area that requires in-depth investigation. If various development efforts are to meet their targets, clearly the area of women's entrepreneurship and how various ICTs such as cellular phones are used therein needs urgent investigation. / Communication Sciences / M. A. (International Communication)

1 online resource (viii, 155 leaves) / This study explores the ways in which female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa use their cellular phones, as well as their interests and needs in using this technology. The findings in this study are therefore crucial to the body of knowledge on programmes that seek to uplift women's lives through the deployment of ICTs, since current policies do not make full provision for the use of mobile phones in female entrepreneurship. Information on female entrepreneurs and cellular phones was collected in the literature review. The scrutiny of various literature sources and the analysis of the responses from the interviews with the female entrepreneurs were carried out to arrive at answers to the following research questions: 1. Can telecommunications (specifically, cellular phones) increase the participation of women in the economy? 2. What are the consumer habits of female entrepreneur cellular phone users in Zambia and South Africa? 3. Are the communication needs of business women in Zambia and South Africa adequately met? 4. What are the obstacles that female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa face in the use of cellular phones? 5. What are the similarities and differences in the consumer habits of female entrepreneur cellular phone users in Zambia and South Africa? In order to gather information on the consumer habits of female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa, a survey was conducted of 100 female entrepreneurs. The female entrepreneurs identified in this survey consist of female business owners with no more than 50 employees each, from Gauteng Province in South Africa, and Lusaka Province in Zambia. The female entrepreneurs were identified through the accidental sampling technique, and a structured questionnaire was used to collect information from them. The findings of the investigation reveal that cellular phones have the potential to increase the participation of women in mainstream economic activity, since they are a useful means of communication that allow women from diverse backgrounds to communicate easily for both business and social purposes. Accordingly, national policy-makers in South Africa and Zambia need to investigate further the potential of using cellular phone or similar technology to empower small-scale businesswomen. The investigation also shows that the cellular phone consumer habits of female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa differ when it comes to using cellular phones for business and social communication purposes. More Zambian women indicated that they use their cellular phones in business operations, while South African women showed a tendency to use their phones more for social purposes. The results of this investigation further illustrate that despite the importance in value which the mobile phone has for women entrepreneurs in both Zambia and South Africa, the communication needs of women's entrepreneurship are not adequately met. The main obstacles in meeting the communication needs of female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa are inadequate network coverage and high prices. The study shows that a number of women (52,2%) indicated that they are inhibited from effective communication services and therefore resort to borrowing other people's mobile phones. The lack of empirical studies on the use of telecommunications by female entrepreneurs in both Zambia and South Africa attests to the fact that women's entrepreneurship is still an area that requires in-depth investigation. If various development efforts are to meet their targets, clearly the area of women's entrepreneurship and how various ICTs such as cellular phones are used therein needs urgent investigation. / Communication Sciences / M. A. (International Communication)

The widely used mobile phone, as well as its related technologies had opened opportunities for a complete change on how people interact and build relationship across geographic and time considerations. The convenience of instant communication by mobile phones that broke the barrier of space and time is evidently the key motivational point on why such technologies so important in people's life and daily activities. Mobile phones have become the most popular communication tools. Mobile phone technology is apparently changing our relationship to each other in our work and lives. The impact of new technologies on people's lives in social spaces gives us the chance to rethink the possibilities of technologies in social interaction. Accordingly, mobile phones are basically changing social relations in ways that are intricate to measure with any precision. In this dissertation I propose a socioscope model for social network, relationship and human behavior analysis based on mobile phone call detail records. Because of the diversities and complexities of human social behavior, one technique cannot detect different features of human social behaviors. Therefore I use multiple probability and statistical methods for quantifying social groups, relationships and communication patterns, for predicting social tie strengths and for detecting human behavior changes and unusual consumption events. I propose a new reciprocity index to measure the level of reciprocity between users and their communication partners. The experimental results show that this approach is effective. Among other applications, this work is useful for homeland security, detection of unwanted calls (e.g., spam), telecommunication presence, and marketing. In my future work I plan to analyze and study the social network dynamics and evolution.

This dissertation explores Mobile Media Technologies (MMT’s) namely, cellphones, laptops and MP3 players, and their prevalence in public space as well as how they are being used within the space. Much of my research analyses the impact of MMT’s on social behaviour and the extent to which they can be seen as the harbingers of a new “postmodern” form of social organisation. My research is predominantly an observational study which is conducted within the postmodern space of the shopping mall. Through my research I discuss the multiple spaces within the shopping mall environment and I explore how humans behave, interact and construct their identities within this space; these ideas are evaluated in terms of the “modern” and the “postmodern” paradigms. “Postmodernity” and “modernity” are not mutually exclusive and as a result there are ambivalences in terms of how individuals relate to how MMT’s are being used in public space. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

