Reciprocal Technologies: Enabling the Reciprocal Exchange Of

Tisselli 2015 “Reciprocal Technologies: Enabling the Reciprocal Exchange of Voice in Small-Scale Farming Communities through the Transformation of Information and Communications Technologies” By Eugenio Tisselli A dissertation in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) University of Plymouth Supplemented by: Appendix materials and videos in attached DVD Committee in Charge: First supervisor: Dr. Jill Scott, Zurich Hochschule der Künste and the University of Plymouth, UK Second supervisor: Dr. Angelika Hilbeck, ETHZ Zurich Word count of the main body of thesis: 80,671 Date of Submission: 15 September, 2015 i Tisselli 2015 Copyright Statement: I hereby declare that the research in this thesis is the direct result of work by Eugenio Tisselli, and therefore no reproduction or extraction is permissible without the written agreement of the author of this thesis. Date: 15 September, 2015 ii Tisselli 2015 Acknowledgments: In addition to my excellent supervisors Dr. Jill Scott and Dr. Angelika Hilbeck, I would like to express special thanks to the following persons who assisted in the development and implementation of this research: Dr. Flora Ismail, Department of Botany, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for collaboration throughout the Sauti ya wakulima project; Dr. Leobardo Jiménez Sánchez and Dr. Juan Felipe Núñez, Department of Rural Studies, Colegio de Postgraduados, Mexico for collaboration throughout the Los ojos de la milpa project. Also to the participants of both projects, and to the numerous persons who supported my research in generous ways. This dissertation is dedicated to my Mother and Father. Author's Declaration: At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Graduate Committee. Work submitted for this research degree at the Plymouth University has not formed part of any other degree either at Plymouth University or at another establishment This research was partly financed with the aid of the North South Centre of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and the Swiss NGO Bread for All. Relevant cultural and scientific conferences were attended at which I presented my research; several keynote talks were given were I presented my work and several papers and book chapters were prepared for publication. iii Tisselli 2015 Abstract This dissertation claims that the reciprocal exchange of voice—an element for constructing community and strengthening political recognition—may be fostered in small-scale farming communities by (1) the appropriation and transformation of information and communications technologies, (2) artistic intervention, and (3) cross-community research. This study contributes to participatory research methodologies, particularly those that seek to tackle the diverse challenges faced by small-scale farmers from a broad, complex perspective. The main issue identified in this dissertation is as follows: The hegemony of economic behaviors, which stands as a cornerstone of neoliberal capitalism, constitutes the latest stage of a historical process in which the voices of small-scale farmers seem to have been progressively and systematically silenced, their traditional practices largely invalidated, and their reciprocal forms of social, political, and economic organization marginalized. The purpose of this study was to explore whether an open-ended, sociotechnical methodology could be designed and applied in small-scale farming communities with the aim of strengthening their reciprocal practices while amplifying the voices of their members. The author's research addressed the question of how the role of information and communications technologies can contribute to the creation of enabling environments in which subsistence farmers may exercise their own values and make their voices heard. Another goal was to study whether the reciprocal exchange of voice could relate to the construction and dissemination of a knowledge commons and improve the resilience of small-scale farmers in the context of complex and pressing challenges such as anthropogenic climate change. Consequently, the ERV (Enabling Reciprocal Voice) Methodology was developed and applied in small-scale farming communities in order to respond to the questions of this study. The ERV Methodology sought to redefine the modes of usage of information and communications technologies in order to help communities establish a shared communicational praxis and strengthen their reciprocal relations. The ERV Methodology stands in contrast with the technological determinism found iv Tisselli 2015 in the purely solutionist, short-term initiatives that are generally implemented in small-scale farming communities. Instead of offering rapid