how Maasai agro-pastoralists type and use unintended social ties in East Africa

The next is the established format for referencing this text:
Baird, T. D., J. T. McCabe, E. Woodhouse, I. Rumas, S. Sankeni, and G. O. Saitoti. 2021. Cell phones and improper numbers: how Maasai agro-pastoralists type and use unintended social ties in East Africa. Ecology and Society 26(2):41.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12528-260241

Analysis

¹Virginia Tech, Division of Geography, ²College of Colorado Boulder, Institute of Behavioral Science, ³College of Colorado Boulder, Division of Anthropology, ⁴College Faculty London, Division of Anthropology, ⁵Savanna Land Use Undertaking, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Cell phones are acknowledged as vital new instruments for rural improvement within the World South, however few research have examined how telephones can form social networks. This research paperwork a brand new sort of social tie, enabled by cellphones, that to our information has not beforehand been mentioned in educational literature. In 2018, we found that Maasai pastoralists in northern Tanzania create new social ties by way of improper numbers, a phenomenon with implications for idea on social networks and path dependency. We used a blended ethnographic and survey-based design to look at the next: (1) the circumstances below which improper quantity connections (WNCs) are made; (2) the incidence of those connections within the research space; and (3) the affiliation between WNCs and a number of livelihood methods. Working in 10 rural communities in Tanzania, we carried out 16 group interviews with males about their telephone use and located that WNCs are numerous and might present households with vital data, sources, and alternatives from an expansive geographic space. (9 separate interviews with teams of girls revealed that ladies don’t create WNCs.) Based mostly on early qualitative findings, we designed and carried out a standardized survey with 317 family heads. We discovered that 46% of respondents have had WNCs. Moreover, multivariate regression fashions show a big affiliation between WNCs and the controversial follow of leasing land in a single district. Taken collectively, our findings show that WNCs may be seen as improvements in social networking that scale back path dependency, enhance the vary of potential outcomes, and maintain vital implications for rural livelihoods in East Africa.

Key phrases: East Africa; Maasai; cellphones; pastoralism; path dependency; social networks; social ties

INTRODUCTION

Cell phones are acknowledged as vital new instruments for rural improvement within the World South, however proof of their potential to spice up agricultural yields, enhance market efficiencies, and save lives has been blended (Aker and Ksoll 2016, Wyche and Steinfield 2016, Haenssgen and Ariana 2017, Marler 2018, Quandt et al. 2020). And telephone use is mushrooming. In sub-Saharan Africa, cellular subscriptions per 100 individuals have elevated sharply from fewer than 2 in 2010 to greater than 82 in 2018 (ITU 2020). Amidst this development, the concept cellphones may be transformative stays evident. The world over, telephones have an effect on how individuals notice and categorical their identities, inhabit their social networks, and conduct their work (Ling 2008, Duncombe 2018, Kivikuru 2019). Few research, nevertheless, have examined how telephones can form social ties.

Right here we doc a brand new sort of social tie that, to our information, has not beforehand been mentioned in educational literature and has implications for idea on social networks and rural livelihoods. Throughout our fieldwork in Maasai communities in northern Tanzania in 2018, we found that Maasai males create new social ties by way of improper numbers. This course of begins when a person merely mis-keys a telephone quantity and locations a name, as would occur anyplace on the planet. When the decision is answered, and the events uncover the error, considered one of two issues can occur: (1) the people finish the decision; or (2) they start to speak. This paper is about what occurs when Maasai start to speak.

Social ties, expertise, and livelihoods

The Power of Weak Ties by Mark Granovetter (1973) is likely one of the most cited papers in science. It describes how people usually tend to discover employment by way of pals of pals, or “weak ties,” than by way of their “sturdy ties” with shut household and pals. This concept has served as a middle of gravity round which scholarship on social networks and diffusion has orbited for many years. Since Granovetter’s paper, the web and cellular applied sciences have remodeled the methods during which social networks are created, maintained, and evolve (Horst and Miller 2006, Ling 2008, Castells et al. 2009).

Notably, researchers’ efforts to look at social, financial, and environmental change within the World South have been tremendously outpaced by the fast adoption of telephones previously decade, their ubiquity even in rural areas, and the regular evolution in how they’re used (Duncombe 2014, 2018). Of the comparatively few research of the implications of telephone use, most have understandably targeted on data trade and market integration (Muto and Yamano 2009, Aker 2011, Tadesse and Bahiigwa 2015). Few research have targeted on the social outcomes of telephone adoption, and the way these undergird livelihoods and land use.

Cultural anthropologists and human geographers usually give attention to group-level social constructions and processes, e.g., social relations, to higher perceive the social penalties of financial and technological occasions and traits. This strategy is effectively suited to characterizing broad efforts and themes at scale, however vital components may also be present in idiosyncratic behaviors on the stage of people, an space under-theorized in analysis on human/setting interactions within the World South. Notably, little or no analysis has examined the impact of cellphones on social community tie formation, i.e., the connection between two individuals; a dyad, which may very well be instructive in fields like anthropology and geography given their longstanding pursuits in cooperation (Henrich 2006, Apicella et al. 2012, Kasper and Mulder 2015, Molina et al. 2017), social actions (Miller 2000, Peet and Watts 2004, Nicholls 2009), and social capital (High-quality 1999, Adger 2010), which may be seen because the fruits of social connection. With this in thoughts, we overview analysis in sociology on social tie formation.

Mechanisms of tie formation

Tie formation has been a preferred space of research in lots of contexts. Of their glorious overview of the sociological analysis on dyadic ties, i.e., the connections between two people, Rivera et al. (2010) stratified connection mechanisms into three classes: (a) assortative mechanisms, which give attention to actors’ particular person attributes; (b) relational mechanisms, which give attention to the construction of actors’ networks and their positions inside them; and (c) proximity mechanisms that concentrate on actors’ social and cultural contexts.

