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[EDITOR's INTRODUCTION] In this feature essay, McAleavy, Donegan and O'Hagan review the interlinked ways in which communities face social exclusion. In the 21st century, access is an increasingly important factor. In the "information society" this is increasingly bound up with provision of information technology. The "digital divide" is a real obstacle in the path of combatting social exclusion, but we should also recognise the possibilities opened up by IT. Poverty alleviation strategies that include awareness of where IT can help deprived communities are essential, along with educational approaches that depend upon the skills and needs identified by the community itself, rather than being imposed on it from outside.
Gerry McAleavy is Professor of Further and Higher Education; Celia O'Hagan is Lecturer in e-Facilitated Lifelong Learning; and Tony Donegan is Reader in the School of Computing and Mathematics; all at the University of Ulster.
The emergence of digitisation and the digital economy, as the basis for the development of an information society [1], offers a vision in which all communities have access to information and, consequently, power over their lives. Unfortunately this is over-optimistic. These visions tend to mystify the impact of digitisation on society, particularly on deprived communities. The "digital divide" between those who have and do not have access to electronic networking is a further disenfranchisement of communities already suffering from various forms of marginalisation.
Since the mid 1970s, the endpoint of the post war consensus on equality, the proportion of households in the UK earning less than half the average wage has tripled [2]. This paper will also discuss other forms of deprivation, such as a lack of access to services, transport, or higher levels of education. Yet while increases in measures of deprivation may go unnoticed by the affluent, disadvantaged populations are becoming aware of the degree to which their opportunities and capacity to communicate have been curtailed. In a society increasingly characterised by inequality, certain paths become blocked.
Widening participation strategies in education in the UK have recently focused on activities such as UK Online, and promotion of information societies and community projects which offer further learning opportunities to young and adult learners. There is evidence [3] that clearly demonstrates the positive effects of such opportunities at economic, social and civic levels. However, it is important to remain vigilant regarding the effects of new media on our minority communities. The idea that digitisation presents a barrier to community participation and learning is something that cannot be ignored [4].
This paper examines the needs of digital learning communities that have evolved in response to both economic and social pressures. It reviews the negative effects of information and societal exclusion, and the continued use of ICT as a means to increase both aspirations for learning and opportunities for communal advancement and employment. It offers evidence of community need and makes recommendations for the advancement of educational provision and support for digital progression among citizens.
There is an evolving debate about the alienation which some communities experience in relation to the internet and why lack of access and social/economic disadvantage are related [5]. One must consider not only the disadvantages caused by a lack of access to information and the online sphere. The use of IT requires certain access amenities and capabilities. Social deprivation can create cultural and attitudinal disadvantages here [6]. The Gartner Group suggested that minorities are disadvantaged in terms of accessibility to the internet (a defining principle of the digital age), not just because of low income but also their ability to comprehend and use the internet due to lower levels of educational opportunities and the limitations for employment among such groups [7].
It is necessary to consider more broadly how forms of deprivation present barriers to social opportunities, including education and employment. Let us examine issues of poverty, employment deficits and cultural environments, including attitudes and isolation among neighbourhoods, and the challenge IT presents to such disadvantaged communities.
Increases in part-time work and wage inequalities have been among some of the reasons for a greater dispersion of ‘working poor’. In 1995-96 there were twice as many poor children in working families than in 1979. In 2000-01, 21% of children in the UK lived in households with below 60% of median income before housing costs, 31% after housing costs [8].
While poverty and exclusion have existed throughout history, there are strong indications that modern developments in accessibility - through both the growth of private transport and the use of information technology - enhance possibilities for some sections of the population but increase the disadvantages of others. In order to participate in society, to purchase goods, manage finance, obtain work, become educated, access health facilities or even to make friends, citizens require the capacity to reach out. This is acquired either through having the possibility to travel or, alternatively, through the use of information and communication technologies to access information services and resources [9]. Without these means of access, communities are increasingly losing control over their living environments as capacities for gaining access to the necessities of life are being differentially distributed across real and virtual space.
