Emergence of mobile phone communication networks in a rural setting: An Ethiopian experiment (original) (raw)

Abstract

Mobile phones are spreading to remote areas of the globe and our question is how this affects local patterns of communication? The relevance of new communication technology is difficult to gauge under natural conditions because of a self-selection bias in adoption. Another challenge is to disentangle homophily from network contagion in actors’ communication behavior. Our research project tackles these obstacles by a randomized experimental approach combined with a panel survey. We have donated phones to 234 farmers selected by stratified random sampling in a rural region of Ethiopia and have been eliciting their communication patterns. So far we have collected and analyzed data from five monthly periods. The new phone owners started calling a small number of influential individuals but this type of usage dropped in the second month and the indegree distribution has been flattening. Using simulation investigation network analysis (SIENA) techniques, preliminary evidence suggests that the drivers of the communication network dynamics are geographical proximity, reciprocity, transitivity, educational and religious homophily, and occupational heterophily. The experiment participants prefer to call to those who live closer and belong to the same administrative unit, those who call them, those who call more overall, and those whom their calling partners call. Farmers phone to external experts and business owners phone to farmers. Overall, the local inhabitants, particularly the more educated ones, are reluctant to establish new communication ties, nevertheless it occasionally happens, which becomes a base for reciprocity and transitivity mechanisms and gradual network expansion.

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