ICT Development and Social Policy
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humanITy Briefing Paper 2
Date: 05/03/2003
Article
1. Introduction
One of the key aims of Government Policy in the area of social exclusion has been to provide communities with computer hardware and software, ICT training and on-line access. In our first Briefing Paper (Briefing Paper 1 - 8.i.03. www.humanity.org.uk/research/government_publications.shtml) we looked at some problems with the Basic Skills Strategy. In this Paper we will look at the methodology for using ICT to break down social exclusion.
2. Current Practice
In spite of the potential of ICT to create widely dispersed 'communities of interest', the general approach to the introduction of ICT as a component of community development has been to see it in the strictly, physical, geographical terms that might be applied to traditional classroom teaching or to sports training (at least in this case teams might compete with opponents from different places and backgrounds). This has meant that communities which suffer from deep deprivation are expected, with minimal external assistance, to lever themselves out of their disadvantage.
3. The Human Factor
Although a mass of hardware and software is being poured into deprived areas, the training and mentoring resources to go with it have been slender. The capital bias and the project-based approach to development have both hobbled progress (see para. 6 below) but there has also been a serious under estimation of the human resources in training, mentoring and support which is required to have an impact on near intractable problems of exclusion. In a recent report on a humanITy project, HUBS 2 (Help Us Be Successful) in Newcastle, we pointed out that training required constant support at a level no greater than one worker per five trainees. (www.humanity.org.uk/articles/pr_hubsrep_2.shtml). We also learned that training times had to be adjusted to the benefits cycle of many potential trainees and that familiar, trusted and non threatening environments are required.
4. The Social Divide
The more rapid an economic or social development, the wider the gap between those at the 'top' and the 'bottom'. So, in periods of rapid economic growth comparative disadvantage for the worst off widens even though they may well be better off in absolute terms; this accounts for the widely misunderstood progress in the economic position of the least well off. The same applied to industrial developments such as the invention of the motor car and infrastructure developments such as electrification. It now applies to an even greater extent to the development of ICT which is more rapid than any previous phenomenon of such importance. Since the beginning of the 19th Century there has been in the UK a tradition of public sector and civil society intervention to overcome the worst excesses of such disadvantage and in the virtual world the opportunity for intervention is greater than it has ever been before.
5. People to People
Instead of providing assistance to poor communities as if they were leper colonies, we should consider virtual:
- Contiguous twinning
- Dispersed twinning
- Dispersed communities of interest
Above all, poor communities should not be allowed to become ever more distant in temperament and prospects from their geographical neighbours. Community does not mean establishing ghettos for the poor with their own identified 'leaders', it means building relationships between different parts of the wider community for mutual benefit and stability. In this context the new generation of ICT offers an important tool to maintain that development between episodes of human contact; but it is not a substitute for it.
5.1 Contiguous Twinning
Many very poor communities are divided from more prosperous or even rich communities by a very small geographical divide; they often share the same railway station, soccer teams and supermarkets (although many other potential points of common ground such as schools have defied democratic egalitarianism). Such contiguous communities are in a position to learn from each other and teach each other both in the physical and virtual environments. This idea should be an active component of community development.
5.2 Dispersed Twinning
Some areas may not lend themselves to contiguous twinning and they may need to rely upon dispersed twinning of the sort that we are accustomed to between communities in different countries.
5.3 Dispersed Communities of Interest
Many of us are trapped where we live because of our economic status, and all of us run the risk of living near people we do not like or with whom we do not share any interests. This is why virtual communities offer such huge advantages, to broaden prospects, imagination and flexibility. The poor in particular often feel trapped and, again, while virtual contact is no substitute for human contact, it can be a source of help when human contact is not possible.
6. Project Profiles
Because of the current nature of public sector funding, many project workers who were expected to provide vision and leadership have been trapped on the treadmill of proposal writing and bidding, often so concerned with the next tranche that the current project phase is almost completely ignored. Projects have not tended to consist of different communities working together and certainly not in combinations of the advantaged and disadvantaged. One great asset which people are often prepared to donate is time, either in human contact or virtual form. Local government in particular, because it has detailed community knowledge, should steer partnerships between its geographically divided and different sectors; and points of contact, like soccer teams, churches and major retailers should sponsor initiatives that bring people together, really and virtually.
7. References
- Hellawell, S. (2002) People First: Meeting the ICT Needs of Socially Excluded Customers. Digital Divide. Toshiba/Becta.
- Kimble, C. Hildreth, P. and Wright, P. Communities of Practice. University of York. www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~kimble/research/13kimble.pdf
- Liff, S., Steward, F. and Watts, F. (2002) New Public Places for Internet Access: Networks for Practice – Based Learning and Social Inclusion. In Woolgar, S. (ed) Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Rheingold, H. (1998) The Virtual Community www.rheingold.com/vc/book/
- Wilcox, D. Make it happen. www.partnerships.org/cyber/plan.htm