An example of the way in which citizens can be deprived of access is the fact that, while Northern Ireland is a major agricultural producer, capacity to purchase affordable fresh food has become a problem for disadvantaged communities both in urban and even rural areas. Research by the Armagh and Dungannon Health Action Zone [10] revealed that low income households would have to spend 25% more of their disposable income on food if they could not access a superstore or street markets. The increasing movement of supermarkets to out-of town locations has led to the creation of ‘food deserts’. Since cheap and varied food is only available to those who have access to private transport and/or can access supermarket web sites to order food, the health of disadvantaged populations is likely to be at risk. The negative effects of such exclusion has been charted by the Health and Personal and Social Services Department [11]:
“Within Northern Ireland… Inequalities in health can be seen in almost every available health index. Infant death rates are almost 50% higher in the most deprived group of our population compared to the least deprived. …..Inequalities in health persist into adulthood. Men and women of working age in the less well of groups are twice as likely to die prematurely as those who are well off. The electoral wards which have the highest death rates also have the highest levels of deprivation”.
The issue of access includes access to employment opportunities. Exclusion from employment is a major contributor to poverty, but this does not always result from "joblessness". Often there are other "shutters" which disable individuals from entering or re-entering the labour market. Such barriers may include underachievement and low levels of skill attainment or qualifications, particularly competencies in IT. These combine with many other conditions which form impediments that include social, cultural, geographic, political and psychological barriers to employment [12]. For instance, the increasing relocation of workplaces [13] (particularly out of inner city areas) and the resulting migration of workers has meant that individuals and households are less likely to undertake employment unless they have private transport.
Access problems affect other important services as well. The increasing rationalisation of education and health facilities has meant that opportunities for accessing them are also dependent on transport [14]. Peripheral communities also suffer from exclusion from financial services [15]. Financial institutions move out of disadvantaged areas and vendors increasingly require transactions to be made through bank accounts, imposing premiums on purchasers who do not have access to services such as direct debit or electronic ordering. Therefore, increasingly heavy costs are encountered by citizens whose reach has been diminished by decisions taken by large corporate bodies to effectively penalize those who do not have access to IT.
The rapid uptake of internet access has created a situation where around half the population have access to the internet and, similarly, half have access to a car. While further research will be needed to determine the overlap between car owners and internet access, it can be seen that a nation where half the citizens have both physical and virtual access to a vast range of facilities while the other half do not has grave implications for social inclusion and, inevitably the development and sustainability of a more stable and meaningful democracy. European research suggests that economic development supported by ICT is essential for progression towards a globally sustainable work economy [16]. There continues, however, to be pessimism among researchers about the resulting inequalities among marginalized and minority groups. It is suggested that gaps and imbalances among those of poorer communities will increase along with educational disadvantage and the likelihood of a marginalised workforce remains [17].
The advent of virtual networks offers opportunities for communities to become reconstituted if they are able to access further amenities and gain control of available facilities within their own terms. Examples of this approach now follow.
The picture is not all negative. Institutions have developed from the ground up which are attempting to respond to the needs of their community. For example, the St. Vincent de Paul study showed that financial exclusion was being addressed by the remarkable growth of the Credit Union movement. The total membership of Credit Unions in Northern Ireland (total population 1.6 million) has more than doubled between 1988 (134,226) and 1998 (281,614) and the total shareholding has expanded six-fold in the same period. Volunteers have been remarkably successful in running a community credit business in some of the most disadvantaged areas. The Registrar’s report notes that the default rate for Credit Unions is 0.5%. This success has come about not through solutions being imposed from above, with reference to pre-defined plans of action and political or media-friendly criteria, but through solutions developed from those in need of them. Resolutions to complex issues have come about through valuing and recognising existing procedural knowledge devised in informal settings:
“ The solutions are intensely pragmatic…. They replace the products of apparently sophisticated theory with apparently simple, often normative, rules of thumb. The rules have been developed and applied not through rigorous analysis and logic, but often through the intuition and experience of designers on the ground looking at specific problems and trying to solve them”.[18]
Amongst the skills involved in this enterprise are IT skills. Again, rather than being imposed from above, the necessary skills are shared between volunteers. Citizens in communities have networked to ensure that Credit Unions can share their expertise in IT systems for accounting and use of compatible systems. While many Credit Union volunteers do not have formal qualifications, they have acquired significant knowledge and skills in informal settings. These achievements may be unrecognised by formal educational institutions, but the reality is that communities have taken on board the need to use IT productively to provide an essential service despite the lack of any government support or any significant interest from the formal educational sector. It was recommended [19] that:
“ A programme of co-operative business education should be initiated, building on current formal and informal modes of learning and delivered through flexible methodologies, including the use of Information and Communication Technologies, experiential learning and with appropriate opportunities for progression”.
