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The Pennsylvania State University the Graduate School The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts TECHNOLOGY USE AND SOCIAL CONNECTION: MOBILE PHONE OWNERSHIP, DEVICE SHARING, AND SOCIAL TIES IN MALAWI A Dissertation in Sociology & Demography by Hannah E. Furnas © 2017 Hannah E. Furnas Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2017 The dissertation of Hannah E. Furnas was reviewed and approved* by the following: Ashton Verdery Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography Dissertation Co-Adviser Co-Chair of Committee Michelle Frisco Associate Professor of Sociology and Demography Dissertation Co-Adviser Co-Chair of Committee Jenny Trinitapoli Associate Professor of Sociology The University of Chicago Special Member Jennifer Van Hook Professor of Sociology and Demography Glenn Firebaugh Roy C. Buck Professor of American Institutions, Sociology, and Demography Carleen Maitland Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology John Iceland Professor of Sociology and Demography Department Head, Department of Sociology and Criminology *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii ABSTRACT Scholars lack an understanding of how the digital divide – disparities in access to and use of technology – operates within developing nations. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in particular, is experiencing enormous growth in access to and use of technology, although it is well documented that the region lags behind the rest of the world in mobile phone ownership and Internet use. Within SSA nations, the relationship between social ties, socioeconomic status, and the ownership and use of mobile phones lacks attention. In this dissertation, I investigate the digital divide in Malawi, a country in Southeastern Africa. I focus on mobile phones, given that mobile phones in Malawi are more common than other information and communication technologies and are the primary way people access the Internet. In the first paper, I leverage data from the CELL Project to look at the way tech inequality unfolds in women’s day-to-day life through social interactions. I draw on longitudinal data from the Tsogolo la Thanzi project in the second paper and I model the mobile phone ownership and use as a hierarchy. I assess a woman’s position in the hierarchy over time and the patterns of movement or stability she experiences. In the third paper, I leverage a follow-up dataset to assess the structure of the mobile phone hierarchy four years later and examine the relationship between network externality and mobile phone ownership and use. I find that (a) women who own mobile phones tend to have more dispersed interaction networks; (b) at the beginning stages of diffusion, women in Malawi experience stable non-use and unstable ownership and device sharing; (c) at later stages of diffusion, device sharing emerges as a way that women gain access to mobile phones and individuals with higher network externality are more likely to own or borrow a phone than to not use one; and (d) the experience of the digital divide is categorically different at different levels of the mobile phone hierarchy. My findings unearth shifting levels of technology access and the social and economic factors that predict them. Mobile phones are a powerful tool that connect individuals to people and ideas. Differentials in access and use of mobile phones not only stratify regions, nations, and communities, but also at the individual- level, the nature and level of mobile phone ownership and use is tied to one’s social context and social ties. iii Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .....................................................................................................................................................viii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Dissertation Overview ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 Relevance ................................................................................................................................................................................ 5 Chapter 2. BOUNDED TO DISPERSED: THE TYPOLOGY OF SOCIAL INTERACTION NETWORKS IN A MOBILE-CENTRIC CONTEXT .............................................................................................................................................. 7 BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................................................................................................................. 17 RESEARCH STRATEGY.................................................................................................................................................... 18 STUDY CONTEXT AND DATA ....................................................................................................................................... 20 METHODS & MEASURES ................................................................................................................................................ 23 RESULTS ...............................................................................................................................................................................28 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................................................ 38 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................................... 42 Chapter 3. A SHIFTING DIVIDE: MOVEMENT IN THE HIERARCHY OF MOBILE PHONE OWNERSHIP AND USE IN MALAWI ........................................................................................................................................................... 45 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................................................... 47 THE CONTEXT OF MALAWI ......................................................................................................................................... 53 DATA & SAMPLE ............................................................................................................................................................... 55 MEASURES ........................................................................................................................................................................... 56 METHODS............................................................................................................................................................................. 58 RESULTS ...............................................................................................................................................................................59 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................................................ 65 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................................... 69 Chapter 4. THE INFLUENCE OF NETWORK EXTERNALITY AND SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS ON MOBILE PHONE OWNERSHIP, SHARING, AND NON-USE AMONG YOUNG ADULT WOMEN IN MALAWI ............................................................................................................................................ 71 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................................................... 74 METHODS............................................................................................................................................................................. 83 RESULTS ...............................................................................................................................................................................87 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................................................ 94 iv CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................................... 99 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................. 100 WORKS CITED .....................................................................................................................................................................
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