Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2003), "Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide", Library Review, Vol. 52 No. 8, pp. 405-406. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530310493833

Much of the rhetoric of recent years has proclaimed that technology has enabled progress, that ICT progress has brought about information literacy, and that ICT developments have been at the heart of economic health and social improvement. This technological determinism is given a bracing corrective by Warschauer’s book. He argues that, instead of technology leading to social inclusion, we should argue the other way around: that unless technology is socially embedded, culturally, politically, economically, then it won’t work. Warschauer is Assistant Professor of Education, Information and Computer Science at the University of California Irvine, founding editor of the journal Language Learning and Technology, and author of Electronic Literacies: Language, Culture and Power in Online Education (Erlbaum, 1999). The case is developed by arguing that information literacy and ICT skills need to be integrated into social networks and social support structures, and as a result, they allow the autonomy of local communities to learn and then to “own” ICT, and as a result grow their social, political, and cultural identity.

As an overall thesis, it is persuasive and welcome. Familiar but well‐argued, with plenty of examples from around the world in “developed” and “under‐developed” countries. He has carried out extensive world‐wide research and his case studies provide evidence at each stage of what he says. So right from the start we know that such a work is going to interest the information professional involved in policy, the researcher and lecturer engaged in examining “the digital divide”, and the student on information and communication, computing and politics courses wanting wider knowledge of international Internet‐related change. The case is developed well: the digital divide, into haves and have‐nots, is, he says, too simplistic, because really there is a gradation between them based on different degrees of access and shaped by a complex mesh of social, political, economic and cultural factors. Having computers and connectivity is a mere start: without the infrastructure (the conduits) and the skills and understanding to use them, it leads to failure. Telling examples are provided.

Building on Castells and others, Warschauer cites examples of where computers and networks and Internet content were provided but things did not work out – differences between countries and within them, excluded poor and disabled even in countries with high GDPs, users whose first language is not English, people who have missed out on education and have no access to health‐care information or news about the weather or low‐cost housing. Projects like Playing2Win in Harlem and Simputer in India help him make his point. Governments and institutions intervene as in Egypt with online teacher tuition and in Madhya Pradesh in India with Internet kiosks, and some flourish. His diagnosis of this is that they flourish where they are socially embedded, where social relations shape technological use, and where neighbourhood associations and worker cooperatives and health centres and the like, already established, can integrate with ICT developments and become authentically relevant and personally belong to the community. This builds on the social capital, bottom‐up and top‐down, and allows the citizen a louder voice in e‐democracy. It also realigns political lobbying throughout the world, as virtual communities turn into interest groups. So the case is put, that we start with social inclusion and move on to technology, and not the other way around.

The arguments are not new but they come through here with a direct impact helped by persuasive examples and calm analysis. He does not buy into simple models and is determined not to be parochial. A rich bibliography provides further reading into the social capital agenda of the future. It is not USA‐centric nor a rant against capitalism, although it is clear the market left to itself will look to sales figures and price elasticities to encourage more innovation, which nevertheless will still keep products away from many users. He leaves us with a research agenda for academics and practitioners, but better would have taken us that step further into his vision – so, everyone is information literate, what then? Maybe the next book. He also leaves hovering over the book what is his best fit between formal educational programmes and community programmes – the case studies describe what is out there, but their role is to prove his case against the “mere” digital divide rather than convince on every level. Stimulating reading, although at the price very much a library copy.