The challenge in enabling provision of IT to disadvantaged communities is, then, to afford adequate recognition and value to the collective knowledge created by citizens who are actively working to ensure that their communities remain viable. This will entail a radical rethinking of many assumptions regarding the need to ‘deliver’ basic IT skills to disadvantaged areas and an acceptance that power will have to be shared with communities, including the power to decide what is and is not valid knowledge. While government bureaucracies have come to accept, in principle, the concept of social capital, the current emphasis of the education system is the individual knowledge acquired through human capital. The concept of social capital can be defined within the view of Bourdieu which is that social capital consists of assets and resources that communities acquire through the fostering of networks of mutual advantage [20]. Contained within this is the recognition that the identification of social capital is dependent on the willingness to accept the definitions of communities rather than attempting to pre-define the limits of social knowledge.
Addressing social exclusion entails that education, poverty and other contributing factors are fully recognized as constituting a major challenge for communities and policy-makers. Education is important because it strongly influences future life chances at an early age. In the U.K., men with no qualifications had an unemployment rate of 30% in 2000 as opposed to 4% in 1979 (Economist, September 8th 2001). Without adequate education it is now becoming more difficult for young people to emerge from impoverished backgrounds to take their place in the workforce and become more socially mobile.
As young people move up the age range they are confronted with a society where further and higher education has become the norm for nearly half of all school leavers. Entry to higher education is at the highest level ever in historical terms (a generation ago the rate was around 6%) but participation varies depending on a range of factors. In research carried out at the University of Ulster, based on a sample of 753 students drawn from the Belfast Education and Library Board Area we found that a typical ‘non-progressor’ was likely to have some of the following characteristics:
The picture of a typical non-progressor suggests a young person in a family where financial circumstances are difficult and where social skills may be lacking and more care needs to be paid to the needs of the young person. However, in the St Vincent de Paul study (360 respondents) it was apparent that parents were highly aware of the importance of education. 82.2% recognised its important role in getting a job. Significantly, no individuals in the 18-30 age group without qualifications were employed.
In interviews, it was notable that most respondents raised the issue of IT when asked what would improve their lives and the lives of their children. They drew attention to the increasing need for computers and access to the internet for their children to obtain information for school work. Recent debates in relation to the amount of course work in GCSEs have focused on the concern that middle class pupils may benefit from having greater access to IT than pupils from disadvantaged areas. Education has become a more complex activity and, nowadays, pupils often require access to the internet for the project work which is a common feature of many subjects. In addition, the pupils cited above could possibly have benefited from access to information on progression if their homes had internet access.
Typical comments were as follows:
“Having a computer isn’t a problem at the minute because they are too young, but when they get older that will be a problem”
“I am doing a course and my brother gave me a computer but I have no printer”
“Computers and breaks” [Things you are missing out on]
“I couldn’t afford a computer”
“We do have a computer but can’t access the internet as it is too expensive”
“ [Child] would love to have a computer and the internet - but it is impossible for me to do that. Sometimes I could cry, I feel that I am not as good a provider as say some of my neighbours ”
“If the kids want to use the internet or computer they would have to go to a friend’s house or the library. We would love to have it but can’t afford it”
The increasing use of computers and the internet for study appears to be pointing towards a situation where students will find it necessary to have access to IT, even at the primary level of education, given the curricular trend for children to research topics. One might argue, as one respondent in the SVP project indicated, that such access it is possible if you are a member of a public library. The problem faced by many parents is that it may be difficult to access the library owing to transport difficulties and this may be compounded greatly in rural areas where distances are likely to be large. Again this emphasises the need to consider issues concerning reach in terms of both physical and virtual access, since community allocation of access points (to the internet or indeed to any other service) will only be effective if the potential users can get to the contact point. Internet and computer access continue to be viewed as essential [21]; however the development of educational opportunities is an essential pre-requisite for supporting accessibility and productivity through community based intervention.
Division in society is a complex concept and. inevitably further work is needed in order to illuminate the persistent problems regarding access to IT and social connectivity. All these complex issues contribute to the existing and continuing marginalisation of communities. It is possible they may be addressed by advanced technologies and the opportunities they bring to societies.
The recommendation from this St. Vincent de Paul research was that the key issue that needs to be addressed when onsidering the provision of learning opportunities among excluded groups, possibly on a collaborative basis, was for internet access. This access could be supplied in housing estates where access is feasible, or through homework clubs in schools or other convenient premises. Equally, in facilitating social learning needs and the development of sustainable communities, voluntary bodies are considering whether it may be necessary to provide computers to disadvantaged homes and to consider them as essential items in the same way as a washing machine or television is now considered to be necessary.
