Constant Touch: A brief history of the mobile phone by Jon Agar, Icon, 拢9.99, ISBN 1840464194 Reviewed by Mats Fridlund
THE mobile phone was the foremost political tool of the popular revolution that swept the Philippines in 2001. 鈥淎s quickly as fingers could text鈥�, millions of SMS messages about government corruption and demonstrations fuelled the uprising that led to the regime鈥檚 downfall. In Constant Touch, historian of science and technology Jon Agar uses this and other telling examd other telling examples to give a global history of the mobile phone. He shows that it is as much a product and pusher of politics and culture as of industry and business.
The large-scale commercial introduction of mobiles took place in Europe during the 1980s, driven first by state engineers steeped in the 鈥渢hird way鈥� of Scandinavian political values and culture, then later by visions of creating the infrastructure for a single European market.
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The mobile of the 1990s shaped, and was shaped by, values and cultures from Asia and Africa. For example, it played a big part in the popular culture of Japanese single women and teenagers and the bloody Congolese civil wars. Huge amounts of two valuable minerals coltan, vital for the manufacture of mobiles, are found in eastern Conolese civil wars. Huge amounts of two valuable minerals collectively known as coltan, vital for the manufacture of mobiles, are found in eastern Congo. Central to the whole history is the development of new forms of culture 鈥� the values that 鈥渢he ring tones of the mobile phone signify鈥�. These values are ambivalent. New forms of behavioural patterns, new pastimes and new material culture such as texting and the ever-changing fascias of the Nokia 3210 鈥� the by now classic mobile 鈥� have given users new forms of personal expression. And at the same time, new and threatening forms of crime and health risks have been introduced.
Agar illuminates these modern developments through comparisons with the politics and cultures of earlier technologies of mobility, such as Roman roads and steam railways as well as the pocket watch. In this way, Constant Touch succeeds in interweaving the mobile鈥檚 fascinating modern hiinterweaving the mobile鈥檚 fascinating modern histories with equally interesting political and cultural perspectives.