TY - JOUR
AU1 - Wijetunga, Dinuka
AB - Abstract Most discussions on the digital divide have predominantly focused on social disparities in the physical accessibility of information and communication technologies (ICT), and the proposed solutions are related to providing low cost access to the underprivileged. The mobile phone has been considered as a good solution due to its relatively low cost. This paper, based on an empirical study in Sri Lanka, demonstrates that even though the underprivileged population has adopted the mobile phone, most of the computer based communication facilities available in the phones are ‘inaccessible’ to such users due the objectification of broader social inequalities in the design of phones. In other words, the digital divide is objectified in the design. In future “[e]ven the poorest people will have access to cheap yet powerful devices, hopefully, empowering them with access to information and the chance to take part in the increasingly global economy” posits Challoner (2008, p. 212) in a book on the future of consumer electronics. He continues that even though the gap between the rich and the poor may continue to grow, the digital divide – which refers to disparities in accessibility of information and communication technology (ICT) (Hill & Dhanda, 2004) – may “actually shrink” because the electronic devices of the future “will probably be so cheap and so powerful” (pp. 211–212). Challoner's statement reflects the key thrust of many who seek to address the digital divide: affordable access to ICT. It is in this light that the mobile phone assumes a key role in alleviating the divide. Having managed to reach the rural and urban poor of underdeveloped countries at a staggering pace (BBC, 2005; Zainudeen & Ratnadiwakara, 2011), the mobile phone has been proposed as a key means of upgrading lives of the ‘information have-nots’ by academics (Stump, Gong, & Li, 2008; Zainudeen, Iqbal, & Samarajiva, 2010), popular media (BBC, 2005), and policy makers (Kumar & Thomas, 2006). However, there is evidence that the monumental growth in mobile penetration of the poor populace is not paralleled by a growth in the quality of its use. The majority of the poor generally uses only the most basic functions offered by the mobile phone (Zainudeen & Ratnadiwakara, 2011). The literature acknowledges there are differences in usage practices between groups with different sociodemographic characteristics such as urban vs. rural, and rich vs. poor; such differences are often ascribed to and studied in terms of dissimilarities in user requirements arising from sociocultural differences (Castells, Fernández-Ardèvol, Qiu, & Sey, 2007; Donner, 2008). However, it has also been acknowledged that designs of mobile phones currently offered in the market are not always user friendly where the underprivileged and less literate consumers are concerned (Parikh, 2006). This is an area that has received much less attention in the literature, particularly in sociocultural scholarship (Donner, 2008). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to empirically examine how extant social inequities are incorporated in the designs of mobile phones. Specifically, it explores how the phone designs have effectively prevented underprivileged users from utilizing computer based communication features of the mobile phone. It has special relevance to the developing Southern Asia, especially the Indian subcontinent, where Internet usage remains even below the developing world average (based on ITU, 2013a, 2013c), but mobile penetration is quite high (ITU, 2013b). Countries of this region also appear to have similarities in patterns of mobile phone use, especially in relation to low usage of sophisticated features by poorer users (Zainudeen & Ratnadiwakara, 2011). The paper is structured as follows. In the first part of the literature review I will elaborate on the argument presented above with reference to literature on the mobile phone and the digital divide. I will then show that the field of Social Shaping of Technology (SST) offers some useful concepts to study how incorporation of social relations in the design of technological artefacts affects their use. The concept of affordances (Hutchby, 2001b) presented in this literature will then be used to explore the use of mobile phones by two groups of youth in Sri Lanka: one representing the socioeconomic elite of the country (the most privileged class) and the other representing a lower, underprivileged stratum. The empirical study shows that certain design characteristics of the phone prevent underprivileged youth from using many of the features that their privileged counterparts routinely make use of in their daily communication activity. These findings will be discussed with the use of concepts from SST and the theory of cultural capital of Bourdieu (1977, 1983/2004). Digital Divide & the Mobile Phone The digital divide is a serious global concern because the presence and importance of digital, especially Internet-based, communication in everyday life is increasing due to rapid technological advancements. The greater proportion of benefits of these advancements accrues to the privileged members of society who have access to ICT and this leads to exacerbating existing socioeconomic inequalities (Hill & Dhanda, 2004). Hence, there has been considerable research interest in this area. It is optimistically assumed by some (à la Challoner, 2008 above) that ICT affordable to the masses would be an inevitable outcome of technological development, which in turn would solve the digital divide problem. Indeed, as Webster and Robins (1991) note disparagingly, information technology has long been touted as a liberating force that would obliterate differences between the rich and the poor. Even though the inevitability of this outcome is viewed by some with scepticism (Qiu, 2007; Webster & Robins, 1991), the notion of affordable ICT as a force for levelling the playing field is a popular one (see, for example, the views of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Henwood, Wyatt, Miller, & Senker, 2000). Probably due to this view, much of the focus in digital divide studies appear to be on accessibility of ICT, defined in terms of availability and adoption; so much so, that some scholars who advocate a shift in attention from adoption to other ICT related inequalities call for a move away from the “digital divide” to “digital inequalities” (DiMaggio & Hargittai as cited in Warschauer, 2003, p.199). This trend of focusing on availability and adoption is also evident in mobile technology studies. For example, Stump et al. (2008), cite a number of studies that have researched issues such as mobile penetration, and factors affecting adoption at country and individual level. Studies by Zainudeen, et al. (2010), and de Silva, Ratnadiwakara and Zainudeen (2011) are examples in the Asian context. This interest is understandable, given