Digital Inclusion

The enormous transformative potential of Information and Communication Technologies has prompted many to believe that ICT could also play a considerable role in fostering democracy through enhanced engagement with citizens. Since the early 1990s, there has been considerable enthusiasm for the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) to foster local community ties through education, job opportunities, encouraging community activities and increasing general sociability within a local area.

ICT can be viewed as part of a complex network of communication tools that enable local social interactivity. In other words, ICT can help:

• develop and maintain social relations
• information exchange
• increase face-to-face interaction

In 2007, we were commissioned to undertake a longitudinal study of UK online centres’ Social Impact Demostrators programme users to determine whether gains in ICT proficiency lead to gains in cognitive and social skills, which in turn contribute to improved life chances. A framework was developed around common themes evident in each of the demonstrator projects.

Ordinarily, the gaining of ICT proficiency arises from cognitive and social needs. For instance, someone will gain ICT skills through formal education or because they have family/friends overseas who they wish to contact electronically.

This is supported by the research literature, which has found that groups with more ‘bonding social capital’ (i.e. close ties with family and friends) tend to have higher ICT usage. In other words, social and/or cognitive proficiency are in fact pre-requisites for digital uptake in the first instance.