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Home > People > Faculty > Jenna Burrell  Jenna Burrell
Assistant Professor Current Research
- I study the impact of large-scale technology diffusion on individuals, families, and
societies in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the developing world.
- I employ a ground-level perspective on such trends spending time with African technology users
(and sometimes non-users) to capture a rich, local commentary on technology and development
issues.
- I explore alternate notions of 'development' and evaluate how social and cultural dimensions
of everyday life impact the appropriation of technology and shape who has access to it.
What is the best thing about working at
the I School?
There are so many directions you can take your research interests here, given
the interdisciplinary nature of the school. It's great to be able to do
social critique and theoretical work, but also to think about and influence
technology design as well. It's also fantastic to
be located in the Bay Area.
What Information issues interest you most?
What are the origins of the term 'information' as we understand it?
How is
this very abstract concept understood in different societies and in
different languages?
Your background is in Sociology and
Computer Science; how did you become interested in technology appropriation
in developing societies?
I was working for a couple of years with a group of social scientists at
Intel. Members of the group were doing some profoundly innovative work in
Europe and Latin America, thinking about new markets and new design ideas to
challenge the US-centric tendencies in the industry. My interest in the
developing world evolved pretty slowly out of a more general interest in
technology practices in 'non-Western' societies. When I started my thesis
research on Internet café use in Accra, Ghana my intent was not to study
these users as people in need of 'development.' I went in to explore the
process of technology appropriation in the same way it was being examined
among Internet users in the U.S. and Europe. Ultimately, I realized that
this work was yielding a different way of modeling the position of
technology 'users' that could contribute something to the technology for
development debate. So, I arrived at this interest in a roundabout way.
A Web site you recommend?
All Africa (allafrica.com) is very
complete site for news from all over Africa.
Something few people know about you?
My major hobby is rock-climbing, something I tried out for the first time
as a teenager. It's really hard to keep up with this, though, since I've
been traveling and moving so much over the past couple of years. For the
most part, I climb indoors at local climbing gyms.
What keeps you up at night?
I keep Post-It notes on my bedside table, because ideas (some good, some
bad) tend to occur to me just as I'm about to drift off to sleep.
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