Digital Participation through Social Living Labs

Valuing Local Knowledge, Enhancing Engagement

Michael Dezuanni, Marcus Foth, Kerry Mallan, Hilary Hughes

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780081020593
• eBook ISBN: 9780081020609
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Business Intelligence
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Digital Participation through Social Living Labs connects two largely separate debates: On the one hand, high speed internet access and associated technologies are often heralded as a means to bring about not only connectivity, but also innovation, economic development, new jobs, and regional prosperity. On the other hand, community development research has established that access by itself is necessary but not sufficient to foster digital participation for the broadest possible range of individuals. Edited by leading scholars from the fields of education, youth studies, urban informatics, librarianship, communication technology, and digital media studies, this book is positioned as a link to connect these debates. It brings together an international collection of empirically grounded case studies by researchers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. They advance knowledge that fosters digital participation by identifying the specific digital needs, issues and practices of different types of communities as they seek to take advantage of access to digital technologies. Collectively, these cases propose new ways for enabling residents to develop their digital confidence and skills both at home and in their local community, particularly through a 'social living labs' approach. The book is organised around key focus areas: digital skills enhancement, youth entrepreneurship, connected learning, community digital storytelling, community-led digital initiatives and policy development. - Highlights that high speed internet is necessary that high speed internet access is necessary but not sufficient to resolve digital divides and foster social inclusion; - Brings together international, empirically grounded case studies to identify digital needs, issues and practices of different communities, and contextualises these with expert comment; - Presents contributions from multiple disciplines, with most chapters incorporating more than one disciplinary background; - Gives insight on the place of the digital in contemporary society; - Illustrates the innovative potential of social living labs to foster digital learning and participation in a variety of community contexts.

Chapter 1

Social Living Labs for Digital Participation and Connected Learning

Michael Dezuanni, Marcus Foth, Kerry Mallan, Hilary Hughes and Roger Osborne, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Abstract

Digital and new media technologies are profoundly reshaping how people communicate, seek entertainment and education, conduct commercial activity and access community-based services. Digital technologies are almost ubiquitous in postindustrial societies, and considerable research illustrates that those at risk of social and economic marginalization are especially vulnerable to digital nonparticipation or underparticipation, which potentially compounds disadvantage and lack of opportunity. People rely on digital media and technology as part of their everyday lives in order to: stay informed; remain connected to family, friends and community; purchase goods and services; gain an education; participate as digital citizens; seek employment or remain employed in contemporary work settings; access government services (see Chapter 2: Cultivating (Digital) Capacities: A Role for Social Living Labs?, Chapter 4: Going Digital: Integrating Digital Technologies in Local Community Initiatives and Chapter 10: Pittsworth Stories: Developing a Social Living Lab for Digital Participation in a Rural Australian Community).

Keywords

Social living lab; digital technologies; digital nonparticipation; digital underparticipation; digital participation; new media

Digital and new media technologies are profoundly reshaping how people communicate, seek entertainment and education, conduct commercial activity and access community-based services (Erdiaw-Kwasie & Alam, 2016). Digital technologies are almost ubiquitous in postindustrial societies (EY Sweeney, 2016), and considerable research illustrates that those at risk of social and economic marginalization are especially vulnerable to digital nonparticipation or underparticipation, which potentially compounds disadvantage and lack of opportunity (Alam & Imran, 2015; Clayton & Macdonald, 2013; Notley & Foth, 2008; Townsend, Sathiaseelan, Fairhurst, & Wallace, 2013). People rely on digital media and technology as part of their everyday lives in order to: stay informed; remain connected to family, friends and community; purchase goods and services; gain an education; participate as digital citizens; seek employment or remain employed in contemporary work settings; access government services (see Chapter 2: Cultivating (Digital) Capacities: A Role for Social Living Labs?, Chapter 4: Going Digital: Integrating Digital Technologies in Local Community Initiatives and Chapter 10: Pittsworth Stories: Developing a Social Living Lab for Digital Participation in a Rural Australian Community).

