Campesinas, Cybernetworks and ICT4D: Development Opportunities for Rural Women in Central America?

How do ICT networks shape development opportunities for rural women in Latin America: and how do women respond to, shape, and manage opportunities to participate in ICT related development?

Research in El Salvador

Salvadoran guerrillera turned city councilwoman

Costa Rican Butterfly Producer

Honduran campesinos

Envisioning the Internet

Geographical Basics Scales in Geography Scalar and Categorical Linkages Space and Place Borders and Networks Environment/Society Relations Population and Migration Power Geopolitics Colonialism and Resistance Development Globalization Geographies of Distance Identity and Gender

Scales in Geography 1.Global 2.World-regional (e.g. North America) 3. State (e.g. United States) 4. Regional (e.g. American West 5. Metropolitan Region (e.g. Denver Metro) 6. Locality (e.g. Boulder) 7.Neighborhood (e.g. the “Hill’) 8.Household: Gender relations, Age relations 9.Personal: Body/Emotions/Identity/Spirituality

Pyramid Model

Scale Elements Linkages horizontally - same scale 2. Linkages vertically - across scales 3. Jumping Scales 4. Different agencies important at different scales 5. Different processes (e.g. political, economic, social, etc) important at different scales

E. Europe W. Europe Russia Central Asia S.E. Asia China/E. Asia Middle East S. Asia Africa Mexico, Central America and Caribbean North America Regional Linkages South America

World Trade Organization Vertical Linkages State of Colorado US Governnment City of Boulder

Horizontal Municipal Linkages Dushanbe, Tajikistan World Trade Organization State of Colorado US Government City of BoulderJalapa, Nicaragua

Horizontal Municipal Linkages State of Chiapas San Cristobal De las Casas Cuchumatones Guatemala Congreso Nacional Indigena de Mexico Mexican Government Indigenous Comm.

Jumping Scales Myanmar Dushanbe, Tajikistan World Trade Organization US Governnment State of Colorado City of Boulder

Chiapas Jumping Scales the Boomerang Effect Govs of Germany, France Spain Etc. Cleveland Government Of Mexico San Cristobal de las Casas

Environmental Cultural Geopolitical Population Economic Cross Categorical Linkages

Cross Scalar/Cross Categorical Linkages State-Global Economy State-Household Transnational Social Movement-State Global Economy-Body Local-Global

Space Literally “area”, but two meanings are more prevalent in Geography. Absolute or abstract space: the sort of space that acts as a container for things Social or relative space : space produced through social interaction. Societies produce space and space, in turn, produces societies. –Public space: space made available by the government or by private groups for political or leisurely activity.

Place A portion of geographical space occupied by a person or thing, and thus given meaning. Place is constructed out of interconnected processes operating at all scales, but which come together in a unique configuration at a particular location.

Borders Political borders: National Municipal Human borders: Societal/Ethnic/Racial: Difference Personal Absolute borders/barriers Permeable borders/barriers Do Borders Still Matter?

Networks The Geography of Orange Juice –Things as networks –Places as networks Actor-Networks (ANT) Doreen Massey: “Power Geometries” Networks

Environment-Society Relations Environmental Determinism: The theory that the physical environment (especially climate) controls human character and behavior and consequently human cultures and societies. Cultural Landscape: The environment as it is altered by humans via the construction of built forms; the natural landscape as altered by humans. Political Ecology: the geographical study of the political processes at various scales that cause ecological change in a place or region

Migration Push Factors: –Conditions that cause people to leave their area Pull Factors: –Conditions that attract people to another location

Diffusion The movement of an innovation (or other phenomenon) across space. –Hierarchical diffusion –Contagious diffusion –Relocation diffusion

Power The real or presumed ability of a person, group or institution to exert force or influence, to make others do their bidding.

Geopolitics the study of control over territory, of power over the earth and the peoples on it. Frequently, associated with how large scale political processes influence international relations, but can also refer to much smaller scale struggles for control over territory and the shape of political and social life.

Geopolitics II Nation: A people bound together by a shared sense history and culture and rooted in a particular territory. State: Territory with well-defined borders; with a government, institutions and recognized by world community. Nation-State: The territory of a nation is congruent with the territory of a state. Nationalism: A feeling of belonging to a nation; often a desire for national control over a state

Internal Regional International Transnational Supranational Geopolitics III-scales

Colonialism The rule by a sovereign state over an alien people and land which involves formalized political and legal control, an asymmetrical economic relationship that favors the colonizer, and a social system in which the colonizers are dominant over the colonized. Neo-colonialism: Informal control –Cultural: consumption culture –Economic: SAPs, trade, transnational corporations –Environment: degradation (mining); conservation

Resistance Revolution: armed/violent Scott: “Weapons of the Weak” Changing scalar relations of resistance

Chiapas Jumping Scales the Boomerang Effect Govs of Germany, France Spain Etc. Cleveland Government Of Mexico San Cristobal de las Casas

Development The process by which a society goes about realizing its potential. Long history of politically charged interpretations: –Economic Development –Social Development –Sustainable Development –Alternative Development –Contrast with Uneven Development

Globalization Increasing connectedness of people and places through converging processes of economic, political and cultural change.

Currents of Globalization 1. Transportation and Communication Technology Changes 2.Economic Globalization: Trans-national corporations (TNCs) International Trade - Goods and Services International Finance Regimes 3.Diffusion of Democracy or Hollowing out of the State? 4. Cultural Linkages 6. Social Movements and Transnational Communities 7. Movements of People: Immigration/Refugees/Tourism

Geographies of Distance –Friction of Distance –Action at a Distance –Time Space Compression-David Harvey Time-Space Convergence: reduction of time required. to move people or goods over distances Cost-Space Convergence: reduction of expenditures, especially relative to income, required to move people or goods over distances

Time YEAR Time Space Convergence

Time YEAR Cost-space Convergence

Time / Cost YEAR Time Lag Cost Communication Convergence

Identity The individual expression of a culture or multiplicity of cultures; how one person associates or distinguishes his or herself in the context of existing cultures –National identity –Ethnicity or Race –Religion –Gender identity –Spanning identities/shifting identities

Gender Social elaboration of sex-based differences. “Gender” is usually used to indicate the cultural or social aspects of sex differences that develop over space and time rather than the limited natural differences between sexes. How do gendered social relations vary over space and time and how are these implicated in the making of place and processes at different scales? –Household-State –Community-Global