The emergence of a "digital underclass" in Great Britain and Sweden: changing reasons for digital exclusion

Research into reasons for Internet non-use has been mostly based on one-off cohort studies and focused on single-country contexts. This article shows that motivations for being offline changed between 2005 and 2013 among non- and ex-users in two high-diffusion European countries. Analyses of Swedish and British data demonstrate that non-user populations have become more concentrated in vulnerable groups. While traditional digital divide reasons related to a lack of access and skills remain important, motivational reasons increased in importance over time. The ways in which these reasons gain importance for non- and ex-user groups vary, as do explanations for digital exclusion in the different countries. Effective interventions aimed at tackling digital exclusion need to take into consideration national contexts, changing non-user characteristics, and individual experience with the Internet. What worked a decade ago in a particular country might not work currently in a different or even the same country.</jats:p

Digital Maturity of Prisons: A Global Survey

Our prisons are at the beginning of digital transformation, with some prisons more ‘advanced’ digitally speaking than others. This research project does not seek to offer a ranking of prison services’ digital capabilities, but instead we review how services are getting on with digitization, how they are adopting new technologies, what their approaches are to this, and how technology is or is not important to help them reach their objectives. This is a valuable study as it will: ● Help to understand the current efforts of digitization within prison settings. ● Gauge correctional priorities with respect to digitization and help to understand how important technology is as a driver for change. ● Help to understand the complexity of digitization by exploring the cultural, organizational, and technical dimensions of it. ● Help to understand digital sophistication and challenges in implementing digital infrastructure. ● Identify the qualities of digitization in the context of prisons. The aim of this project is to develop a digital maturity model for prisons that can be used to measure the degree of maturity in the digital transformation and outline a pathway by which prison services could move to progress towards increased digital maturity—where organizations review and anticipate a new digital reality. As such, it should help agencies build their own digital strategies and self-assessment tools. We must stress that the design of the digital maturity tool has emerged as a result of careful consideration of human needs and harm reduction. Digital maturity encompasses the thinking process around exploring and adopting digital technologies where appropriate, as well as the decision making around defining the demarcation of its use and where it is not appropriate to transform analogue, human processes into digital ones. That is, we do not define digital maturity as going digital at all cost, but as a goal-driven and human-centered process that utilizes digital tools to improve conditions for correctional residents and staff alike

Internet non-­use: a comparative study of Great Britain and Sweden

Digital inequalities continue to concern researchers across highly technologised countries. In recent years, however, most research on digital inequalities has focused on distinguishing different patterns of Internet use rather than examining Internet non-users. The few quantitative studies of non-use and reasons for non-use often stay on a descriptive level, while qualitative studies mostly investigate subpopulations, such as those living in specific neighbourhoods. Although there are a number of studies of digital inequalities among young people and the elderly, a systematic literature search finds no research focusing on middle-aged individuals, who might face specific problems with being offline, as they are of working age and more likely than other age groups to have children living in the household. On the basis of a mixed-methods research design that compares non-users in Great Britain and Sweden, the overarching research question for this study sheds light on the mechanisms contributing to Internet non-use, as it examines the socio-economic backgrounds, attitudes, perceptions, and everyday life experiences of non-users with a focus on 25 to 55 year-olds. It applies advanced statistical analyses of secondary nationally representative survey data as well as in-depth analysis of qualitative interviews with 10 middle-aged non-users from each country. The analysis of these combined data shows that while socio-economic variables still play an important role in influencing who is on- and offline, general attitudes towards technologies are even more influential. The study finds that there is a lack of life-fit (Selwyn 2006) of ICTs for a number of non-users and a potentially negative impact of warm experts (Bakardjeva 2005) who have previously been regarded as a positive influence. Moreover, vulnerable groups (e.g. immigrants) are facing more substantial problems, such as issues with literacy and language, which need to be tackled first. The deliberation of similarities and differences between Britain and Sweden against the backdrop of policy interventions and cultural values shows that being offline is not problematic for all Internet non-users; some of them thrive in highly technologised societies. The conclusion offers proposals for both future research and policy interventions for those, currently offline mainly due to socio-economic reasons, who would like to go online in the future.</p

Going online on behalf of someone else

An important contribution of digital inequalities research has been the discussion of nuances in ways that people (dis)engage with information and communication technologies (ICTs). One such practice is proxy Internet use (PIU): indirect Internet access by asking others to do things online for them or on their behalf. Whereas there is a good amount of research on those who are on the receiving end of PIU, users-by-proxy, little is known about "proxy users" who provide PIU. Analyses of nationally representative survey data from Slovenia (N=1047) collected in 2018 show that 51% of Internet users reported to have acted as proxy users in the past 12 months. Multivariate analyses unveil that those Internet users who report a wider array of personal, economic, social Internet uses as well as those with higher levels of operational Internet skills are more likely to act as proxy users

Internet non-use : a comparative study of Great Britain and Sweden

Digital inequalities continue to concern researchers across highly technologised countries. In recent years, however, most research on digital inequalities has focused on distinguishing different patterns of Internet use rather than examining Internet non-users. The few quantitative studies of non-use and reasons for non-use often stay on a descriptive level, while qualitative studies mostly investigate subpopulations, such as those living in specific neighbourhoods. Although there are a number of studies of digital inequalities among young people and the elderly, a systematic literature search finds no research focusing on middle-aged individuals, who might face specific problems with being offline, as they are of working age and more likely than other age groups to have children living in the household. On the basis of a mixed-methods research design that compares non-users in Great Britain and Sweden, the overarching research question for this study sheds light on the mechanisms contributing to Internet non-use, as it examines the socio-economic backgrounds, attitudes, perceptions, and everyday life experiences of non-users with a focus on 25 to 55 year-olds. It applies advanced statistical analyses of secondary nationally representative survey data as well as in-depth analysis of qualitative interviews with 10 middle-aged non-users from each country. The analysis of these combined data shows that while socio-economic variables still play an important role in influencing who is on- and offline, general attitudes towards technologies are even more influential. The study finds that there is a lack of life-fit (Selwyn 2006) of ICTs for a number of non-users and a potentially negative impact of warm experts (Bakardjeva 2005) who have previously been regarded as a positive influence. Moreover, vulnerable groups (e.g. immigrants) are facing more substantial problems, such as issues with literacy and language, which need to be tackled first. The deliberation of similarities and differences between Britain and Sweden against the backdrop of policy interventions and cultural values shows that being offline is not problematic for all Internet non-users; some of them thrive in highly technologised societies. The conclusion offers proposals for both future research and policy interventions for those, currently offline mainly due to socio-economic reasons, who would like to go online in the future.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo