Wednesday, 29 October 2014

Problem Solution Draft 3



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

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