Researchers have pointed to [22] the "distributed cognition" which results from collaborative learning within a shared context. Another way of thinking about this might be the idea of community knowledge; knowledge developed and shared by a community, rather than imposed on it or "delivered" to it. It is therefore also important to examine how existing learning partnerships in disadvantaged areas can be supported or enhanced by the use of IT.
For example, St. Vincent de Paul runs "breakfast clubs" for children in schools in West Belfast. Society volunteers have found that the club offers not only the opportunity for improved nutrition but the chance for school children to interact positively with adults. Relations are formed which may advantage poorer children, bearing in mind the transgenerational isolation felt among such families. In addition, older youths who have left school and have no perceived future prospects either as a result of low levels of achievement or inherited attitudinal affiliations with employment and progress often attend and use the opportunity to discuss their problems with the volunteers. By building on these partnerships that already exist, there are possibilities for introducing IT as a further facility for enabling young people to continue their learning in a non-threatening and supportive setting.
Education must be central to the continued development of such connective partnerships as a means of building both confidence and competence among those most in need.
1. Lyon, D. (1988). The Information Society: Issues and Illusions, Basil Blackwell, Oxford. Hill, M.W. (1999). The Impact of Information on Society, Gower, Aldershot.
2. Howarth, C., Kenway, P. and Palmer, G. (2001). Responsibility for All: A National Strategy for Social Inclusion, London; New Policy Institute and the Fabian Society.
3. Parker, E. B. (2000). "Policy forum - Closing the digital divide in rural America", Telecommunications Policy 24, pp. 281-290.
4. Cullen, R. (2003) "Addressing the Digital Divide", Online Information Review 25/5, pp. 311-320.5. Cullen, ibid.
6. Collins, K., McAleavy, G., Donegan, HA., O’Hagan, C., Adamson, G. and O’Reilly, B. (2003) Combating Poverty - identification and evaluation of the mediating factors, Belfast, St. Vincent de Paul.
7. Gartner Group (2001). The Digital Divide and American Society, Report of the Secretary-General, 16 May, ECOSOC. See also http://www3.gartner.com.
8. Figures from Shropshire, J. and Middleton, S. (1999) Small Expectations: Learning to be Poor?, York, Joseph Rowntree Foundation. See also Gregory, M. (2002) "Employment and Labour Markets.: Some issues for the New Millenium", International Journal of Manpower 21, 3/2, pp. 160-176.
9. Kuk, G. (2002) "The digital divide and the quality of electronic service delivery in local government in the United Kingdom", Government Information Quarterly 20, pp. 353–363: Cullen, op. cit.: Gartner Group, op. cit.
10. Collins et al, op. cit.
11. McWhirter, L. (ed.) (2002): Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland: A Statistical Profile, Belfast, Department of Health and Personal and Social, Services and Public Safety.
12. Roberts, K. (2001). "Unemployment without Social Exclusion: Evidence from Young People in Eastern Europe", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 21, 4/5/6, pp. 118-144. Also see Gregory, op. cit.: International Labour Review (2001) The Digital Divide: Employment And Development Implications.
13. Lloyd, R., Harding, A. and Hellwig, O. (2000) Regional divide? A study of incomes in regional Australia, paper presented at the 29th Conference of Economists, Gold Coast, 3–6 July 2000.
14. Collins et al, op. cit.
15. Collins et al, op. cit.
16. World Employment Report (2001): Life at work in the information economy, Geneva, ILO, 2001.
17. Pritchard, B. and McManus, P. (eds) (2000). Land of discontent: the dynamics of change in rural and regional Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney. Burnley, I.H. and Murphy, P.A. (2003) The great change: migration to non-metropolitan Australia UNSW, Press, Sydney. World Employment Report, op. cit.
18. Major, M. D., Stonor, T., Penn, A. and Hillier, B. (1997) Housing Design and the Virtual Community, 19th International Making Cities Livable Conference - Children and Youth in the City, Proceedings, Charleston, SC
19. McAleavy, G., Collins, K., Adamson, G. and Strain, M. (2001) Co-operatives and Disadvantage in Northern Ireland, Belfast, Office of the First and Deputy First Minister
20. Bourdieu, Pierre (1986). "The Forms of Capital" in John Richardson, (ed), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, New York: Greenwood Press, pp. 241-25.
21. Gartner Group, op. cit.
22. Nulden, U (2001) "eEducation: Research and Practice", Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 17, pp. 363-375.