Exploring Performance Ethnography to Illuminate Mobile Banking Capabilities in Western Kenya: Capability Approach Study
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Exploring Performance Ethnography to illuminate mobile banking Capabilities in Western Kenya: Capability Approach Study A thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy At By Samuel Ogugo Liyala De Montfort University 2012 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................... iv Dedication ................................................................................................... v List of Figures and Tables ............................................................................ vi 2 Abstract This study is a qualitative examination on the impact of mobile banking, commonly known as MPESA on the lived experiences of the marginalised poor of Bukhalalire sub-location in western Kenya. Using Capability Approach as the guiding theoretical framework, this research project answers Denzin’s (2003) call to performance, a performance which contributes to a more “enlightened and involved citizenship”. It is “revolutionary” in that it “enlightens citizens to the possibilities” of MPESA by staging dramatic texts or performances rewritten from the interviews with the poor. These Performances make sites of oppression visible in the process, affirming an oppositional ‘politics’ that reasserts the value of self- determination and mutual solidarity. Here, the project explores Performance Ethnography to interrogate and evaluate specific, social, educational, economic and political processes as mechanisms that affect the adoption and successful implementation of MPESA as a poverty eradication strategy. The research work conducts focus groups to draw out dimensions of concerns which this research construes as a capability set, then interviews persons in poverty to establish, firstly, what the dimensions of concerns are and the relationship between them, effectively corroborating the findings from the focus group then secondly establish how MPESA is impacting on those dimensions of concern. The research then uses performances to bring to the front the voices of the poor, making visible sites of oppression in one sense and on another, sites of opportunities within MPESA. This exercise answers the research question in evidencing how Performance Ethnography illuminates dimensions of concerns within a Capability Approach study and as research tool it provokes the interviewer and the interviewee to self examination and reflection, seen 3 thus, the performance becomes vehicle for moving persons, subjects, performer, and audience members in new, critical, ‘political’ spaces, a space of hope that transcends the conservative politics of neoliberalism rescuing the radical democracy. As such, it “tells a true and previously untold tale” effectively calling for social transformation. 4 Acknowledgement I owe my deepest gratitude and profound appreciation to my supervisors Dr. Neil McBride of whom these is true: ‘he is a selfless Christian, with an attitude and substance of a genius’. Through this research, he remained patient, objective and available. He exhibited compassion, leadership and enthusiasm on all occasions, responding to emails and skype calls well past midnight. I am heartily thankful also to my second supervisor, Dr. Yingqin Zheng and Dr. Kutoma Wakunuma, for they offered their support in many ways. I acknowledge Dr. Tracy Harwood who though not part of the supervisory team, still provided clever guidance into the lonely arena of research, a light that definitely got us out of the woods. To many at the Faculty of technology who continually and convincingly conveyed a spirit of adventure and excitement in regard to research, I am indebted. I am indebted to my many of my colleagues including Hillary, Tiffany, Wendy, Maureen, Sue Dianne, and my very dear friends Isaac, Shylesh, Tox, Kev, Steve, Shahram, Saeed, Moses, Damaris and Willies, for they made available their invaluable support in many ways. It is a pleasure to thank my family: my brother Rueben, a loyal friend and my sisters Pamela, Becky and Rosa for their enduring Love and devotion. My in-laws Bernard, Felix, Christine, Dinah, Benson and Elijah who have been dedicated friends; my uncle Meshack for his fatherly love; my wife Eva, who has been a constant encouragement and a shoulder to lean on; my teacher and now my mother in-law, Helen, for believing in me. To Mum Philigona ‘it’s your untold suffering and sacrifice mama that in turn afforded me an education, I am forever indebted’. To you my friends and family, I say thank you for without your guidance and persistent help and prayers this dissertation would not have been possible I am grateful to Dr. David Owuor, to whom it is an honour to offer my regards. His teachings, guidance and prayers have sustained me through this endeavour. I thank the LORD JESUS CHRIST for through HIS cross, I obtained grace that hath brought me thus far. Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: (Psalms 103:1,2) 5 Dedication This document is dedicated to the tens of thousands, who like me, are ineligible to the mainstream financial facilities and are shackled with manacles of poverty, for our emancipation, my heart aches. 6 Figures and Tables Image 2.4.1: An mpesa booth registering a subscriber Image 2.4.2: mpesa Menu Image 2.4.3: How mpesa works Diagram 2.3.4: How mpesa works Diagram 3.1 Different constituents of the capability approach and the role commodities play Diagram 4.1 Contextual factors influencing research design (diagram adopted from Maxwell, 1998) Table 4.3: Data Collection Methods Table 4.4.1 Criteria for Evaluating Research Figure 5.4.4: Triangulation Table 4.4.2 Guidelines for verifying conclusions adopted from Miles and Huberman (1994) Table 4.5.1: Recommendations for Bukhalalire Sub-Location Table 4.5.2 Busia County Demographic and Population Profile Table 4.4.3: Bukhalalire Sub-Location Households and Population Table 4.5.4 Focus groups and number of people reached during the discussions Table 4.5.5: Problem Analysis: Poverty and Poor School Performance in Bukhalalire Sub- location 7 Figure 4.5.6 mpesa Capabilities Figure 4.5.7: Dimensions selected from Focus Groups Figure 5.6.1: Decision Tree for selecting Interview Participants Figure 4.6.2: Dimensions selected from Interviews Figure 5.1: Correlates of Empowerment Adopted from Alsop (2007) Figure 6.4: Dimensions enabled through MPESA in Bukhalalire 8 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 11 1.1 Research overview ..................................................................................................................... 12 1.2 Background ............................................................................................................................... 15 1.3 Research aims............................................................................................................................ 19 1.4 Research question ..................................................................................................................... 20 1.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 21 2.0 ICT4D and MPESA ...................................................................................................................... 22 2.1 The genesis of ICT4D .................................................................................................................. 23 2.1.1 ICT4D progress........................................................................................................................ 27 2.2 Mobile Telephony ...................................................................................................................... 33 2.3 Kenya country context ............................................................................................................... 35 2.4 MPESA ....................................................................................................................................... 42 2.5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 50 3.0 Capability approach ................................................................................................................... 51 3.1 Introduction to development economics ................................................................................... 52 3.2 The capability approach to development ................................................................................... 55 3.3 Operationalizing Sen’s ideas ...................................................................................................... 60 3.4 Epistemological criticisms of the capability approach ................................................................. 66 3.5 Philosophical analysis of the concept of Poverty ........................................................................ 72 3.6 Substantive categories of poverty .............................................................................................. 73 3.7 Dimensions of poverty and measurements of progress .............................................................. 74 3.8 Selecting