Customer Reviews

Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective (Information Revolution and Global Politics)

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This book is an excellent introduction to the effects of mobile communication in contemporary society.
It has abundant worlwide facts, references, and sociological analysis. Furthermore, in has some really bright passages on the spatial and political consequences of new mediums of communication.

The book provides a global view of mobile communication technologies penetration, adoption and use. It is global because of the widespread deployment of such technologies worldwide, as the authors claim. For that, both qualitative (especially case studies) and quantitative studies are used as a framework to elaborate and reinforce the authors presented arguments.

However, there are many limitations to this view as the study lacks some cross-referenced data to allow comparisons in different contexts in different countries. Further, it sometimes provides a slightly shallow view on a topic, especially when addressing developing countries (allegedly the main focus of the book) where many current trends still have only incipient researches. A reader interested in a deep understanding of economic implications of mobile communication technologies diffusion, for example, would need to dig the book's references and investigate the topic him or herself.

Another issue worth noting is the apparent lack of understanding of some technical fundamental aspects of mobile communications by the authors. In this context, new trends such as the role of technology convergence (through the use of IP networks) are missing and others such as the diffusion of viruses are completely biased (viruses as of this day is still not a threat for mobile devices).

Despite those issues, the authors raise categories (both economical - GDP, pricing systems, technology infrastructure, etc. - and social - age groups, gender, ethnicity, culture, etc.) and trends (collective sharing of mobile phones, prepaid services in poorer communities, the active role of young people, etc.), putting them together in a qualitative perspective that leads to what the authors called the "Mobile Network Society".

Overall, the book allows a fairly broad understanding of the topic and it is a good starting point for any researcher interested in overcome or build on top of the current understanding of this phenomenon.

I was very dissapointed by the lack of understanding by the authors of the underlying mobile technology, the market dynamics, and the impact/correlation of the user behavior.
The authors fail to question the data obtained in their research and fail miserably to understand what they are actually stating as the thesis. Example, p117, 3rd paragraph: "At the same time, with the diffusion of smart phones euqipped with 3G or bluetooth technology, mobile-data services have begun to be vulnerable to computer worms and viruses." Unfortunately, the authors have fallen for the sensational news that hit the wires in 2005 that phones are be the next target of viruses; displaying a lack of thorough research in this matter alone. So far, worms and viruses are not a problem as the execution/installation of files is quite protected, ie Symbian OS, etc. I even question the description "3G equipped smart phones" as there also 3G phones that are not considered smart phones, eg non-camera phones.
Additonally, the conclusion, though it is a proven fact that mobile communication proliferation has had and continues to have a large impact on how we communicate, how social interaction as a whole is starting to change, forming not, as incorrectly stated, a subculture, but a connected society as a whole; far exceeding the impact the web has had in the past 10 years.
My recommendation is to leave this publication in the shelf (Mr. Castells' other works on the networked society, though, are a must read!!), save the money and time and conduct a quick google news search on mobile usage. You will get the same value within 30mins.