Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Mobile Activism: Exploring the Impacts of Mobile Telephony in Ugandan Social Movements

Sun, August 17, 12:30 to 1:30pm, TBA

Abstract

Since the mid-20th Century, African societies have witnessed significant citizen-influenced transformations. From the 1960s to the early 21st century, Sub-Saharan Africa’s social movements have played pivotal roles in ending European colonialism, resisting the crisis of post-colonial authoritarianism, and, more recently, challenging the socio-economic policies of neoliberal globalization. Similar to other African nations, Uganda has been no stranger to social movement activity, as citizens have explored innovative ways to collectively and effectively influence political and social change. Currently, in Uganda and throughout the continent, due to the impacts of globalization and international political and economic relationships, the spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and specifically mobile phones, is presenting African social movements with new opportunities and challenges for mobilization and contestation in making demands for socio-economic and political change domestically and abroad. This paper aims to identify some of the gaps in African social movement research by providing a complex, multi-faceted analysis of African movements’ historical, societal, and geographic specificities. Additionally, and primarily, this paper will consider the impacts of the adoption and use of digital technologies, specifically mobile phones, in Ugandan social movement mobilization and contestation. Through revealing the possibilities and limitations of social movements’ uses of mobile phones, this paper will explain how these technologies present Ugandan movements with innovative opportunity structures that can be used together with traditional modes of mobilization and activism in order to advance sustained contestation and attempts for social justice and change.

Author