Rural communities have been disconnected from the global world in the past due to lack of infrastructure that rendered connectivity a challenge for them. Recent developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have led to improved connectivity in these areas. As a result, mobile phones have become ubiquitous in these rural communities. A matrix was proposed in this study in order to evaluate and assess the impact of mobile devices on development of the rural communities. Existing measurement tools have not yet explored how the usages of mobile phones and other ICTs are impacting the lives of people in rural communities of South Africa. The aim of this study was to understand the existing criteria used to measure the impact of ICTs in rural communities. This was be achieved by focusing on the use of mobile phones in the community of Phake Rebone, taking into account different users. Once this was established, the study had a primary objective to design a matrix that would assist in evaluating and assessing the impact of a mobile phone in social activities such as learning, business and governance. This was achieved by using a case study method, employing qualitative and quantitative research methods. Cases within a case study were used to uncover how the core groups within the community used the mobile phone. A mixed method approach was used in data gathering and analysis to enable the researcher to identify usages and challenges related to the mobile phones. Data was collected from 401 participants and was analysed through the computer-aided tools such GoogleDocs and Microsoft Excel. The findings of the study showed a greater usage of the mobile phone. The literature findings of the use of the mobile phone for basic communication as well as growing adoption of applications such as social media and Internet were confirmed. The use in community related activities and work purposes that impacted the community members were minimal. The need of training to gain knowledge on how to use the device more effectively was established. The proposed matrix therefore seemed v relevant not only to measure impact but also to highlight the areas in which the community members can be trained on. The noted usage trends and needs by the community were then used to formulate indicators that could be used for the matrix. The indicators were then used to develop a matrix that could be used by community members and other interested parties to measure the impact of mobile phone on development of the users. The results of the matrix were also proved to be efficient in assisting individual users in recording the skills acquired through the use of the mobile phone. The matrix can be used in consultation with the guidelines that were formulated to ensure that each user, particularly from rural communities, benefits from such an evaluation tool / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

This dissertation examines the meanings that young adults give to their mobile phones in the township of Hooggenoeg in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. The research was predominantly conducted through individual interviews with nine young adults as well as two small gender-based focus groups. Participant observation as well as a close reading of the popular mobile website Outoilet also contributed to the study. Drawing on Silverstone, Hirsch and Morley’s (1992) work into the meanings attributed to the mobile phone through the domestication processes of appropriation, objectification, incorporation and conversion, the study argues for the heterogeneous roles defined for mobile phones as they are integrated into different cultural contexts. The term ‘raw phones’ in the thesis title refers to a particular cultural understanding of respectability in mainly working-class ‘coloured’¹ communities in South Africa, as described by Salo (2007) and Ross (2010), in which race, class and gender converge in the construction of the respectable person’s opposite – a lascivious, almost certainly female, dependent, black and primitive ‘raw’ Other. The study argues that in Hooggenoeg, the mobile phone becomes part of semantic processes that define both respectability and ‘rawness’ , thus helping to reproduce social relations in this community along lines of race, class and gender. A major focus of the study is the instant messaging application MXit, and how it assists in the social production of space, by helping to constitute both private and dispersed network spaces of virtual communication, in a setting where social life is otherwise very public, and social networks outside of cyberspace are densely contiguous and localised. In contrast, gossip mobile website Outoilet seems to intensify this contiguous experience of space. My findings contest generalised claims, predominantly from the developed world, which assert that the mobile phone promotes mobility and an individualised society, and show that in particular contexts it may in fact promote immobility and create a collective sociability.

The mobile phone forms part of a teenager’s life world and reality today and can be regarded as a tool with which they not only communicate, but also use them to gain access to the Internet, social media and social networking sites. The primary aim of this study was to determine if the mobile phone, with all its functionalities, has an impact on the development of the adolescent’s identity formation, social development and communication skills as well as the sense of the self. Another objective of this study was to determine what the opinions and perceptions are of older generations with regard to mobile practices of the youth. A concurrent triangulation mixed method design was utilised for the purpose of the study. The quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted simultaneously and the data and results from each method were integrated and interpreted as a whole. The quantitative data gathering method was short self-structured questionnaires that were completed by learners (190), teachers (35) and parents (21) to provide a general overview of mobile usage among adolescents. A single-group pre-test post-test experimental design and individual interviews were conducted with eight volunteers. Lastly, 12 learners took part in a focus group interview as a confirmation technique for all the information that was gathered. The findings of the empirical investigation revealed that the mobile phone is used nowadays as a social tool, a planning tool and a convenience tool. The constant connectedness the mobile phone provides, strengthens the adolescents’ self-esteem and self-confidence and contributes strongly to their self-worth. The mobile phone is used as a self-expressive personalised tool and forms part of the sense of the adolescent self. It was also found that adolescents build their relationships with others on a two-dimensional platform that involves online and offline communication and activities. A definite gap exists between older generations’ perceptions and adolescents in connection with the ways that adolescents use their mobile phones nowadays. Parents and teachers have to accept the fact that technology forms part of today’s youth and they should change their mind-sets with regard to this complicated and complex phenomenon. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)