Exploring the relationship between information and communication technology collective behaviors and sense of community: an urban refugee analysis

Abstract

PurposeHelping others use information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones, can be beneficial for individuals and communities. In urban refugee communities, displaced and living far from home, collective behaviors with mobile phones can generate a sense of belonging. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential for these offline behaviors to generate a sense of community among urban refugees.Design/methodology/approachUsing quantitative evidence, the authors examined the relationship between collective behaviors, such as sharing or helping with a mobile phone, and sense of community. The authors analyzed survey data collected from urban refugees in Rwanda via multiple regression to test hypotheses related to the impact of collective behaviors on sense of community, as well as the mediating role of ICT self-efficacy and gender.FindingsThe findings suggest that collective behaviors with mobile phones have a positive relationship with sense of community, driven primarily by providing assistance as compared to sharing. ICT self-efficacy was positively related to sense of community. However, collective behaviors' impacts differed by gender, suggesting that social dynamics influence this relationship.Originality/valueWhile the extant literature highlights the various roles of mobile phones in refugees' lives, less is known about the social aspects of use and its potential to help overcome isolation by fostering a sense of community. The authors extend this literature to a novel context (urban refugees in the Global South), testing a model that incorporates other factors that may play a role (e.g. self-efficacy and gender). These findings are valuable to urban refugees, due to difficulties in re-building a sense of community and increased ICT access.

From Groups to Communities: A Resource Mobilization Theory Perspective on the Emergence of Communities

“…In doing so, we ultimately help IS theory to take steps away from the traditional "what" questions and move towards the more insightful "how" ones, while we contribute to the line of IS research on theorising using large datasets and novel computational approaches (Kar & Dwivedi, 2020). Concurrently, we contribute to the ongoing discussions on community emergence and evolution within the broader IS literature, especially on those around communities of consumption (e.g., Wang et al, 2019), brand communities (e.g., Fetais, et al, 2022Kannan et al, 2000;Santos et al, 2022), experiential communities (e.g., Canevez et al, 2022;Dennehy et al, 2020;Kamboj et al, 2018;Prakasam & Huxtable-Thomas, 2021) and consumer tribes (e.g., Gloor et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2019), as well as those around interpersonal (e.g., Dong et al, 2021) or resource dynamics (e.g., Wang et al, 2021) on communities. Finally, as the IS field is increasingly adopting such computational approaches (e.g., Georgiadou et al, 2020), and is opening up to new perspectives (e.g., Kar & Dwivedi, 2020), the approach we have incorporated in can further enhance the endeavours on theorizing through the use of large datasets, and, as we have demonstrated, become powerful tools for meta-analysis applications.…”

“…The extant information systems (IS) literature has investigated various types of communities, such as communities of consumption (e.g., Algharabat & Rana, 2021;Mirkovski et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019), brand communities (e.g., Fetais et al, 2022;Kannan et al, 2000;Santos et al, 2022), experiential communities (e.g., Canevez et al, 2022;Dennehy et al, 2020;Kamboj et al, 2018;Prakasam & Huxtable-Thomas, 2021) and consumer tribes (e.g., Gloor et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2019). This line of research has documented that: i) social interactions strengthen the bonds amongst community members, ii) identity-relevant symbolic meanings encourage community membership, and iii) practices, such as welcoming, badging, and signalling prolong the vitality of a community.…”

The Design and Use of Digital Technologies in the Context of South–South Migration

“…The main constraints on migrants' skills uptake and business development appear to be limited infrastructural access combined with cultural (inequalities), political (regulatory environments that limit use by migrants and refugees), gendered social dynamics (Canevez et al, 2021) and social restrictions (including patriarchal and hierarchical structures). As Dutta and Kaur-Gill (2018) argue digital technologies do not change these problematic social structures and their power dynamics.…”