With assortative mechanisms, social connections are regarded as pushed by people’ attributes, which can embrace, gender, age, intercourse, race, ethnicity, faith, or schooling, amongst others. Two dominant and divergent hypotheses listed below are that, (1) individuals join with others who’ve comparable attributes, i.e., homophily; and (2) individuals join with others who’ve dissimilar attributes, i.e., heterophily. Homophily is very frequent in friendship (Van Duijn et al. 2003, Thomas 2019) and intimate relationships (Qian and Lichter 2007, Lambert and Griffiths 2018) the place similarities are understood to advertise belief and mutual acceptance, and scale back battle (McPherson et al. 2001, Currarini et al. 2016). Alternatively, heterophily usually characterizes collaborative teams the place numerous expertise and backgrounds are wanted to confront complicated challenges (Web page 2008, Xie et al. 2016).

With relational mechanisms, social connections are regarded as pushed by the construction of social networks, and people’ positions inside them. Analyses, usually quantitative, develop past direct ties to incorporate oblique ties, or connections’ connections. Key hypotheses right here relate to reciprocity, repetition, clustering, and diploma centrality, i.e., the variety of ties an individual has. First, individuals usually reciprocate supplied relationships as a result of they have a tendency to love individuals who like them (Montoya and Insko 2008). Second, individuals are inclined to type repeated ties with one another over time due to belief and social embeddedness in forming ties (Baldassarri 2015, Pan et al. 2017). Third, individuals are inclined to cluster, or extra colloquially to turn into pals with their pals’ pals, partly as a result of individuals who spend time with a shared third-party are prone to by the way encounter one another (Granovetter 1973).

Final, proximity mechanisms give attention to the consequences of actors’ social and cultural environments. Rivera et al. (2010) famous that essentially the most fundamental speculation right here is that interplay will increase with geographic proximity, which has been supported in lots of contexts (Marmaros and Sacerdote 2006, Kleinbaum et al. 2008, Arentze et al. 2012). However the idea of proximity will not be restricted to bodily distance (Gieryn 2000). Social interactions are organized round myriad social, bodily, financial, and authorized establishments that exist in time and house (Feld 1981). Individuals join by way of the teams they spend time with, at work, by way of leisure time, of their communities, and elsewhere (Grossetti 2005).

Regardless of the abundance of analysis on tie formation, we’re conscious of no research which have examined technology-mediated social tie formation in rural areas of the World South. As famous above, this research focuses on a brand new sort of social tie, one fashioned by way of improper numbers, and its affiliation with livelihoods amongst Maasai communities in northern Tanzania.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

As historically cellular pastoralists dwelling in ethnically dense, rural areas, Maasai exemplify the traits of sturdy ties present in tightly bonded, comparatively homogenous social networks (Gittell and Vidal 1998) that exhibit relational, assortative, and proximity tie mechanisms, usually in culturally prescribed methods. Particularly, Maasai clan and age-set social establishments are crucial and longstanding reservoirs of social capital and adaptive capability for resilient livelihoods. However Maasai life has modified tremendously over the previous a number of many years (Spear and Waller 1993, Homewood et al. 2009). The adoption of recent identities (Hodgson 2011) and new financial actions, together with agriculture and wage-labor migration (McCabe et al. 2010, 2014), have spurred the famously insular Maasai into larger engagement with political processes, the market economic system, and new weak ties with exterior teams (Baird 2014). And previously decade, these shifts have been attended by the fast adoption of cellphones all through Maasailand (Msuya and Annake 2013, Butt 2015).

Research of cell phone adoption and use in rural East Africa have discovered that telephones can assist a spread of livelihoods, together with pastoralist and agricultural land makes use of by enhancing data trade, market integration, entry to emergency companies, cellular banking, and human-wildlife battle (Msuya and Annake 2013, Butt 2015, Lewis et al. 2016, Baird and Hartter 2017, Quandt et al. 2020, Krell et al. 2021). Notably girls’s experiences with telephones are extra constrained (Summers et al. 2020). We’re conscious of no analysis that has examined tie-formation on this context.

To look at the difficulty of improper numbers inside this group, we undertake a conceptual framework that views, (1) social ties as the idea of social networks; (2) expertise as a mediator of social ties; and (3) technology-enabled errors as drivers of recent weak ties, which we confer with as improper quantity connections (WNCs).

Inside our framework, the significance of social ties to Maasai is seen as evolving with the continuing livelihood diversification of the pastoralist economic system into privately held and managed agriculture, off-farm employment, and wage-labor migration, amongst different actions. A consequence of this pattern is that households can profit from new forms of data, which might not be accessible inside their fast social networks. Disinformation and fraud are additionally propagated by way of cellphones and customers should be vigilant (Archambault 2011, Hahn 2012, Baird and Hartter 2017). Nonetheless, individuals search to attach with new people and teams to amass new forms of data and study new alternatives. Cell phones can dramatically scale back the limitations to communication, however questions stay about whether or not they can be utilized successfully to stimulate new social ties (Donner and Escobari 2010, Marler 2018). Regardless of the abundance of cellphones in rural areas, there could also be few alternatives for novel social ties. This, in actual fact, may very well be a brand new chokepoint for rural residents wishing to department out socially and economically. On this context, WNCs may be seen as an innovation in social networking with implications for livelihoods and land use throughout large areas.