Digital literacies are no longer optional. Rather, they are rapidly becoming as essential as the traditional literacies associated with print, audio and visual texts. Importantly, digital literacies are necessary for social and economic inclusion. There is also increasing recognition that being ‘tech-savvy’, or ‘digitally-connected’ in specific aspects of life, does not necessarily translate or convert to ways that lead to expanded social or economic mobility. The young person who frequently uses social media is not necessarily able to apply social media skills to an entrepreneurial activity. The business operator who relies on computers every day does not necessarily know how to use technology to innovate and operate their business in more sustainable ways. The grandparent who proficiently uses a tablet computer to stay connected with distant family does not necessarily know how to use the device to access government information. Despite the somewhat obvious nature of these statements, we contend that public policy promoting digital literacy often elides the complexity of promoting successful digital participation. Furthermore, Gurstein (2003) argues participation needs to be understood in terms of ‘effective use’, i.e., ‘how and by whom and under what circumstances, and for what purposes ICTs can and should be used to benefit individuals, communities, and societies as whole’ (Introduction, para. 6).

Our goal in bringing this volume together has been to stimulate a forum to promote dialogue about community-based work involving participants from urban, rural and remote contexts who were at different stages of digital participation, who had little to no digital participation and who had varying levels of digital literacy. In the context of uneven provision and take-up of fast Internet, digital nonparticipation and underparticipation are at greater levels of risk in regional, rural and remote communities than in urban areas (Alam & Shahiduzzaman, 2013; Dobson, Jackson, Gengatharen, 2013; Rennie, Ewing, & Thomas, 2015; Thomas et al., 2016). This issue is fast becoming the focus of regional and national policy in Australia, as well as overseas, and several of the chapters (see Chapters 15–18) discuss the policy implications in Australian, Irish and Canadian contexts. The remaining chapters give accounts of timely urban digital inclusion/participation stories.

A range of approaches, initiatives and interventions to foster digital participation through the development of digital literacies has been employed in the past with varying degrees of success (Alam & Imran, 2015; Carew et al., 2015), with one of the key challenges being sustained digital participation. As Armenta, Serrano, Cabrera, and Conte (2012) have shown, community-based digital inclusion interventions often fail, because ‘the majority of projects only [take] into account telecommunications infrastructure and hardware, leaving social and human factors unattended’ (p. 347). With its foregrounding of social living labs, this book engages with the ‘social and human factors’ of digital participation.

The impetus for this volume comes from an Australian research project entitled ‘Fostering Digital Participation Through Living Labs in Regional and Rural Australia’, conducted from 2014 to 2016 (Australian Research Council Funded Linkage Grant LP130100469), in partnership with the State Library of Queensland, Townsville CityLibraries, The Toowoomba Regional Library Service and Toowoomba’s Empire Theatre. The project-specific chapters (6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 18) are complemented by accounts of related research conducted by other contributors from across Australia and internationally. Several of the chapters discuss how participatory methodologies, especially those originally developed within the European ‘living labs’ movement, have been redeployed to promote systems of socially connected learning for digital participation, which leverage people’s capacity to use digital technologies to enhance their lives. Not all the chapters explicitly use the term ‘living lab’ or ‘social living lab’, but they nevertheless provide examples of researchers working directly with participants to enhance digital participation by harnessing community resources and people’s capacities, interests and desire to participate through digital technologies.

As detailed below, a living lab approach promotes collaboration between researchers, industry and participants and seeks to identify user-centred solutions to digital opportunities and challenges. A social living labs approach shifts the focus away from industry towards sociospatial and material questions that relate to people’s successful digital participation within their communities. The book provides examples of how local organizations such as libraries, schools, community centres and arts organizations are well placed to foster socially oriented living labs to provide opportunities for interest-driven and connected learning for digital participation and enhancing digital inclusion.

Digital Inclusion and Social Mobility

Since the early 2000s, digital inclusion has been linked to social inclusion and civic participation, particularly in relation to the rapid development of Internet technologies and services, and governments’ expectations of participation by citizens (Alam & Imran, 2015). Much government policy has concentrated on increasing access to technology, although the need for strategic responses to increase digital participation and inclusion remains.

Over the past decade or more, there has been growing international consensus that the focus of digital inclusion initiatives must move beyond mere access to digital technologies to address the development of social capacity (Dutta-Bergman, 2005; Rice, 2002). Cautioning against technological innovation without social innovation in formal education contexts, Warschauer (2003) states: ‘research has shown that beyond just having the hardware, what is important is the “social envelope” it comes in’ (para 4). In their study of the town of Sunderland in the United Kingdom, Clayton and Macdonald (2013) corroborate Warschauer’s assertion, arguing that: ‘While technology may often be interesting, exciting and useful, it is not a “magic bullet”’ (p. 962). These are not isolated cases. Investigating the influence of mobile technologies on social exclusion in two urban areas in the United Kingdom, Mervyn, Simon, and Allen (2014) found:

A range of pre-existing information needs and barriers were revealed, but in some cases the technology itself presented a barrier. Issues with literacy, technology skills and in some cases the socioemotional condition of some of the socially excluded combined with the complexity of their information needs fundamentally undermines the direct access model for this section of the community (p. 1086).

