Presentation about my topic and progress at the PhD session organized by Prof. Erkki Sutinen at the Ministry of Science and Technology in Maputo, Mozambique, 18 March 2011.

1. RE-ACT
Social REpresentations of Community
Multimedia Centres and
ACTions for Improvement
Swiss team: Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni, Dr. Isabella Rega, Sara Vannini
Mozambican team: Dr. Gertrudes Macueve, Dr. Alexandre Baia, Salomão David

2. RE-ACT will investigate conceptualizations of
Community Multimedia Centres
using the Social Representation construct.

3. Social Representations

4. Social Representations
(Moscovici 1973)

5. Social Representations
(Moscovici 1973)
• Ancestor:
Durkheim’s concept of “Collective Representation” (1898)

6. Social Representations
(Moscovici 1973)
• Ancestor:
Durkheim’s concept of “Collective Representation” (1898)
Collective Representations = symbols with a shared
meaning for the members of a given social group.
The function of collective representations in society is
that of expressing the collective sentiments or ideas
that give the society its social cohesion.

7. Social Representations
(Moscovici 1973)
Collective  Social

8. Social Representations
(Moscovici 1973)
A Social Representation is a system of
values, ideas and practices
Object
Subject 2 Subject 1

9. Social Representations
(Moscovici 1973)
A Social Representation has 2 functions:

10. Social Representations
(Moscovici 1973)
A Social Representation has 2 functions:
1 to establish how people
interpret their world

11. Social Representations
(Moscovici 1973)
A Social Representation has 2 functions:
1 to establish how people
interpret their world
2 to enable people to
communicate with the other
members of the community

12. Why Social Representations?

13. Why Social Representations?
Dott. Isabella Rega’s PhD Thesis:
What do local people think about telecentres (2010)

14. Why Social Representations?
Dott. Isabella Rega’s PhD Thesis:
What do local people think about telecentres (2010)
Two possible misalignements of conceptualization of the Telecentre:
1. between the founding organization and the community
2. between the founding organization and the local staff

15. Why Social Representations?
Dott. Isabella Rega’s PhD Thesis:
What do local people think about telecentres (2010)
Two possible misalignements of conceptualization of the Telecentre:
1. between the founding organization and the community
2. between the founding organization and the local staff
Sustainability factor:
Creating awareness of how ICT can improve the living conditions of the
local community .

16. How Social Representations?
- Map of the CMCs (and other official PAVs) in the country
[Ministerio de Ciencias e Tecnologias, Ministero de Edicação, INCM –
Instituto Nacional de Comunicação de Moçambique...]
- Selection of the sample to work with
(criteria: one per province, urban/rural, year of foundation, stand
alone/built-in another building, kind of association managing the
CMC, number and status of services offered)
- Interview Protocol

17. Who Social Representations?
• Representatives of initiating agencies
• Representatives of associations owning the CMC
• Local staff
• Users
• Non-users

18. What Social Representations?
Interview Protocol
• Identity: structure, history, goals, benchmark, models...
• People (Staff – Visitors)
• Experience
• Services
• Community
• Personal Perception

19. Where Social Representations?
1. Iha de Moçambique/Nampula
2. Cuamba/Niassa
3. Chiúre/Cabo Delgado
4. Quelimane/Zambézia
5. Chitima/Tete
6. Dondo/Sofala
7. Sussundenga/Manica
8. Morrumbene/Inhambane
9. Chókwe/Gaza
10. Xinavane/Maputo

20. My First Impressions
• People of the CMC highly collaborative
• Misalignments? (information needs  no ; naming  sometimes)
• Radio & Computers: honour for the communities that think they are not left
behind (they are a development factor «per se»)
• Radio: very strong and very well known (non-users, training, participation),
sometimes suffers because of a turn-over within the staff
• TC: less strong in terms of access, good in sense of basic training. Very
basic services are the most commonly used
• Internet: still a challenge
• Digital Literacy: very basic, but people seem to be interested
• The economical sustainability is an issue (staff & CMC)

21. My PhD: Actions for Improvement?
• Improvement? What is it? Who set the goals?
• Community participation: stay local!
• Learning in context and in USE
• Production of local content (tourism?)

22. Thank You!
sara.vannini@usi.ch