This conceptualization factors to a few normal analysis questions: (RQ1) Below what circumstances are WNCs fashioned, and with what outcomes? (RQ2) What’s the incidence of WNCs within the research space? (RQ3) How are WNCs related to livelihoods, controlling for different components?

METHODS

Research website

This research was carried out in 10 research communities in Longido and Simanjiro districts in northern Tanzania. Determine 1 exhibits 5 communities north of Arusha (Longido district) and 5 to the south (Simanjiro district). These areas are effectively suited to look at the consequences of nascent mobile-phone use on social networks and livelihoods in rural, growing areas. First, these rural districts are predominantly ethnically Maasai (Mackenzie et al. 2014), which reduces variance alongside cultural traces. Second, phone-use is frequent in every space regardless of variable cellular sign (Lewis et al. 2016, Baird and Hartter 2017, Summers et al. 2020). Third, in comparison with many different teams, Maasai have extra homogenous, tightly bonded social networks the place members share many attributes (Patulny and Lind Haase Svendsen 2007, Borgatti et al. 2009, Baird and Grey 2014). Over many many years, Maasai have maintained longstanding traditions of polygyny, age-set and clan-based social group, and types of cellular pastoralism, whilst they have interaction with exterior concepts and practices by way of formal schooling, agriculture, and Christianity (Leslie and McCabe 2013, Baird 2015, Woodhouse and McCabe 2018, McCabe et al. 2020).

Some variations between the districts are additionally evident. Importantly, agriculture is far more frequent in Simanjiro, the place rainfall is inconsistent however usually larger than in Longido. Land-based tensions surrounding agriculture and land leasing there have grown over a few years, prompting exterior NGOs to collaborate with communities to guard conventional communal grazing areas within the research communities (Nelson et al. 2010). Additionally, residents in Simanjiro seem to have higher mobile sign and spend more cash utilizing their telephones than residents in Longido.

Information assortment

Our knowledge assortment proceeded in a number of steps. To start, we carried out group interviews (n = 18) with female and male group members and leaders in 5 research communities: (1) to study respondents’ patterns of telephone use; (2) to evaluate the ways in which telephone use is related to the upkeep and improvement of social networks; and (3) to tell the event of standardized surveys of women and men. Group interviews have been stratified by gender. By these steps, carried out in 2018, we first realized that WNCs happen and weren’t essentially uncommon amongst males (RQ1). Nonetheless, girls knowledgeable us unequivocally that they (girls) don’t create a lot of these connections, largely as a result of males usually management girls’s use of telephones (Summers et al. 2020). Based mostly on these qualitative insights we included a query about WNCs on our males’s survey (RQ2 and RQ3). Outcomes from this survey led us to conduct a set of follow-up group interviews (n = 7) with males in 2019 to study concerning the particular circumstances surrounding the formation and improvement of WNCs (RQ1).

Group interviews allowed for open dialogue round broadly framed questions on mobile-phone use and social networks, in addition to the causes and penalties of WNCs. For the preliminary interviews in 2018 we recruited individuals from a spread of socioeconomic backgrounds in a number of sub-villages inside the research space. These interviews solicited details about how social networks are altering, whether or not telephones are affecting social networks, and the way telephones are contributing to resolution making. A key query throughout these interviews was whether or not respondents met new individuals by way of their use of cellphones, a query now we have requested teams since 2014. Largely, individuals responded that they didn’t, besides in sure instances like youngsters’s school-teachers. Nonetheless, as soon as we realized of WNCs in 2018 and started asking about it, respondents confirmed its existence and offered private examples. In 2019, we carried out seven comply with up interviews with teams of individuals who had fashioned WNCs. We requested respondents to explain their WNCs, together with the quantity, their places, why they’re vital, how they use them to handle issues, and whether or not they have induced new issues. We additionally interviewed a number of respondents, in group settings, about their selections to not pursue WNCs (RQ1).

To gather quantitative knowledge on the incidence of WNCs within the research space (RQ2) and different components (RQ3), we carried out a structured survey of family heads, who’re usually male, in 10 research communities (n = 317) in 2018. In every district, we surveyed respondents who’ve participated in long term analysis tasks run by the authors. The pattern in Simanjiro, which was began in 2005 and has been added to intermittently, is predicated on a quota sampling technique (Bernard 2017) to create a consultant pattern. Native leaders have helped us to determine the next: (1) households from completely different administrative models (in proportion to the scale of the unit); (2) family heads from every Maasai age-set; and (3) households representing a spectrum of wealth statuses (proportional to native distributions of wealth, the place herd dimension is used as an observable and dependable indicator of wealth). The pattern in Longido, was drawn randomly from village registries in 2017 for a associated mission. Skilled Maasai enumerators carried out the survey with family heads between September and December 2018. “Households,” known as olmarei in Maa, the Maasai language, embrace a family head and his/her dependents, which can embrace a number of wives (within the case of male heads), and their youngsters, grandchildren, mother and father, siblings, and even non-relatives residing with the household (Homewood et al. 2009).

Survey knowledge offered detailed details about every respondent together with his family, livelihood actions, and telephone use. Respondents have been requested about communication with WNCs in response to two strata: on the telephone and face-to-face. For every stratum, respondents have been requested whether or not they had communicated with a WNC previously 7 days, previously 4 weeks, greater than 4 weeks in the past, or by no means. These questions, used elsewhere (Baird and Hartter 2017), present a measure of each the incidence of WNCs within the research pattern and the relative significance of those connections for people. Different survey measures included every respondent’s age, schooling, family demographics, land allocations, and a number of measures of wealth and financial productiveness.

