Anyone Anywhere: Narrating African Innovation in a Global Community of Practice
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 Anyone Anywhere: Narrating African Innovation In A Global Community Of Practice Eleanor Rosalind Marchant University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the African Languages and Societies Commons, African Studies Commons, Communication Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Marchant, Eleanor Rosalind, "Anyone Anywhere: Narrating African Innovation In A Global Community Of Practice" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2746. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2746 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2746 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Anyone Anywhere: Narrating African Innovation In A Global Community Of Practice Abstract The last eight years have seen rapid growth in the number of technology startups emerging in urban centers around Africa, from Lagos to Nairobi to Bamako. The growth of annual investments in African startups – rising from $12 million to $560 million between 2013 and 2017 (Kazeem, 2018) – is an indication that many, including investors abroad, believe the trend in African involvement in international technology innovation practices is just beginning. Yet while these changes are promising, this dissertation encourages critical reflection on them and asks: oT what extent are Africans really able to fully participate in the production of the new technologies shaping their experiences of the modern information economy? To attempt to answer this, from 2013 to 2016 I conducted an ethnography of one of the centers of innovation in Africa that has received the most media attention, a “technology hub” based in Nairobi, Kenya called the iHub. I spent a year as a participant observer on the iHub’s communications team, conducted numerous focus groups, site visits to other tech hubs, participated in dozens of events and interviewed over 80 members of Nairobi’s tech community. With this data, I built an analytical lens that brings a critical communications perspective to communities of practice theory. By integrating narrative theory, this lens draws attention to the potential for conflict and hierarchies of legitimacy in transnational communities built around shared practices. In the pages that follow, I argue that the actors around the iHub are engaged in a Global Community of Technology Innovators in which their participation, and the community’s larger narratives are mutually constructed. One such narrative about how “Anyone Anywhere” in the world can become a successful technology entrepreneur helped attract Kenyan entrepreneurs, while others restricted their ability to be taken serious, often leading to their being pigeonholed as “social entrepreneurship”. By the end of 2016, the discrepancy between narratives and lived experiences led many to reject certain global practices – like the pressure on startups to scale globally – and focus instead on building a Kenyan community in which they had greater legitimacy and power to construct narratives and shape future practices. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Communication First Advisor John L. Jackson Jr. Keywords communities of practice, ethnography, information communication technologies, Kenya, narratives, technology innovation Subject Categories African Languages and Societies | African Studies | Communication | Social and Cultural Anthropology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2746 ANYONE ANYWHERE: NARRATING AFRICAN INNOVATION IN A GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE Eleanor R. Marchant A DISSERTATION in Communication Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Supervisor of Dissertation ____________________ John L. Jackson Jr. Dean, School of Social Policy & Practice Richard Perry University Professor Graduate Group Chairperson ____________________ Joseph Turow, Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Communication Dissertation Committee Monroe Price, J.D., Adjunct Full Professor of Communication Guobin Yang, Grace Lee Boggs Professor of Communication and Sociology Jonathan Donner, Senior Director, Research, Caribou Digital ANYONE ANYWHERE: NARRATING AFRICAN INNOVATION IN A GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE COPYRIGHT 2018 Eleanor R Marchant This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-SareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ DEDICATION To my father For always being there…even when you’re not iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT While this dissertation and the ideas within it are my own, I would not have been able to complete it, or even perhaps begin it, without the support and friendship of many people in my life. Firstly, after having built an earlier career in non-profit media development, I was nervous about going back to school and “starting again” as a student in a PhD program; I would not have been brave enough to do so without my parents. To my father, your own determination in building an academic career for yourself as the first in your family and your passion for research and experimentation inspired me from a very early age. During the PhD, the long phone calls that we had during my walks home over the South Street Bridge about research problems or talks I was preparing will always stick with me, even now that you’re no longer around to have them or to challenge me on why I picked ethnography over a more “scientific” quantitative method. To my Mom, your love and perseverance in your own career, from your PhD to your role as a doctor, institute chair, and mother, to your new role as a cheesemaker are a constant source of inspiration and awe for me. I know that after 2014, I would not have been able to continue with the PhD if you had not pushed me to do so. To Alex, your passion for literally everything you do, from art to construction to the way you give hugs, will always make me smile. You are a constant reminder to me to be guided by passion in both work and in life. Of course, my committee also played an indispensable role in enabling me to complete this dissertation. Thank you for helping me to design and eventually finish this document and the research it builds on in a way that was grounded in communications, but that could (and I hope will) speak to other disciplines and to practitioners outside. To John Jackson, it was taking your media ethnography course in my first year and seeing your love for the method that inspired me to take it on myself wholeheartedly. It was this passion as well as your openness to alternative ways of doing a dissertation that gave me the confidence to choose the path I did. Your encouraging voice no matter how far away or how bad the Skype connection always made me feel understood. To Monroe Price, you have been a genuinely inspiring mentor throughout the last eight years of my life, from the first time we me, when you sat with me for two hours brainstorming the kind of work I could do and who I should connect with, to your encouragement in doing a PhD and in choosing Annenberg, to working with you and the rest of the CGCS team on applied research. You have helped me to see how to walk a productive path between academic and practically relevant research and why it is so important to find a profession you can be passionate about for a long time. To Guobin Yang, thank you for helping to provide a theoretical grounding when I would at times get lost in the empirical. To Jonathan Donner, your hybrid background, critical eye, and your constant ability to push me have been hugely influential in how I chose to approach this dissertation and how I hope to have written it, namely in a way that was both ethnographically sincere and analytically interesting for communications academics and development, ICT, and innovation practitioners alike. Though they were not on my committee, there are other members of the Annenberg family (or those who have come and gone through iv Annenberg) whose support was indispensable. To Devra Moehler, for suggesting I apply to Annenberg in the first place and pulling me into a challenging and interesting research project right in my first semester. To Amy Jordan for providing the best model of the passionate educator, Klaus Krippendorff for challenging me when I most needed it, Victor Pickard for patience when I most needed it, Laura Grindstaff for your kindness and, your enthusiasm about ethnography and your willingness to share everything you know about it, and of course Joanne Murray for your tireless ability to cheer me up and set me straight. To the friends I made both at Annenberg and elsewhere, it is my great pleasure to have you all in my life. I think many of you know that there are many moments in this process that I would not have gotten through without you. To Mekala, you are my best friend, my second sister, thank you for being you and letting me be me. To Allie and Alex for always making me feel at home in Philadelphia no matter how far I travel. To Jiaying, thank you for being the best officemate and one of the best motivators I know. To Dror, Natacha, Allie V., Tim, Corinna, Revati, Aaron, and Katerina, Nour, thank you for the long chats over lunch or drinks or walks home that helped me to see my research from another perspective, that challenged me, and that helped me to feel understood when I often felt lost and overwhelmed. For a dissertation that involved so much fieldwork, there were many beyond Annenberg who I’d like to thank as well. First of all, it would be impossible to go any further without thanking the amazing team at the iHub, from those at iHub Research who gave me a place to land from the first moment in 2013 to other amazing people I met around the iHub, Sidney, Amo, Hilda, Faith, Lusike, Nanjira, Laura, Sean, Nasubo, Alev, Tim, Angela, and others who were willing listen, debate, and helped challenge me throughout my research.