Digital Inclusion - Analyses, Policy and Practice

In a sustainable and increasingly digitalized society, everyone should feel included and take part in digital public services.

Research shows that the risk for digital exclusion increases if a person is excluded in other aspects of society, such as employment, education, ethnicity, ability, age and neighborhood.

This project therefore studies digital inclusion in socio-economically weaker suburbs in the municipalities of Linköping and Norrköping.The overall aim of the project is to map and analyze practices and interpretations of digital inclusion through field studies in two suburbs – to elaborate theoretical conceptualizations, definitions and meanings of digital rights, and to open for policy and practice implications.The project is realized through four steps: describing, deconstructing, defining, and designing.

A large part of the work is an already started doctoral project, carried out in close collaboration with the case study municipalities.

This project is continuation from the previous work and begins with focus groups with residents and interviews with key actors in public activities to generate results that are tested in a survey.

The analyzes contribute with knowledge about digital inclusion, and with a basis for de-constructively seeking definitions of digital inclusion linked to discussions about digital rights.

The project is embedded in local policy processes and practices to design implications for more inclusive public digital services and policies.