Information analyses

Our analyses of WNCs proceeded in a number of steps. The primary set of qualitative analyses describe the circumstances below which WNCs are created, what kinds these connections take, and what outcomes they yield (RQ1). The second set of analyses use quantitative approaches to point out the incidence of WNCs within the research inhabitants (RQ2) and study the components related to them (RQ3).

Qualitative analyses

We carried out content material evaluation of group interview responses to explain how WNCs are fashioned. Particularly, we inductively coded 16 group interview transcripts (Bernard 2017), from 2018 and 2019, utilizing qualitative analytical software program (Atlas.ti). Our interpretation of those interview responses was supported by insights gained by way of a few years of working with these research communities inspecting problems with land-use, livelihood change, and cell phone use.

Quantitative analyses

We estimated three major regression fashions, utilizing Stata/IC 15.1, to look at the affiliation between WNCs and measures of livelihoods (RQ3). For dependent variables, we used measures that interview respondents related immediately or not directly with WNCs (described within the qualitative outcomes): (1) herd dimension (i.e., a proxy for pastoralist livelihood actions); (2) complete acres cultivated (e.g., agricultural livelihood exercise); and (3) land leased (e.g., usually to individuals exterior the group for agriculture). For these variables, we match Poisson, a number of logistic, and logistic regression fashions, respectively. And in every mannequin, we adjusted for clustering on the stage of the village (Angeles et al. 2005). Our major explanatory variable was a easy dichotomous measure of WNC indicating whether or not the respondent had ever had a WNC, outlined as a connection made by way of a improper quantity the place the respondent had saved the telephone quantity and corresponded with the connection a number of instances. We additionally examined another specification of this variable: whether or not the respondent had ever met with a WNC face-to face, indicating an particularly sturdy connection.

Desk 1 gives descriptions and means for all of the variables within the fashions, together with means stratified by district. Impartial variables included conventional covariates of land use amongst Maasai pastoralists: the age and schooling stage of the family head, family dimension, land allocation, and herd dimension, a standard measure of pastoralist wealth (Homewood et al. 2009, Baird and Grey 2014). Notably, herd dimension was not included as a predictor within the mannequin of herd dimension. We additionally included two measures of cell phone entry and use: voucher purchases and mobile-phone sign high quality (Lewis et al. 2016).

Strengths and weaknesses of the strategy

This research strategy has a number of strengths. First, our analysis group has labored in these communities for a few years, and the standard of {our relationships} within the research website strengthened the standard of our knowledge assortment efforts. Second, our blended qualitative and quantitative strategy combines the strengths of each forms of knowledge. Qualitative knowledge helped us to grasp how the phenomenon happens and characterize among the causal mechanisms related to WNCs. Quantitative knowledge allowed us to quantify the incidence of WNCs and take a look at their relationships with different components to make generalizations throughout our research website.

The central weak point of our strategy is that we didn’t ask survey respondents concerning the quantity or timing of their WNCs. We have no idea what number of WNCs every respondent has or whether or not the relationships have been fashioned within the 12 months earlier than the survey was carried out, which is the time interval over which our dependent variables have been measured, or greater than 12 months in the past. Briefly, our quantitative survey knowledge don’t measure the timing of WNCs, nevertheless our qualitative interviews present proof of causal mechanisms and assist their use as the first impartial variable.

RESULTS

Qualitative outcomes

How are connections made?

Connecting by way of a improper quantity is comparatively simple, however includes a number of steps. First, a person dials a quantity incorrectly. This will consequence from writing a quantity down incorrectly to start with, or just mis-keying a quantity within the telephone, every of which may stem from low ranges of literacy, as famous by our respondents. Moreover, the probability of those errors could also be elevated by the frequent follow of utilizing a good friend’s telephone when one’s battery is useless. Second, the receiving occasion solutions the telephone in a selected language, signaling to the caller one thing concerning the receiver’s id. Third, the error is shortly recognized. Fourth, the events both finish the decision swiftly or they don’t. In some situations, people might chat for some time, particularly (however not completely) if the receiver solutions in Maa. Maasai social establishments may help members, who could also be removed from one another geographically, discover frequent floor and mark their social place relative to one another. One of these social scaffolding will not be current when the receiver is non-Maasai, however connections may be made nonetheless. Fifth, when the decision ends one or each of the people might save the contact quantity to be used later. Finally, the social connection takes root and grows if/when the people keep contact with one another, and, in some instances, elect to satisfy one another face-to-face. There may be variations to this normal state of affairs, which we focus on beneath.

Cellphone plans themselves also can function a mechanism for WNCs. Individuals generally buy telephone firms’ “bundles,” which give heavy reductions on quite a lot of completely different service packages (e.g., minutes, SMS, knowledge, and so on.) for a set time interval (e.g., in the future, week, or month). For instance, a bundle might present 200 minutes of calling throughout a 7-day interval for a reduced worth. To keep away from dropping unused minutes, we realized that as individuals close to the top of their bundle’s time interval, some use accessible minutes to name again uncommon numbers of their incoming call-log, which they’d not answered. Equally, Maasai get call-backs from individuals they wrongly dialed days earlier than.

Final, people also can dial improper numbers deliberately. Respondents described how some individuals, usually youthful males, might deliberately substitute a single quantity, for instance, simply to see who they get.

Throughout our interviews, individuals commonly acquired calls and almost at all times answered the decision, usually stepping away from the group till the decision was over. This occurred dozens of instances over many conferences. And on a couple of events, the person returned to the group and introduced that the decision was a improper quantity.

With whom are connections made?

By private descriptions of their WNCs, our respondents confirmed that they join with a number of forms of individuals. Unsurprisingly, connections with different Maasai have been frequent. One state of affairs right here is that the callers start the decision talking Maa. With a improper quantity, shared ethnicity represents an vital shared attribute. In these conditions, respondents described how they’d usually proceed to study concerning the stranger. First, the events would trade household names, i.e., their fathers’ names, then their bodily places, clans, and age-sets. “Then,” one respondent famous, “you understand how to regulate the dialog.” Sharing these traits helps callers to determine different factors of connection and inserts a culturally prescribed set of conversational norms based mostly on social place.

Our respondents described these connections with different Maasai affectionately. Individuals famous how Maasai are very shut, that that is one thing they worth and “whenever you discover a Maasai, you develop this connection.” In a bunch interview with older males, one famous that “Maasai are good at hospitality. They’ve been this fashion because the starting.” Respondents additionally described how they’ve found kinfolk by way of improper numbers. Throughout one assembly, a respondent acquired a improper quantity name from one other Maasai he had by no means met, and over a brief dialog realized that their fathers have been brothers. It was an astonishingly well timed instance of what we had been discussing. (That cousins wouldn’t have identified about one another will not be essentially uncommon in a society the place polygynous households may be very massive, and prolonged households exponentially so.)

Our respondents additionally described quite a few WNCs with non-Maasai from a spread of different ethnic teams, geographic places, and livelihoods. Determine 2 exhibits the places of WNCs that respondents described throughout our interviews. In a number of conferences, we requested if there have been any teams that Maasai search to keep away from in relation to WNCs. Responses have been unequivocal. We have been instructed that they have been keen to attach with any group, that solely the person and the dialog mattered.

An vital notice right here is that WNC individuals every should be keen to attach and interact in sustaining the connection. A number of respondents shared tales of preliminary connections adopted finally by unrequited communication. Connections type, some flourish, however many atrophy and die. This raises the vital questions: why do individuals join within the first place?

Why are connections made?

When requested why connections are made, and particularly why they’re vital, respondents shared a number of motivations for, and advantages of, WNCs. As one respondent famous, “good issues occur.” Their descriptions of private WNCs particularly revealed why some Maasai welcome, and even search a lot of these connections. Right here, we manage their examples in response to broad thematic classes that replicate frequent Maasai considerations: data, land-based sources, and reciprocity. It is very important notice that whereas these are offered as discrete classes, they overlap in numerous methods.

Data: One respondent summed up Maasai curiosity in WNCs merely. He described how he had known as a improper quantity in Mbeya within the far south of Tanzania. The person, a non-Maasai, known as two days later and so they linked. The respondent had by no means been to Mbeya, however acknowledged, “Now I can know.” Respondents repeatedly expressed how they worth studying about different individuals and locations. Intuitively, these relationships start with every occasion gathering data. And for households and communities going through unsure environmental and financial circumstances, data can function a crucial useful resource.

Given Maasai pastoralists’ lengthy reliance on social networks and mobility to assist their livelihoods, it was unsurprising that the commonest responses to our query of why individuals make WNCs have been making new pals and gathering details about the environmental circumstances in distant areas. Certainly, most of the WNCs we realized about merely concerned staying in contact and chatting concerning the climate and the situation of livestock in every space. However some respondents additionally famous that growing connections in distant areas may be helpful in the event that they, or a good friend or member of the family, ever journey to that space sooner or later. In a single instance, a respondent described how he had made a WNC with a person dwelling in a village to which his sister had lately moved to be along with her new husband and his household, as is customary. By this WNC, the person reported that he was in a position to present his sister with a probably helpful social tie on this in any other case unfamiliar place.

Gathering data also can embrace prospecting for employment or enterprise alternatives, together with alternatives to realize entry to land for grazing and crop-based agriculture, which we focus on beneath. Younger males particularly, we have been instructed, save improper quantity contacts within the occasion that they could in the future be helpful.

Land-based sources: Data itself may be an vital useful resource, however it could possibly additionally function a gateway to different sources. Respondents described how WNCs have facilitated entry to vital land-based sources, particularly livestock forage, agricultural land, and non-timber forest merchandise.

A number of teams famous that discussions of climate and livestock circumstances with WNCs can result in crucial actions of livestock to grazing areas throughout difficult instances. One particular person described how, throughout a drought in Simanjiro, he was in a position to transfer his livestock to a distant group within the west to entry forage. He famous that as an outsider it will be unlawful for him to maneuver his animals there, however the WNC pretended the animals have been his personal. Finally, these animals survived the place many others that remained in Simanjiro didn’t. Different respondents had comparable tales and knew of individuals of their communities who had used WNCs to assist manage livestock actions throughout instances of shortage.

Respondents additionally highlighted how WNCs can facilitate entry to land for agriculture, for both occasion. One described how he was in a position to get land by way of a WNC in a village south of his solely to lose it later when a sport reserve was arrange. In one other case, respondents instructed of two males of their village who gained entry to land for farms in a distant village, the place they first introduced their livestock to entry forage, by way of the WNC. (In these examples, it was not acknowledged whether or not these have been leases or land allocations.) Maybe extra generally, WNCs have sought agricultural land inside the research space. Many teams in Simanjiro expressed that when WNCs study they’ve reached somebody in Simanjiro they usually ask about land. In some instances, individuals find yourself leasing land to their WNCs. In a single instance, a respondent shared how he dialed a improper quantity years in the past, grew to become pals with the WNC, and now leases him land to farm. In one other, a person shared an instance, from his village, of a WNC from the south of Tanzania who traveled to Simanjiro, leased land to farm, and started work within the Mererani mining sector, the place many Maasai have been profitable.

