Mobile Persons: Cell phones, Gender and the Self in North India

Assa Doron*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    70 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In this article I analyse the varied ways mobile phones are integrated into the daily lives of low-income people and the implications for courtship practices, marriage relations and kinship ties. Rather than offer a celebratory analysis of the mobile phone's empowering effects, my ethnographic research reveals a more complex story, one that shows how the presence of the mobile both reinforces and undermines gender roles and institutions of authority. Conceptually, I argue that mobile communication provides insights into north Indian personhood as 'nodal', while also stimulating new practices and ideologies that render this technology central to the struggle for (and over) power and domination.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)414-433
    Number of pages20
    JournalAsia Pacific Journal of Anthropology
    Volume13
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Nov 2012

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Mobile Persons: Cell phones, Gender and the Self in North India'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this