The
BBC News article, “Bridging Brazil’s digital divide” (2008) reports a shocking
statistic that approximately 3 out of 5 Brazilians have never used the Internet
or a computer even though Brazil is the 5th largest market in the world for
computers. In the article, Mr Assumpco, the head of country’s committee to
close the divide, contends that the digital divide is a social divide due to
the exceptional “class divide” in Brazil. There is a prominent contrast where
rich children were exposed to technology since young and poor children might
only be taught how to use a computer in their teenage years. Mr Assumpco
observed that this led to a serious consequence of poor teenagers being taught
to conform to technology. He argues that
this perspective will result in those having command over technology to be
leaders as compared to the poor being commanded by technology. Therefore, in
effect, perpetuating the inequality in Brazil.
It is pertinent to study the digital divide in Brazil as the digital
divide and social inequality are mutually constitutive whereby such social
inequality causes a digital divide and digital divide reproduces
inequality. Although a lack of
Information technology can have harmful effects, there is an opportunity for
information technology to be a “tool towards a more just and beneficial
distribution of the country’s wealth” (Albernaz, 2002).
The
lack of information communication technologies (ICTs) further socially exclude
the youths from the favelas in Brazil but current Brazilian government measures
to resolve the digital divide are ineffective as even though the government
enable the access to technology, it does not resolve the “second digital
divide” characterize by the amount of usage, familiarity of internet usage and
effectiveness of usage which can be achieved by community-led projects
(Pedrozo, 2013).
Favelas are substandard
housing normally located at the margins of cities in Brazil and a sign of urban
poverty where people are unable to afford formal housing. Today, there are more
than 600 favelas in Brazil, an evidence of the huge socio-economic divide in
the country. A
study by the Favela, Opinion, and Marketplace research group found out
that approximately 1 out of 4 youths aged between
15-25 years completed basic education and 1 in 100 completed university.* Such
circumstances result in the difficulty in employment that encourages youths to
be involved in the rampant drug trafficking business in the favelas (Sorj,
2003). This is an important factor to change, as according to the 2007
Latinobarometro report, education is one of the key factor in determining
internet usage and “internet access seems to have a strong correlation to
social status” (Pedrozo, 2013).
In today’s information
society, Brazilian youths from the favelas are not only digitally excluded but
also further socially excluded. This is evident from the video “Center for
Digital Inclusion (CDI)” narrating stories of slum dwellers in Rio de Janeiro
where the people are not being able to escape the cycle of poverty in other
ways apart from joining the illegal drug trade. However, through the exposure
to computer technology, many lives were transformed, as slum dwellers were able
to see new pathways in lives apart from drug dealing. It is evident that the
lack of access to technology denies youths from seeing opportunities in life,
as they are not exposed to the information and the world through the Internet.
As a result, they do not have a vision out of the slums. Testimonies from the
youths that benefitted from the digital inclusion project shows positive
correlation between access to information technology and opportunities to break
out of the influence of drugs and poverty (Schwarz, 2009).
One of
the current measures by the Brazilian government to close the digital divide is
by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project implemented in schools, which
provides a basic mobile computer for children in the country. Under the
project, school children are able to have access to technology at a subsidized
rate. This enable students to be active learners as they can rely less on the
teacher’s help in their learning as information can be searched through the
internet.
However,
many youths from the slums do not benefit from this project as large proportion
of youths have not completed basic education.. Moreover, Molinari (2011) argue
that this is an unsustainable method due to the high cost to provide each child
with a computer and the high carbon footprint of this project. He also observe
that this project also pass costs to the poor families as the laptop would need
to be maintained and regularly updated to prevent the technology from becoming
obsolete ("Bridging the digital," 2011). Furthermore, such state-led
projects are unable to resolve the localized problems like the lack of
attention to the lack of sanitation resulting from the lack of ICTs. However,
the community led project discussed in the following paragraph will remedy this
limitation.
Center
for Digital Inclusion also known as the Committee to Democratize Information
Technology (CDI) is the oldest and most well- known computer school in Brazil.
The CDI unlike the OLPC project is a community-led project. The schools are
called “Citizenship schools” (Albernaz, 2002) and their mission is to change
lives and build resilient low-income communities by empowering people with
ICTs. This empowerment comes through education of the marginalized population
in the favelas to fight poverty using technology. ("Bridging the
digital," 2011). The centers are successful as they do not conform to the
rigid computer school model where people do not just learn by sitting in front
the computer. Instead, most importantly, youths are encourage to use what they
learnt (Albernaz, 2002). As observed by Hunt (2012), the CDI community centers’
lessons not only impart digital knowledge but also teach “civic education,
community building, empowerment and entrepreneurial skills”. They provide a
platform for the practical usage of technology through a “social advocacy
project” where students can change a negative aspect of their community by
creation of “awareness campaigns” or work together to resolve the various
problems like “sexual abuse, pollution, violence, crime, and drugs, to the lack
of healthcare or schools.” Therefore, CDI provides a good avenue for people at
the margins to be heard and through technology use “create social action,
social change and social inclusion” (Hunt, 2012).
The
success of the CDI is also due to local ownership as locals run the schools.
The local actors in the living and working in the slums are in the best
position to bring about important necessary social changes unlike the
government and non-governmental organization that may not identify pressing
issues correctly. However, there are criticisms like the poorest people in Rio
de Janeiro’s slums do not have the time to attend the course as survival is
more important and many do not find jobs that are technology related.
Furthermore, many computers in the CDI do not have Internet connection and very
often the computers are outdated
(Albernaz, 2002). Even though the CDI have the potential to bring out
social change, there is a need for greater government support in building
Internet infrastructure. This is to ensure that the marginalized communities
are able to use ICTs effectively which solves the “second digital divide”
effectively.
There
is a need for close partnership between the state and non-governmental
organization as power is not just top-down but bottom-up. Such proactive
communities with the support of Brazilian government subsidies will lead to
successful digital inclusion. Even though there are limitations to the solution
of CDI community centers, at least it provides opportunities for youths to
build self-esteem and have sense of possibilities, which could have never been
available when they are immerse in the drug trafficking environment (Albernaz,
2002).
References
Albernaz, A. (2002). The internet in Brazil: From
digital divide to democracy?. New York University, 1-34. Retrieved from http://www.aaplac.org/library/AlbernazAmi03.pdf
Bridging Brazil's digital divide. (2008, Oct 2). BBC
News (World) . Retrieved from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7647114.stm
Bridging the digital divide [Web]. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaxCRnZ_CLg
Schwarz, M. (Producer) (2009).
Center for digital inclusion [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nfKTTi6KqA
Hunt, M. (2012, Sept 28). The center for digital
inclusion: Transforming lives and uplifting communities by bridging the digital
divide. Huffpost. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-hunt/the-center-for-digital-in_b_1922015.html
Pedrozo, S. (2013). New media use in Brazil:
Digital inclusion or digital divide?. Online Journal of Communication and
Media Technologies, 3(1), 144-162.
Sorj, B. (2003). Brazil@digitaldivide.com
confronting inequality in the information society. United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved from http://www.centroedelstein.org.br/pdf/brazildigitaldividecom.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment