New paper published: "Perish or Globalize"

The latest issue of ACME: Journal of Critical Geographies contains a piece that I wrote about the Internet in the Thai silk industry.

The title, abstract, and a link to the piece are below:

“Perish or Globalize:” Network Integration and the Reproduction and Replacement of Weaving Traditions in the Thai Silk Industry 

The practice of handmade silk weaving has disappeared from much of the world, but continues to be practiced by thousands of people in Northeastern Thailand. However, as the Thai economy becomes increasingly embedded into global flows and networks of commodities, capital and culture, there are worries that silk weaving as a practice will either cease to be reproduced or will have to radically change in order to service the global market. This paper, based on in-depth interviews and surveys with sellers of silk, examines this dilemma faced by the industry. It finds that the means through which economic information is codified and transmitted over space and the tastes of non-local markets are ultimately resulting in changes to production practices throughout the country. Despite the fact that the internet is enabling trade and thereby allowing production practices to continue, fears are being realized about traditional practices being replaced as producers become ever more integrated into global networks. 

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And a few more photos that I took during fieldwork in Isaan:

Oxford seminar series: Media and Governance in Developing Countries: Networks of Power and Strategic Narratives

My friend Iginio Gagliardone is organising a seminar series on media and governance in developing countries. The talks look great, and I'd encourage anyone in the area to come along.

Wednesdays – 17:00-18:30 – Seminar Room D – Social Science Building – Manor Road, Oxford 

This seminar series explores the role the media play as political actors in developing countries and fragile states. It gathers scholars from a variety of disciplines to examine how old and new media are used to support different political agenda: from foreign countries trying to win the hearts and minds of a local population to local governments aiming at increasing their ability to communicate with, but also exercise control over, their citizens. Particular attention will be paid to understanding how flows of information can be mapped in contexts characterized by an increasing media density, resulting from the liberalization of the airwaves, the diffusion of mobile phones and new media, and the persistence of traditional modes of communication. 

The seminar series is part of a year-long programme of events organized by the Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR) at the University of Cambridge, the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Politics (PCMLP), Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, at the University of Oxford and the Justice and Security Research Programme (JSRP) at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Week 2 

Wed 25 January

The Use of ICTs for Political Mobilization and Participation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Round Table: Dr Sharath Srinivasan, Dr Florence Brisset-Foucault, University of Cambridge, Dr Iginio Gagliardone, University of Oxford

Week 3 

Wed 1 February 

The eParticipation Ecology of Kenya

Dr Vincenzo Cavallo, Cultural Video Foundation, Nairobi

Week 4

Wed 8 February

The Conditions of Strategic Narrative Effectiveness: Infrastructure, Intention, Experience

Dr Ben O’Loughlin, Royal Holloway, University of London

Week 5

Wed 15 February 

China's International Outreach: Soft Power and the Soft Use of Power

Professor Gary Rawnsley, University of Leeds

Week 6

Wed 22 February 

Broadcasting the State: Tribe, Citizenship and the Politics of Radio Drama in Afghanistan  

Professor Marie Gillespie, Open University

Week 7

Wed 29 February

An Anthropological Analysis of the Use of the Media for Political Mobilization

Dr John Postill, Sheffield Hallam University

All are welcome, please email iginio.gagliardone@csls.ox.ac.uk for further information

Mapping Wikipedia Article Quality in the Middle East

"Knowledge is a public good and increases in value as the number of people possessing it increases" - John Wilbanks

Few would disagree with the above quote, but a key issue is that the production of knowledge is far from evenly distributed. The maps below visualise article length of Wikipedia articles (in English) about the Middle East. The first graphic shows a few unexpected patterns. 

First, we actually don't see that many articles created about the region - compared to content created about many other parts of the planet. 

Also noticeable is the fact that we see a thick layer of information that has been created over most of Azerbaijan. As mentioned in a post that I wrote a few weeks ago, Azerbaijan has the lowest average word count per article out of any country in the world (159 words per article). This is most likely the case because of both the thousands of stubs that have been created in the country (i.e. articles containing little or no content) and the fact that there are only very few articles containing a lot of text in the country.

Looking at non-stubs, we see clusters of content in many of the large cities on the Persian Gulf (e.g. Kuwait City, Manama, Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai) and an even bigger cluster of articles over Sana'a in Yemen. A series of relatively long articles about places in Iraq are also noticeable along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

But maybe the most visible cluster of user-generated information sits over Israel and the Palestinian Territories in the far-western side of the map. There are significantly more high-quality (i.e. long) articles about that area than the rest of the region. 

The cluster of information over Israel and the Palestinian Territories can be even more clearly seen in the map above. Amazingly, content about Cairo - the Middle East's largest city - is barely noticeable compared to the glowing dots that represent information that has been created about the land between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan.

Wikipedia Article Quality in Africa

Out of all of the parts of the world in which we've looked at the geographies of Wikipedia articles, it is Africa that is characterised by some of the most interesting patterns. 

The most obvious fact is that there is simply a lack of information about much of the continent. The glow of content in Southern Europe at the top of the map stands in stark contrast the absence of any information about most parts of Africa.  

Regional differences are then apparent in Africa. Articles within Madagascar and Ethiopia tend to be quite long; whereas those about Tanzania and Algeria are on average much shorter.  

The reasons for these differences are unclear. It is doubtful that features, places and events in Ethiopia in need of more detailed description than those in South Africa or  Ghana. I'm also not convinced that Ugandans or the Malagasy are more verbose than Tanzanians and Kenyans.

How are these regional differences then be explained? It is likely that (as we've seen before), regional patterns can largely be explained by a few diligent editors that have an interest in describing certain parts of the world. 

But how do we move towards encouraging participation from and about the parts of the continent that are left out of these virtual representations? Visualising the presences and absences of information and knowledge is obviously the first step: allowing people to see what is, and isn't, represented. 

After that, there is also a clear need for plans like Wikimedia's new collaboration with the Qatar Foundation in order to put into place concrete policies and strategies that will boost content. Our team is also beginning a similar initiative that will start with two workshops in April 2012 (in Cairo and Amman). The workshops will bring together local Wikipedians and allow us to understand the most significant barriers contributors face to creating content about their cities, regions and countries. I'll post more details about the workshops on this blog as we begin to finalise our schedules and strategies.