For the last several years, I’ve conducted ethnographic research on community networks — networks that are built, owned, and/or operated locally by people in a specific place or communities. Community networks have emerged across the world in a diverse range of contexts to overcome the exclusionary geography of traditional, commercial telecommunications networks.
Through alternative ownership models for internet infrastructure, the project explores alternative visions of “digital inclusion,” based not only on the distributive justice of internet connectivity as a resource but also on the epistemic justice of community participation in network principles and design.
Questions
What happens when alternative ownership models (e.g. non-commercial, non-MNO) are used to provide internet connectivity, especially in places on “wrong side” of the digital divide?
- What are those models? How do they work in practice?
- Who participates? Who benefits? Who loses out?
- What knowledge is included and excluded in these models of connectivity?
- What impact does owning the means of connectivity have on local communities — socially, economically, geographically, environmentally?
- How sustainable or scalable are models of ownership that subvert or circumvent telecommunications MNOs?
Theoretical Framing
When academics do research, we contribute to wider conversations about the topics we care about. It’s important to give credit to the ideas (e.g. theories) that inspire our work and to explain how our work continues, challenges, or changes those existing ideas that are already out in the world. There are many possible political and policy implications for this research, but it also furthers academic understandings of digital exclusion. Among other theoretical influences, this projects takes inspiration from:
- The anthropology of infrastructure (Star, 1999; Star & Bowker, 2010; Starosielski, 2015)
- Epistemic justice (Fricker, 2007)
- Materiality of digital technology (Dourish, 2017; Turkle, 2007)
- Politics of difference and design justice (Young, 1990; Costanza-Chock, 2021)
B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North)
Broadband for the Rural North, B4RN (“barn”), is the community network I’ve worked most closely on since 2018. It is a rural internet network (ISP) in the northwest of England that operates as a Community Benefit Society, meaning that it is a not-for-profit company and can use its assets solely for the benefit of the community. It is also largely volunteer-led and -built by people in the local area who are interested in getting internet access.
You can read a bit about my work with B4RN here and here, and you can listen to a short podcast I produced on the B4RN Computer Club (now the B4RN User Group) here.
Kira Allmann 