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 digital 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 are expose to technology since young and poor children might only
be taught how to use a computer in their teenage years. Mr Assumpco observe
that this led to a serious consequence of poor teenagers being taught to
“comply with 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. Because there is an opportunity for information
technology to be a “tool towards a more just and beneficial distribution of the
country’s wealth”, a lack of ICT can have harmful effect on the group of
people. (Albernaz, 2002). In the context of Brazil, the lack of
information communication technologies (ICTs) further socially exclude the
youths from the favelas in 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”
characterized by the amount of usage, familiarity of internet usage and
effectiveness of usage which can be achieved by community-led projects
(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 able to escape the cycle of poverty
in ways apart from joining the illegal drug trade. However, through the
exposure to computer technology, many lives have been 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 gaining
greater 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 by CDI which will be discussed further in the essay 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 studying in elementary and middle school in the
country. Under the project, school children are able to have access to
technology at a subsidized rate. This enables 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 where a study by the Favela,
Opinion, and Marketplace research group found out that approximately 1 out of 4 youths aged between 15-25 years has completed
basic education (Pedrozo, 2013). Moreover, Molinari (2011) argues
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 observes
that this project also passes 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 due to social inequity. However, the
community-led project discussed in the following paragraph will remedy this
limitation.
The 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 the education of the marginalized
population in the favelas to fight poverty using technology. ("Bridging
the digital," 2011). Some examples of the lessons are 6 months basic or
advanced courses of Microsoft, basic writing and reading as well as programming
languages. The centers are successful as they do not conform to the rigid
computer school model where people just learn by sitting in front the
computer.* Instead, most importantly, youths are encouraged to use what they
learnt by teaching relevant and applicable knowledge like graphing of egg
production and planning of budget through excel.(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
organizations that may not identify pressing issues correctly. However, from
the study of “Impact Evaluation of CDI” ,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 the 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 like the example of CDI 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 for the youths in the
favelas. 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 a sense of possibilities, which could never be 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
