Exploring Smartphone Affordances Through a Power Lens: The Case of Refugee Daily Life Organizing

Abstract

In the current study, we investigate the connections between power and the technology-organizing nexus. To do this, we explore how the lived experience of refugees shapes the enactment of smartphone affordances in their day-to-day organizing practices. Our central research question is: “How do refugees perceive the affordances of the smartphone to enable (empower) or constrain (oppress) their daily organizing during settlement?” To disentangle the role of technology from the activities necessary for organizing, we develop a hybrid lens that draws on a feminist interpretation of Affordance Theory and allows for an explicit consideration of power dynamics. We focus on the interrelation between the materiality of the smartphone, the action possibilities it provides in relation to organizing, and the related power dynamics. We adopt a qualitative analysis of 32 in-depth interviews with Syrian refugees settled throughout the Lebanese territory. Our findings highlight the specific affordances of the material characteristic whether empowering or subjecting the actor to oppression. Furthermore, we shed light on the pervasive role of the layers of power. Our main findings suggest that smartphone affordances can (1) be oppressive as well as empowering; (2) push the parameters of organizing thereby serving as a basis for mediated agency related to overcoming oppression; and (3) shape small changes impacting the experience of gender-based oppression. On a practical level, these findings suggest that initiatives aiming to empower refugees through technology should not build on empowerment and ignore oppression, but rather attempt to integrate both.