ICTlogy

Abstract:

The “Conference on Development and Information Technologies: Mobile Phones and Internet in Latin America and Africa: What benefits for the most disadvantaged?” was held at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) of the Open University of Catalonia the 23rd and 24th of October, 2009. The Conference met the research interests of two IN3 research programs: Migration and Network Society, led by Adela Ros; and Mobile Communication, Economy and Society, led by Manuel Castells and Mireia Fernández- Ardèvol. It was made possible thanks to the economic support of the ACCD (Agència Catalana per a la Cooperació i el Desenvolupament [Catalan Agency for Cooperation and Development]) of the Catalan government.

The goal of the Conference was to promote an interdisciplinary discussion on the influence that mobile telephony and the Internet could have on development and, specifically, among the most vulnerable segments of the population. The conference also had a special interest in the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and migratory processes. From a geographic perspective, two regions were selected, as they are the main sending regions of population that immigrate to Catalonia: Africa and Latin America.

The Conference was organized around two main research issues. One was the influence of ICTs in African and Latin American countries and the other was the influence of these technologies in migratory contexts. Migratory contexts can be defined as places where migratory pressure is high, whether they are in receiving, transit, or destination countries. Therefore, the wide geographic focus of the Conference included not only the aforementioned continents, but also developed countries, mainly European.

This book is an important result of this international meeting, as it gathers the results of the discussions as well as the most challenging papers specifically prepared for it. The aim of this publication is to contribute to the spread of knowledge in this multidisciplinary area of research and to foster future research in the field.