A couple of respondents additionally described how WNCs may be drawn into native communities seeking non-timber forest merchandise. In a single case, a WNC from the Kilimanjaro space was searching for sure forms of wooden that our respondent had entry to. The WNC traveled to the respondent’s village and paid each the village and the respondent to reap among the wooden. One other instance concerned a particular plant-based drugs that the respondent has been in a position to promote to the WNC on a recurring foundation. He now sends shipments of the plant on the bus to Dar es Salaam (Dar).

Reciprocity, trade, and employment: WNCs additionally serve to develop customary social networks in prescribed methods. In two conferences, people shared how they’d organized marriages for his or her sons with the daughters of their WNCs. Others famous that some individuals have formalized new friendships with Maasai WNCs by bodily assembly one another and typically exchanging livestock. A number of teams shared tales of WNCs in search of session from conventional Maasai political and non secular leaders (i.e., laigwanani and laibonok), usually to assist resolve troublesome social conflicts in distant communities. In these instances, WNCs have been from ethnic teams that share the Maa language and different cultural attributes, particularly Arusha and Parakuyu.

In different instances, respondents described utilizing WNCs merely to handle and develop their social networks. Some shared how they’ve used WNCs to succeed in out to previous, out-of-touch contacts who might dwell close to the WNC. Others described touring to satisfy WNCs in locations like Arusha or Moshi, hours away by bus. One leveraged a WNC with a robust place in Dar to facilitate authorities paperwork for one more good friend. And in some instances, WNCs can result in new employment alternatives. A person in Simanjiro shared how he made a WNC close to the coast who was seeking to spend money on improved livestock breeds. The person visited the WNC to examine his herd and seek the advice of on potential breeds. He ended up touring together with his WNC to Kenya to buy animals, efforts for which he was compensated. One other described a WNC he made in Dar who was seeking to spend money on livestock. The 2 males met in Arusha and finally arrange a enterprise shopping for livestock within the west and promoting them in northern markets. One respondent acquired a improper quantity name from an Indian-Tanzanian who finally invited the person to work for him as a guard in Dar, which he did for six months. Teams in Longido District additionally described how WNCs can result in employment alternatives, particularly in Nairobi.

Considerations and challenges

Though respondents described many potential advantages related to WNCs, in addition they highlighted a number of considerations and challenges. A rising problem surrounding WNCs includes land. In a number of interviews we carried out in Simanjiro, respondents defined how WNCs may be particularly considering having access to land. This concern was framed in each optimistic and adverse methods. A number of people shared how they’d welcomed a WNC into the village, both to farm or conduct different enterprise. They described how these outsiders had introduced advantages to them and in some instances their communities. When requested whether or not individuals have been involved that outsiders who get a foothold within the village might assist different outsiders to come back, many respondents agreed that this was turning into a giant drawback, particularly given the issue even native individuals face accessing land. In line with respondents, outsiders come, some by way of WNCs, and begin a farm or a small store, then they convey extra relations and finally enroll their youngsters at school to turn into official members of the village, then they search extra land. We have been instructed that when some WNCs study that they’ve reached somebody in Simanjiro, they may name repeatedly, badgering the person about land.

The most typical problem, in response to our interviews, includes scams. Many respondents defined that they don’t “comply with” improper numbers due to the prevalence of phone-based scams, which may take many kinds. Mysterious callers might provide get-rich-quick schemes, illness cures, or miraculous plans to seek out love or fame. One other instance includes callers who truly know the receiving occasion’s title. Though these calls might or might not current as improper quantity calls, they nonetheless forged a shadow over phone-based communication for many individuals, steering them away from WNCs. Since 2019, Tanzania has applied a nationwide telephone registry, together with biomarkers, in an effort to root out a lot of these fraud.

Others described how, not like sturdy ties, helpful WNCs can disappear immediately. Two forms of examples have been supplied right here. First, WNCs can organize to satisfy at a selected time and place, usually at a distant location, however on the appointed time one occasion fails to point out after which by no means responds. We heard examples of this within the contexts of missed employment alternatives and aborted rendezvous between women and men. The second sort includes the straightforward lack of one’s telephone and all its contacts. We heard a number of tales from individuals with optimistic, ongoing WNCs who misplaced their helpful weak ties on this means.

Quantitative outcomes

Desk 1 presents fundamental descriptive statistics for all of the variables utilized in our quantitative analyses, together with variable means stratified by district. First, it exhibits that livelihood measures differ considerably between the districts, with common respondents in Simanjiro having bigger herds, farming extra, and being extra prone to lease land in comparison with respondents in Longido. Subsequent, 46% of all respondents have had a WNC, and the distinction between districts is important with 60% in Simanjiro in comparison with 24% in Longido (RQ2).

The stratified means for a number of impartial variables are additionally considerably completely different. Not accounting for different components, respondents in Simanjiro have been extra prone to rank their mobile sign as “superb,” have smaller family sizes, and bigger land allocations than respondents in Longido. Notably, the common age of our respondents and their charges of fundamental schooling don’t differ considerably between districts.

Desk 2 presents the outcomes of the regression analyses of the affiliation between WNCs and measures of land use, stratified by district and controlling for different components (RQ3). For the Poisson regression mannequin of TLUs, incidence price ratios symbolize the components by which TLUs could be anticipated to extend (for components larger than 1) or lower (for components lower than 1) given a 1 unit enhance in steady predictor variables, or shifting from 0 to 1 for dichotomous variables, provided that the opposite variables within the mannequin are held fixed. For the a number of logistic mannequin of complete Acres cultivated (two columns), relative threat ratios symbolize the components by which the relative dangers of cultivating a low (Acres low column) or a excessive (Acres excessive column) variety of acres in comparison with zero acres (referent class) would, once more, be anticipated to extend or lower given a 1 unit enhance in steady predictor variables, or shifting from 0 to 1 for dichotomous variables, provided that the opposite variables within the mannequin are held fixed. Broadly, relative threat ratios larger than 1 point out larger probability to farm (i.e., low or excessive Acres) than to not (i.e., zero Acres). For the logistic regression mannequin of Leased land, odds ratios symbolize the components by which the percentages of Leased land could be anticipated to extend or lower given a 1 unit enhance in steady predictor variables, or shifting from 0 to 1 for dichotomous variables, provided that the opposite variables within the mannequin are held fixed.

