Smartphone consumption practices in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic: An ethnographic look at women’s appropriations in Maputo – Mozambique

ABSTRACT

The article is the result of an ethnographic research carried out with Mozambican women living in the city of Maputo. As an objective, we seek to understand some changes in smartphone consumption practices in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout the research, which began with face-to-face fieldwork, in 2019, and moved to a second stage of ethnography for the internet (HINE, 2015), participant observation, observation in social media and in-depth interviews were carried out. Our analysis understands that in a pandemic scenario, smartphones became the enablers of remote learning for university students – despite the inequality of access – and that they helped the research interlocutors to build new sources of income. © 2022, Superior School of Advertising and Marketing. All rights reserved.