Mobile phone in Côte d'Ivoire: uses and self-fulfillment

The widespread uptake of mobile phone technology among Cote d'Ivoire's most disadvantaged populations demonstrates that even within the context of socio-political and economic turmoil - as is the case in Cote d'Ivoire
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dividuals will combine digital devices with ingenuity or "tactics" (de Certeau, 1990) to "progress". In other words, people's improvement is not necessarily linked to the social and economic structures of their environment. This paper explores: 1) the various uses of the mobile phone in Cote d'Ivoire; 2) how typical mobile phone uses have proven effective in improving individual lives in three areas: economic life, professional life, and social relations. The concept of uses is framed here by de Certeau's conception which suggests that individuals are never deprived of their ingeniousness. Subscribing to this view, Jean-Godefroy Bidima noted that whatever might be the level of alienation or hostility which an individual is subjected to, the consubstantial emergence of the subject moves him to auto-engender himself and outwit the constraints he faces. In the Ivorian context, the outworking of this concept leads to new perceptions of the mobile phone and generates polyvalent meanings among populations.