Our analyses confirmed one important affiliation with WNC. Controlling for different components, respondents in Simanjiro who’ve, or have had, a WNC have been roughly six instances extra prone to have Leased land previously 12 months than respondents who’ve by no means had a WNC. In Longido, WNC was not considerably related to any land-use measures. Lastly, there have been no important associations between dependent variables and the choice specification, WNC (face-to-face), in both district.

A number of management variables have been additionally considerably related to our measures of land use. Cellphone vouchers and Family dimension have been positively related to TLUs in every district. And Land allocation was positively related to TLUs in Longido. Additionally in Longido, Age, Greatest sign, and Land allocation have been every positively related to Acres (low) indicating that older respondents, these with the very best sign, and people with bigger land allocations have been extra prone to farm three or fewer acres (Low) within the prior 12-months than to not farm, which was additionally negatively related to HH dimension. In Simanjiro, Cellphone vouchers and Land allocation have been every positively related to cultivating a low variety of Acres (low) (ten or fewer), in comparison with not farming, whereas HH dimension was negatively related. Additionally in Simanjiro, main Schooling was related to a decrease probability of farming 10 or extra Acres (excessive) in comparison with not farming. And Cellphone vouchers have been negatively related to Land leasing, whereas HH dimension was positively related.

DISCUSSION

So far as we all know, the qualitative outcomes offered right here describe a mechanism of tie formation in social networks that has not been examined in any educational literature, one that’s enabled by cellphones and pushed by human error. Right here, a constellation of technological, infrastructural, financial, and social components, distinctly attribute of rural areas within the World South, create the circumstances for error, or novelty, and in some instances these errors are seized on. Individuals make WNCs with others from distant places and numerous ethnic backgrounds. These connections are used to share data, form actions and mobilities, and stimulate trade and reciprocity throughout large areas (RQ1).

Moreover, WNCs should not uncommon. Almost half of our pattern have had at the least one WNC previously, although variations between districts are important (RQ2). In Simanjiro, 60% of respondents have had a WNC in comparison with 24% in Longido. And plenty of respondents with WNCs report face-to-face contact, some probably touring nice distances to take action.

Social ties

These outcomes maintain broader implications for the scholarship surrounding social networks and cellular applied sciences within the World South. Notably, many research in each city and rural contexts argue that data and communication applied sciences are not often bridging applied sciences that join individuals with completely different backgrounds, however are used extra generally as instruments to catalyze communication inside current, tightly bonded teams (Donner 2006, Kobayashi and Boase 2014, Marler 2018). Right here, amidst widespread use of telephones to assist bonding conduct with sturdy ties, we additionally discover a uncommon instance of bridging conduct with new weak ties, which contrasts considerably with outcomes that Maasai social networks haven’t been remodeled by cell phone use (Butt 2015, Baird and Hartter 2017).

From the attitude of conventional social community evaluation, WNCs are comparatively impartial of relational and proximity mechanisms of dyad formation (Rivera et al. 2010). Present social ties and one’s place inside a community play virtually no function in two individuals encountering one another by way of a improper quantity. Neither does bodily proximity, at the least inside the geographic extent of the telephone provider’s community. Our outcomes, nevertheless, appear to exemplify a kind of assortative mechanism that integrates homophily and heterophily. Multiform heterogeneity describes how social ties might type between people who’re concurrently comparable in some methods and completely different in others (Blau 1974). This certainly might characterize many WNCs. Shared attributes like language and ethnicity can engender belief, whereas divergent attributes like geographic location or skilled experience present actual financial worth.

Our outcomes additionally spotlight the various social and financial roles that WNCs can play in Maasai lives. At a minimal, they result in new weak ties in a society characterised by sturdy ties and social establishments. Age-set and clan-based constructions particularly have lengthy been foundations of Maasai resilience (Leslie and McCabe 2013, Baird and Grey 2014). New ties with WNCs develop and diversify Maasai networks, permitting people to assemble new data, prospect for brand spanking new alternatives, and reply to shocks. And in some instances, these relationships may help households acquire entry to distant sources. WNCs additionally embody a brand new mechanism of tie formation, a kind of social community leap, whereby new and comparatively uncommon, however vital social ties are fashioned with no discernible intermediate tie or exercise that confers important bias (like assembly somebody on a bus or airplane). We’re conscious of no research that study social community tie formation expressly exterior this context of path dependency.

Land-based sources

This discovery raises the query of how impactful WNCs are, particularly materially. Our technique right here was guided by respondents’ descriptions of how WNCs can function conduits to crucial land-based sources, particularly grazing areas and agricultural land. Controlling for a number of components, together with proxies of telephone use, we discovered that WNCs weren’t considerably related to land-use sorts, with one exception. In Simanjiro, the place group interview respondents described leasing land to and from WNCs, individuals with WNCs have been more likely to have leased land within the 12 months previous to the survey (RQ3). What’s placing right here is that land leasing, which is often used for monocrop agriculture, is each ascendant and controversial on this space.

