Transcript NEET women and their phones: digital exclusion

Digital Inclusion in the era of the
Smartphone
Becky Faith
@becky_faith
Department of Communication and Systems, Faculty of
Maths, Computing and Technology
www.beckyfaith.net
What I’m going to talk about today
• Introducing my research
• Origins and development of digital inclusion as a
concept
• Workshop – Smartphones, mobile phones and tablets
and technological inclusion
• Reflections and discussion on the role of these devices
in overcoming digital exclusion
• Note on terminology: Informed by the framing of my
research I’m discussing digital rather than
technological inclusion
www.beckyfaith.net
My research
Research question
“How does the use of mobile phones and smartphones
by young women who are unemployed and on lowincomes contribute to their capabilities?”
Methodologies:
•Participatory creation workshops
•Semi-structured interviews
•Inspired by feminist HCI practice
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My research
Frameworks:
Policy: UK ‘digital by default’ policy: delivery of
transactional government services through digital
channels which might “reinforce the social exclusion
of a sizeable segment of the population”
Theoretical: Capability theory (Sen, Nussbaum) gives us an understanding how people's perceptions of
their own situations and capacities might be
constrained by poverty or marginalisation, also
technofeminist theory e.g. genderscripts
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Digital inclusion and the
‘digital divide’
• Arrival of mass communications and ubiquitous
networked digital technologies transformed society
• These transformations are experienced differently
by different members of society
• ‘Digital divide' emerged as to describe inequalities of
access to information technologies
• First used in international development contexts
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Digital inclusion and the
‘digital divide’
• Link between social inclusion and digital inclusion
well established in UK government policy
• Significant in policy terms both in international
development and in UK and European policy
contexts:
• “Questions concerning who is ‘connected’ to
information and technology have grown in
prominence and now form an important element
to the information age policy agenda in
industrialized, ‘technologically advanced’
countries”
(White & Selwyn, 2011)
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Gradations and mobile internet
access
Gradations
•In recent years dichotomous view of digital haves and
have nots challenged
•Notion of gradations in digital divide - moving
beyond access to determine how issues of ‘equipment,
autonomy, skills, support and purpose’ shape
successful interaction online
(DiMaggio, P.Hargittai, E. et al., 2001)
Mobile internet access
•17.6 million mobile phone internet users in 2011
•41% of AB socio-economic groups use the internet on
mobiles compared to 20% of D and E social groups.
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Exercise:
Use your phone/tablet to
either:
1.Find your MEP’s name and
email address
2.Check the council tax
banding of your house
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Questions for reflection
•What barriers did you
encounter?
•What if this was your only
means of accessing the
internet?
•What kind of instrumental uses
do you make of your phone?
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Thank you!
@Becky_Faith
www.beckyfaith.net