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This study draws on participant observation and interviews with low-income adults in Chicago to show how the poor stay connected to phone service and mobile Internet through the possession of multiple phones, including those subsidized by government aid. The "accumulation" of phones by individuals is widely observed, though underexplored in scholarship. Popular media coverage in the US frames the possession of multiple phones by people in poverty as criminal or excessive. In contrast, this study identifies three functions for phone accumulation as a strategy for maintaining phone access: to back up other phones, to build up capacities across phones, and to share phones with others in need. Each function responds to struggles unique for the urban poor as mobile technology advances and public phone access declines. Extra phones insure against regular disconnections due to loss and theft of devices and limits on subsidized service. Active service on one device combines with Internet functionality on another to approximate a single, high-end device and service plan. Subsidized phones help overcome the hesitation that poor people feel in lending out their devices to others in need. Accumulation thus contributes to the goal of securing reliable phone access for low-income Americans. There are limits to accumulation as a strategy for maintaining access, which result from the prevalence of inferior hardware, limited service plans, and lack of trust among strangers. Telecommunications policies should adapt to the needs of low-income phone users with accumulation in mind. The article concludes with recommendations for adapting policy to the needs of low-income phone users.

Smartphones are more prevalent than computers in the digital age, particularly in poor and minority communities. Is it the effect to reduce or perpetuate socioeconomic disparities? This article reviews two decades of research investigating whether mobile phones contribute to enhancing the status of disadvantaged populations. Conclusions on the nature and extent of the mobile effect vary across areas of inquiry, including digital inequality, social networks, and coordination and mobility. Advantages accrue in particular areas, such as strengthening core ties, promoting particular Internet activities, and enhancing daily coordination and safety. Device limitations and structural inequalities overwhelm the mobile effect in many arenas, though new conditions emerge with changes in mobile technology and digital habits. Future research will benefit from closer attention to how mobile affordances, user motivation and habituation, popular mobile uses, and the particular conditions of disadvantage shape outcomes for marginalized populations.

The use of internet-based platform services like Amazon, DoorDash, and Uber Eats is increasing and can be helpful. But the companies that offer these services may be engaging in predatory practices that can harm users and local businesses. Some form of centralized policy action may help; local governments could play a more active role.

Apes, Language and the Human Mind. Sue Savage Rumbaugh. Stewart G. Shanker, and Talbot J. Taylor. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 244 pp.

Older adults often assist one another in using digital technology and tend to prefer assistance provided at home. However, research has yet to examine how life partners in this age group support one another in using technology. We interviewed 50 older adults representing 25 couples in five countries about their sources of support when using the Internet. Partner support was more common than existing literature suggests and was motivated by in-home convenience, partners' level of digital skills, and a desire to avoid burdening other network members. At odds with a one-way view of digital assistance, partners often helped each other in different domains of Internet use based on career experience and personal interest. Partner support could both aid and discourage self-sufficiency, depending on how assistance was provided. Studying couples helps clarify how older adults develop relationships of mutual aid and dependency out of the everyday (un)availability of technology support.

Military operations impose various positive and negative consequences on the environment. Three case studies are presented illuminating how local indigenous peoples as stakeholders may be vulnerable to being disenfranchised from important discussions concerning military activities. The study of ecological issues associated with sustaining a military footprint may be particularly useful for informing the global debate that pits strict conservation against human well-being.