Introducing information and communication technologies into marginalised neighbourhoods : an exploration of the digital divide

This research explores the development of discourses of information society and theclaims which have been made as to the transformative capacities of information andcommunication technologies (ICT) in particular. It explores the experiences of groupsaffiliated to two women's centres in the city of Salford, England. These centres, andassociated groups, are situated within two economically disadvantaged areas whichcould be said to be peopled with "the information poor". The research argues that theenthusiasm with which technology has often been placed before such communities hasbeen inspired by debates which have largely taken place at a high level of abstractionand generalisation and have not been grounded and connected to the needs of theresidents of "real world", physically based localities. The importance of locality, of"situated knowledge", of networks built around trust and shared experience itsuggests, have been largely disregarded and the global, the expert and disembodiedcommunity unconstrained by the limits imposed by place have been perceived as themost significant relationships in contemporary western societies. This has distortedperceptions of more traditional and locally-based, face-to-face interaction which hasbeen considered limiting, insular and in many ways as looking backward rather thanforward. From these perceptions have arisen a terminology which placesresponsibility for success or failure on the individual and the community (the digitalunderclass) and which suggests that a need for experts and professionals to enlightenand educate certain groups (the information poor) in order that they can be enabledand empowered in the new digital age. The research argues that this discourse, andthe assumptions which lie behind it, have infused policy agendas around wideningaccess to technology and informed many models which aim to introduce thesetechnologies into such communities. The research concludes that there has been adisproportionate interest in technology and its powers to transform and a concomitantdisregard of the human potential and abilities which enable technology to work andthe personal and social relationships which will facilitate its use