The above studies direct attention to local communities and the complex mixture of their inhabitants (see also Chapters 9–12, 15). Ultimately, this complex mix of people with diverse levels of skill, education and socioeconomic status and cultural backgrounds makes it difficult to offer simple solutions to digital inclusion through access alone (Fernback, 2005; Hick, 2006). Drawing attention to the so-called ‘social envelope’ to foster digital participation, the Tinder Foundation’s (2011) study of 12,000 ‘excluded’ people in the United Kingdom demonstrated that digital literacy initiatives have impact, but it is difficult to predict longer term influence on social cohesion, civic participation, and life chances over time (p. 5). Assumptions about the advantages that access and participation provide require more attention; particularly, there is a need to ensure that highly complex social scenarios are included in assessments of digital and social inclusion within specific communities.

Examining the impact of digital technologies on various groups of people in the city of Sunderland (UK), Clayton and Macdonald (2013, p. 962) direct attention to the key role that class and occupational status play in levels of digital engagement and the subsequent benefits accrued from technology, stressing that unemployment remains a significant barrier to digital participation. Such barriers also have an impact on digital sustainability in the lives of the unemployed and those living in poverty (Hick, 2006). Gonzales (2016) argues that for low-income citizens in the United States, the focus of addressing the ‘digital divide’ should shift from issues of ownership in relation to digital technology and towards issues of sustainability: ‘low-income users must work to maintain access, often experiencing cycles of dependable instability’ (p. 234). The dual problem of stability and sustainability has particular implications in remote regions of Australia. As Rennie et al. (2016, p. 24) have found in their study of remote Indigenous communities, ‘Internet adoption is not a fixed event or a linear trajectory from non-use to advanced use’ (see also Chapter 17: Effective Digital Participation: Differences in Rural and Urban Areas and Ways Forward). Rather, adoption is increasingly affected by individual choice within a ‘particular sociality of place’ (p. 26).

The experience of digital participation faces further challenges in regional and rural areas because of the volatility of public services hinted above. Additionally, there are the complexities of the ‘social envelope’ that need to be taken into account in order to foster constructive digital participation and to promote digital and social inclusion that should follow. After examining the needs of several rural areas in the United States, Armenta et al. (2012) conclude:

it is necessary to implement a strategy focused not only on technology to achieve full use of broadband infrastructure. It is necessary to develop comprehensive and more in-depth research studies to better understand all the fact...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1. Social Living Labs for Digital Participation and Connected Learning
• Chapter 2. Cultivating (Digital) Capacities: A Role for Social Living Labs?
• Chapter 3. Digital Participation Through Artistic Interventions
• Chapter 4. Going Digital: Integrating Digital Technologies in Local Community Initiatives
• Chapter 5. The School as a Living Lab – The Case of Kaospilot
• Chapter 6. Mixhaus: Dissolving Boundaries With a Community Makerspace
• Chapter 7. Empowerment Through Making: Lessons for Sustaining and Scaling Community Practices
• Chapter 8. Mapping a Connected Learning Ecology to Foster Digital Participation in Regional Communities
• Chapter 9. Connecting Digital Participation and Informal Language Education: Home Tutors and Migrants in an Australian Regional Community
• Chapter 10. Pittsworth Stories: Developing a Social Living Lab for Digital Participation in a Rural Australian Community
• Chapter 11. Urban Communities as Locations for Health, Media Literacy and Civic Voice
• Chapter 12. Including the Rural Excluded: Digital Technology and Diverse Community Participation
• Chapter 13. Digital Storytelling for Community Participation: The Storyelling Social Living Lab
• Chapter 14. From the Inside: An Interview With the ‘Storyelling.’ Group
• Chapter 15. Vancouver Youthspaces: A Political Economy of Digital Learning Communities
• Chapter 16. Policy Experiments and the Digital Divide: Understanding the Context of Internet Adoption in Remote Aboriginal Communities
• Chapter 17. Effective Digital Participation: Differences in Rural and Urban Areas and Ways Forward
• Chapter 18. Gateways to Digital Participation: The Rhetorical Function of Local Government Websites
• Index