Myrczik - Tracing digital inequalities
Myrczik, E. et al. (2023) Tracing digital inequalities. Blog entry
In the INVENT project different types of data were collected via methods such as interviews, focus groups, case studies, and data scraping. Inspired by insights from previous data collections, the Danish team followed the traces of digital inequalities, which crystalized through the various user-centred studies.
Though Denmark can be considered a highly digitalized country, there is a growing concern in both society and in the literature about leaving some citizens behind, creating new forms of inequality in a digital society. Those perspectives were uncovered through INVENT’s bottom-up approach to conducting research, which has led the researchers to follow up on the many concerns voiced by research participants.
Drawing on the analysis of cultural e-petitions in Phase II of our data scraping, researchers found several petitions raising awareness for the digital exclusion of certain groups of society due to an increased digitalization of public services. Researchers followed this path further in Phase III of the data scraping, exploring online posts on Twitter and Facebook about the implementation of the new Danish digital citizen identity, MitID, which was accompanied by public criticism. This perception of being left out of society due to lack of access, lack of digital skills, was also one of the findings from the project interviews. So, to follow up on this emerging trend in Denmark, the researchers chose to dedicate one focus group to the topic of digital inequality.
They invited professionals and volunteers from different organisations, who work with promoting digital skills and digital inclusion to discuss current challenges and solutions for active digital participation.
Eva Myrczik et al. “Tracing digital inequalities”