ABSTRACT
Introduction Social capital has emerged as a key concept in social, economic,
and political theory of the past twenty or so years. Interest in the concept of social capital has paralleled the rapid rise of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and a widespread (if perhaps somewhat misguided) perception that the adoption and use of technologies, such as the Internet and the mobile phone, have led to “an apparent fraying of the social fabric” (Ling, 2008: 25), as well as increased individualism. In this particular context, the mobile phone is an important technology given its ubiquity and almost total global penetration and given that it is a transportable communication device that connects people as part of social networks. Thus, there is a recognized need to further investigate and evaluate the social implications of this medium (Campbell and Russo, 2003: 318), especially as they intersect with social capital debates.
