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Hi Nick These could be useful. 1) Making the connection: mobile phone geographies This is a bit dated, but could be very helpful: what we did with a group of 14/15 year old school Geography students in 2007 (including a resource pack and other stuff you might find useful: http://makingtheconnectionresources.wordpress.com). 2) Demand a fair trade cell phone A 9 minute video of a TED talk by Bandi Mbubi of the 'Congo Calling' campaign, who talks about mobile phones as both fueling the civil war in the DRC and an essential communication tool for activists, journalists, etc. As he says 4 minutes in, "Don't throw your phones away yet. Because the incredible irony is that the technology that has placed such unsustainable devastating demands on the Congo is the same technology that has brought this situation to our attention". 3) The iPhone 4CF A brilliant (I think) piece of cultural activism in which spoof website was created advertising a new 'conflict free' iPhone, which you could get from your local Apple Store by simply going in and asking for a free upgrade. When you are told that it's not available, then the question is 'why not?' The campaign, its tactics, discussions that it generated, and impacts/outcomes that it had are all detailed here http://www.followthethings.com/iphone4cf.shtml This page was recommended as a post-16 resource in the Geographical Association's 2012 'Geography Awareness Week' pack (download here<http://worldwise.geography.org.uk/geographyawarenessweek/GAW_2012.pdf>). To expand on Mark Graham's generous plug, most of followthethings.com<http://followthethings.com>'s pages are intended to be cut-and-pastable for use in a variety of classes, and the whole site is intended to be a resource for trade justice education and research. We are keen to publish teaching materials that draw upon the site's pages (+ other resources) on our 'Classroom' page http://iwanttodiscussthat.wordpress.com/teaching-resources/ If you - or anyone else - are interested in publishing the teaching resources you put together (and/or a description of what you did in class, what happened, etc.), please get in touch. We are hoping to develop a series of free, school-friendly followthethings.com<http://followthethings.com> teaching resources in 2013 and will publicize them via twitter (@followthethings), facebook (http://tinyurl.com/cgls52p) and CGF. Good luck with this! Best wishes Ian Ian Cook Associate Professor of Geography University of Exeter http://followthethings.com On Nov 19, 2012, at 11:07 PM, Julie Cupples <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> 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. 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