Over a few years, Maasai in Simanjiro have included rain-fed agriculture into their pastoralist livelihoods, creating quite a few tensions within the course of (McCabe et al. 2010, Baird and Leslie 2013, Woodhouse and McCabe 2018). First, advocates for biodiversity conservation have argued that conversion of grazing lands to agriculture harms ecosystems (Phalan et al. 2011). Second, as these pastoralists have turn into extra sedentary (Fox et al. 2019) and rural inhabitants density has grown, pressures on land have compounded with many households struggling to safe tenure (Muyanga and Jayne 2014) and being usually illiberal of outsiders having access to native land. So it was notable on a number of events throughout our group interviews when individuals described how WNCs can turn into fairly once they study that they’ve linked with somebody from Simanjiro, a district identified for huge tracts of land, and a current historical past of agricultural growth (Nelson et al. 2010).

The difficulty of causality is difficult right here. On one hand, group interview respondents’ descriptions of leasing land to WNCs, and in any other case utilizing WNCs to, at instances, assist the actions of herding and farming, assist using WNCs because the explanatory variable in our fashions. Nonetheless, it’s fairly potential that an unmeasured particular person attribute like ingenuity, industriousness, or maybe threat tolerance drives each WNC and our livelihood measures. Moreover, we will think about how success in diversified livelihoods may enhance an people’ probability to take an opportunity on a WNC. Consideration to those hypotheses requires larger understanding of why individuals embrace WNCs, together with psycho-social and financial components, and extra detailed knowledge on the timing and traits of survey respondents’ WNCs.

Taken collectively, our qualitative and quantitative outcomes spotlight a priority that WNCs might function a brand new mechanism for outsiders to realize entry to land in rural communities the place tensions over land are already excessive, a priority expressly famous throughout our group interviews. Land-use pressures and disputes strike on the coronary heart of this social-ecological system. On this means, WNCs and land leasing symbolize a brand new problem for environmental administration, cultural change, and group resilience. A associated and vital new query is whether or not WNCs result in land conversion, or social change, that might unlikely have occurred in any other case. Additionally, do WNCs, which symbolize a kind of exogenous multiform heterogeneity, enhance volatility and speed up change inside the system?

Path dependency and the adjoining potential

In social networks, as with different networks, processes and patterns are the capabilities of prior circumstances and contexts (Ghezzi and Mingione 2007). Path dependency has been described as a phenomenon whereby present outcomes should not merely merchandise of present circumstances, however of prior outcomes. Framed extra merely, path dependency asserts that “historical past issues” (Schreyögg et al. 2011). To characterize this implicit artefact in social community analysis, we borrow and adapt from adjoining potential idea, first articulated by Stuart Kauffman (1996) to explain complexity in organic and different methods and leveraged by others to explain pathways of human creativity and innovation (Johnson 2011, Chhatre et al. 2012, Monechi et al. 2017). Adjoining potential idea argues that, at any given second in time, progress can solely accrue in prescribed methods, restricted by its fast context and the probabilities which might be adjoining to this context. Improvements don’t spring from big leaps however from stepwise progress into adjoining prospects. Distant connections can’t be made till the house between is first traversed.

Analysis on social networks relies on adjacency, although this language is never used. Individuals make new connections by way of adjacencies: household, pals, work, church, golf equipment, teams, chatrooms, and so on. These ties, and their ties, create the sampling body from which new ties are drawn. Inside this line of considering, social ties consequence from these myriad biases that place us in our distinctive contexts, and decide our adjacencies. The existence of WNCs, disrupts this implicit maxim of social tie formation, and suggests as a substitute that “jumps” to distant, unfamiliar factors should not solely tractable however frequent in sure contexts.

The ideas of path dependency and the adjoining potential inform us that the longer term is proscribed by the previous and the current. By prevailing in opposition to these constraints, WNCs ought to be anticipated to develop the vary of potential system outcomes, all different issues being equal, and enhance volatility.

This speculation raises the query of randomness. Are WNCs random social ties? One of the best reply right here is not any. Randomness is full unpredictability. Even genetic mutations should not random in a purely mathematical sense. Parallels right here might advantage additional comparability. WNCs do replicate the broad evolutionary rules of mutation/choice or probability/selection. Probability occurrences, i.e., improper numbers, present alternatives for choice, i.e., chatting, saving the quantity, and sustaining engagement, based mostly on the perceived utility of the connection for each events, which can embrace entry to distant data and materials sources. Arguably, the preliminary publicity, or probability portion of this connection, is far more random than most exposures, that are usually ruled by numerous biases. However the choice, or selection, portion of the connections adhere to typical assortative mechanisms, particularly multiform heterogeneity as mentioned above. As respondents famous, some new connections develop and thrive and others wither and die.

It could be that whereas the time period “random ties” misrepresents and oversells the mechanism of social connection now we have found, the time period “unintended ties,” which we use within the title of the paper, distinctly undersells the novelty of those social connections. Labels apart, the novelty of WNCs raises the query of whether or not they’re idiosyncratic to Maasai, or maybe teams whose sturdy social establishments embed social ties in a shared tradition of belief. Curiously, by way of casual conversations with colleagues about these findings, now we have heard anecdotes that WNCs happen in locations like India and China, usually with younger individuals, although shortage and opportunism, moderately than belief are seen as drivers of connection. Notably, many WNCs described on this research are with non-Maasai Tanzanians and Kenyans, which factors to new questions: The place else do WNCs happen? How do components like gender, class, infrastructure, and tradition have an effect on whether or not individuals embrace or keep away from WNCs elsewhere? How are livelihoods affected in WNCs’ places? What results do WNCs have on household- and community-level resilience? And what different mechanisms of social connection are analogous to WNCs? Future analysis ought to study these and associated questions.

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