ICTs and Digital Culture: A comparative study of South Korea and the U.S.
Sung Jin Park and Raul Lejano
(Department of Planning, Policy, and Design)
The proposed research will investigate how communities “acculturate” around ICTs. Efficiency of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) usage as well as legibility of ICTs to potential users are the important aspects in implementing information policies. Recently, the digital divide has been highlighted as a critical issue in the cultural assimilation of ICTs. In spite of limited government budgets, many proponents of ICTs, especially in developing nations, tend to focus solely on increasing physical availability of ICTs hoping acculturation, and economic and social benefits, will somehow follow as a matter of course. This overlooks the importance of information policies necessary for making ICTs culturally accessible, as well as the social-cultural adaptation necessary for promoting the efficient use of the ICTs. The research sees the quality of electronic information resources as a critical determinant of efficient IT usage at the individual level. The research will address how cultural differences act in concert with the degree of openness and quality of digital resources generated by the government, and how it influences individual behavior toward IT use by examining two leading ICT proponents, South Korea and the United States.
Phones displayed in a shop in Korea
Migrants and Microfinance in the Sudan
Crystal Murphy (Department of Planning, Policy and Design)
You Can't Spend What You Can't Touch
How do refugees coming out of protracted conflict and protracted tenure in a largely non-cash camp economy make sense of newfound access to banking services? This project looks at newly repatriated refugees in Juba, South Sudan, and explores the transition from settlement economy to that of mobile transfers of microloans. It uses the mandatory loan meetings as a point of departure for the study, and at this stage investigates the institutional discourse that advocates the new monetary mode of payment. I seek to learn: How do microfinance institutions discursively arrange solidarity groups around the commonality of having dwelt in similar settlements for two decades? How do microfinance institutions describe their obligations and the technology to their clients? How is the concept of trust employed by the institution and client?
Forex traders