Hi Nick
Just for your info: I've been involved in conflict research for over a decade now and have become quite critical of the ways in which certain analysts and organizations link complex conflict dynamics to simple resource presence. For a first overview of what consequences a ban on conflict minerals can have, have a look at this website as well as this article:
http://texasinafrica.blogspot.it/2009/12/show-me-data.html
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420712000104 (I can send it if you want it)
In class I've made students compare these texts with the rather demential video from the Enough project (featuring John - 'Bono' - Prendergast), in which it links Congo's minerals to a series of conflict-related issues like sexual violence and slavery: http://www.enoughproject.org/conflicts/eastern_congo/conflict-minerals
It became quite clear how problematic some of these latter statements are (I swear I didn't tell them myself!).
More info with pleasure on request
Tim
On Nov 20, 2012, at 12:07 AM, Julie Cupples wrote:
> Hi Nick
> There is an exhibition at the Science Museum in London, Phone Wars (which I saw back in 2008 but which is still there) involving artists and high school students who used text messaging to raise awareness of the coltan minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo that are used in mobile phones.
>
> From the website (which has more detail)
>
> Phone Wars was a project by artists Harwood, Wright, Yokokoji, with students from the John Roan School, that enabled people to discuss the ‘Coltan Wars’ in the Congo by passing on messages via their mobile phones. Based on the traditional Congolese practice of 'pavement radio' - meeting on street corners to spread information due to restrictions on free speech and fears that the government monitors communications - Phone Wars was a version of this tradition that used a mobile phone network to spread messages.
>
> http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/smap/collection_index/phone_wars.aspx
>
> In my second year development class, I give a lecture on the conflict in the DRC, and tell students that they are all almost certain to have a little piece of the DRC on them. Only one or two of them know that it is the coltan in their cell phones.
>
> Julie
>
> Dr. Julie Cupples
> Department of Geography
> University of Canterbury
> Private Bag 4800
> Christchurch 8140
> Aotearoa New Zealand
> +64 3 364 2893
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Forthcoming from Routledge
> Latin American Development
> http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415680622/
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Nicholas Gill [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 11:43 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: mobile phones and conflict
>
> Nick
>
> Some of us here at Wollongong have a book out next year with Edward Elgar 'Household Sustainability: Challenges and Dilemmas in Everyday Life' . It has a chapter on mobiles which to some extent fits your bill but you may find the references useful. One of the interesting things that came out of the research we did for that was work on only the issue of the phones themselves but the significance of the footprint of the networks and growing data management and storage infrastructure.
>
> I can send you the chapter if of interest.
>
> Best
> Nick Gill
>
>
> Dr. Nicholas Gill
> School of Earth and Environmental Science and Australian Centre for Cultural Enviromental Research
> University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia
> Ph: 02 4221 4165
> Fax: 02 4221 4250
> Skype: nicholas-gill1
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Twitter: DrNickGill
> http://www.uow.edu.au/science/eesc/eesstaff/UOW002998.html
>
> Head of Postgraduate Studies - SEES
>
>
>
> This e-mail may have been generated using voice recognition software. Please excuse any errors or oddities.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nick Megoran
> Sent: Tuesday, 20 November 2012 2:29 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: mobile phones and conflict
>
> Dear Critters,
>
> I've been asked to go into a school and do the following:
>
> " give a workshop on "the political geography of the mobile phone" - although you may be able to think of a better title. The idea was to talk about the sources of elements and products that go into a mobile, and the links between the demand for these and conflict and war, especially in the Congo."
>
> Aimed at 15 year- olds This is off my usual territory but sounds like a great idea. Does anyone have suggestions for resources (pedagogical, NGO report, or other), plus academic research they could point me to? If anyone has actually done this sort of thing and has some advice, that'd be great.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Peace - Nick
>
>
> -
>
>
> Dr Nick Megoran,
> Lecturer in Political Geography,
> GPS Office, 5th Floor, Claremont Tower, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, United Kingdom NE1 7RU.
>
> Tel: +44 191 222 6450
> url: www.megoran.org
>
> "In our time of wars, of national self-conceit, of national jealousies and hatreds ably nourished by people who pursue their own egotistic, personal or class interests, geography must be - in so far as the school may do anything to counterbalance hostile influences - a means of dissipating these prejudices and of creating other feelings more worthy of humanity." Peter Kropotkin, 'What geography ought to be', 1885.
>
> This email may be confidential and subject to legal privilege, it may
> not reflect the views of the University of Canterbury, and it is not
> guaranteed to be virus free. If you are not an intended recipient,
> please notify the sender immediately and erase all copies of the message
> and any attachments.
>
> Please refer to http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/emaildisclaimer for more
> information.
|