solutions to isolated problems, the ERV Methodology sought to consolidate the social networks of farmers through online and offline interaction. The case studies examined in this dissertation were carried out in two small- scale farming communities in Tanzania and Mexico. Following the ERV Methodology, mobile phones and the Internet were used by farmers in those communities as tools for the collaborative creation of a knowledge commons focused on local agriculture. It was found that the ERV Methodology, carried out as artistic intervention, may encourage technological appropriation, induce reciprocity, and amplify voice under certain sociotechnical conditions. These findings suggest that such a methodology might benefit farmers by becoming a significant aid to increase their resilience and their capacity to face complex challenges in the longer term. However, another conclusion was that the ERV Methodology should be applied carefully, with a strong awareness of the local context, and that greater efforts must be made in order to integrate other communities, such as local authorities and scientific researchers, into the reciprocal dynamics enabled by the methodology. Keywords: reciprocal voice, information and communications technologies, small- scale farming, knowledge commons, socially engaged art, sociotechnical methodology v Tisselli 2015 Table of Contents: 0. Introduction 1 0.1 Structure of this dissertation 3 0.2 Socially engaged artistic interventions as contextual background 4 0.3 Cross-community research 22 0.4 A methodology for enabling the reciprocal exchange of voice and its related case 24 studies in Tanzania and Mexico 0.5 Main research questions 29 1. Voice and Reciprocity 30 1.1. Voice 31 1.2. The political relevance of voice 34 1.3. The crisis of voice 41 1.4. Resisting the crisis of voice 49 1.5. Reciprocity 54 1.6. Voice as reciprocal exchange 60 1.7. Conclusions 63 2. Transforming Technologies to Enable Reciprocal Voice 65 2.1. The malleability of technology 68 2.2. Information and Communications Technologies 80 2.3. Conclusions 99 3. The Relevance of Reciprocal Voice in Agriculture 102 3.1. The rise of large-scale, industrial agriculture 104 3.2. The cultural impacts of industrial agriculture 106 3.3. The Green Revolution in Mexico 109 3.4. Post-colonialism in Tanzania 111 3.5. Agriculture under neoliberalism 112 3.6. A paradigm shift: from productivity to food sovereignty 119 3.7. Voice and reciprocity in the livelihood of small-scale farmers 122 3.8. The relevance of reciprocity in the resilience of small-scale farmers 130 vi Tisselli 2015 3.9. Reciprocal voice as a strategy for epistemological transformation 140 3.10 Conclusions 142 4. Information and Communications Technologies in Small-Scale 144 Agriculture 4.1. E-agriculture 145 4.2. A value-based analysis of e-agriculture 148 4.3. Potential risks of e-agriculture 163 4.4. Conclusions 172 5. The ERV Methodology and the Case Studies in Tanzania and 175 Mexico 5.1. The ERV Methodology 176 5.2. Sauti ya wakulima 185 5.3. Los ojos de la milpa 232 5.4. Conclusions 267 6. Conclusions 271 6.1. Can the reciprocal exchange of voice be encouraged in small-scale farming communities by the transformation of information and communications technologies, 271 artistic intervention and cross-community research? And what is the relevance of this task? 6.2. Is it possible to design and implement an open-ended sociotechnical methodology 275 to effectively achieve that goal? 6.3. What may be the role of information and communications technologies in such 277 methodology? 6.4. To what fields of knowledge and research may such methodology contribute? 281 6.5 Recommendations for other researchers 290 7. Glossary of relevant terms 292 8. References 302 9. List of Appendix materials 330 vii Tisselli 2015 List of Figures: • Figure 1. The collaborative map created by the inhabitants of Kibera painted on a wall of their neighborhood. Photo published by the Map Kibera Team on the blog of the Map Kibera Trust, on February 12, 2013. • Figure 2. Participants and facilitators of Map Kibera using GPS devices to map the neighborhood. Photo published by Primoz Kovacic, Program Director of the Map Kibera Trust, on his personal blog, on September 10, 2011. • Figure 3. The web interface of Voice of Kibera. Image retrieved from the website http://www.crowdsourcing.org/site/voice-of- kibera/voiceofkiberaorgmain/6390 on March 23, 2015. • Figure 4. Members of Rhizomatica raising an antenna used in the communal mobile telephony initiative in Talea de Castro. Photo by Rhizomatica, published on their website in 2013. • Figure 5. A member of Rhizomatica teaches inhabitants of Talea how to use a mobile phone. Photo by Rhizomatica,

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