The Shifting Moralities of Mobile Phones in Lau Communicative Ecologies (Solomon Islands)

International audienceIn the past decade, digital technologies and especially mobile phones have spread rapidly across the Solomon Islands. This process has been surprising not only in how quickly many Solomon Islanders have become digitally savvy, but also in rapidly emerging moral debates that pit the ability to stay in touch with family and friends against the dangers of immoral behaviour, especially sexual promiscuity, and of malevolent sorcery. Based on a communicative ecology approach, this paper identifies the proliferation of mobile phones as a critical juncture with temporal and spatial ramifications in its double bind. That is, mobile phones are increasingly recognized as needed to maintain social networks, but they are also seen to harbour the potential for accelerating immoral sociality by increasing the potential for privacy