that the mobile phone has indeed shown to have improved the lives of poor communities in less developed countries, such as fishermen in India (Abraham, 2007) and farmers in Africa (Aker & Mbiti, 2010; Martin & Abbott, 2011). Further, mobile telephony is considered as a cheap gateway to a broad range of ICT, particularly in relation to the Internet. For example Zainudeen et al. (2010) claim “improving mobile connectivity … will have important implications not only for the divide in telecom access, but the divide in Internet use” (p. 561). The term digital divide, however, also includes an element of effective use of ICT (Stump et al., 2008), and access to the physical devices and supporting network facilities does not automatically translate into their effective use. Warschauer (2003), for example, calls for “socially embedded technology” (pp. 199–217) where programmes of ICT introduction to the underprivileged are more geared to their social needs and more responsive to issues of technology use in their contexts, if physical access to ICT is to result in meaningful social inclusion. Notably, it is admitted in the literature that low technological literacy of the poor is a factor that aggravates the divide (Fýrat & Vicdan, 2008). Van Dijk (2005) identifies different types of access issues as motivational, material (physical), skill, and usage access issues and claims that these occur sequentially – that when physical access issues are solved, the skill issues need to be solved before effective usage can occur. Some authors claim that using a mobile phone does not require a high degree of technical proficiency compared to other ICT such as personal computers and the Internet (Stump, et al., 2008). However, most of the new mobile phone applications currently being introduced are related to computers and Internet access, and as previously noted, it is precisely because of such applications that the mobile phone becomes an attractive means of bridging the digital divide. It has been noted that although the adoption gap in mobile phones may be closing, there may still be a gap in the quality of its use between those who are literate in the use of a variety of applications and others who may use only the basic features (Castells, et al., 2007). For example, a recent Asian study identifies prior Internet use through computers as the most significant predictor of non-voice-related mobile feature usage (Zainudeen & Ratnadiwakara, 2011). This highlights the importance of moving beyond the physical access/adoption domain into a closer scrutiny of the actual access to benefits of the technology, by treating the mobile phone as a “sociomaterial assemblage” (Orlikowski, 2007, p. 1445); because, use of the phone in different ways is largely contextualised by the sociocultural situation of the user. There is a body of literature in mobile phone studies that demonstrates there are nuances in the relationship between humans and ICT (see, for example, the edited collection by Höflich & Hartmann, 2006). Some of them do look at usage patterns of the underprivileged (Donner, 2008); however, these studies do not address the issue of digital divide – i.e. the disparities between the privileged and the underprivileged. Further, few studies appear to have paid attention to usage patterns of the poor in relation to design characteristics of the phone, and these are from the computer science and design domains (e.g. Bhamidipaty & Deepak, 2007; Parikh, 2006) rather than in the area of sociocultural studies (Donner, 2008). However, Castells et al. (2007) mention, albeit in passing, that new mobile phone applications are often specifically designed to suit the cultural norms and practices of the upper and middle classes, and propose that this discrimination is an important reason for low use of such applications by poorer users. A useful concept for discussing the dynamics between the users and the design of objects is objectification (Miller, 2005). This refers to the argument that prevailing social relations, including inequalities, are incorporated in, and are reproduced with the help of objects (Miller, 2005) and broad social structures (Bourdieu, 1977). While Miller discusses the prevalence of this phenomenon in relation to objects, Bourdieu discusses in detail a process of how objectification happens in relation to broad social structures such as systems of education. According to him, a person's ability to control one's future is contingent on one's possession of different forms of capital. Among the different capital forms that he discusses, the one that is most relevant to this paper (as will be shown later) is cultural capital. Cultural capital refers to knowledge and competencies (Lee, 1993) manifesting as “long lasting dispositions of the mind and body” (Bourdieu, 1983/2004, p. 17). This, however, does not refer only to competencies gained from formal education but also those that are embodied, without conscious awareness, through socialisation in the way of life of a particular social class (Paterson, 2006). The lifestyle of a particular group is, in turn, contingent on what Bourdieu calls its “habitus” (1977, pp. 76–78), which is an internalised form of class conditions that leads to a “group-distinctive framework of social cognition and interpretation” (Miles, 1998, p. 22) of a given social class. A particular type of cultural capital obtained in this manner can yield social privileges only if the prevailing social systems legitimate its value in some way (Bourdieu, 1977). For example, through accepting a certain educational qualification as necessary for a particular job, a particular type of cultural capital is legitimated. Thus, through the formal recognition of particular competencies through incorporating them in educational qualifications and in the formal recognition of such qualifications in the job market, embodied competencies (i.e. cultural capital) of a group of people are objectified (Bourdieu, 1977). What is noteworthy, according to Bourdieu, is that the systems of objectification conceal the fact that they tend to privilege the cultural capital of those in the higher social strata. He argues, for example, that the designs of school curricula favour students who come to school already endowed with related cultural capital, which in turn results in them performing better in education (cited in Thomson, 2002). Therefore, through these objectification processes the prevailing social classes with their entailing inequalities get reproduced with the help of the curricula. Given the previous discussion on technological literacy and the quality of use of ICT, and Castells et al.'s (2007) observation of phone designs favouring cultural norms and practices of the privileged classes, one could draw parallels between Bourdieu's arguments relating to objectification of cultural capital and objectification of the digital divide in the designs of the mobile phone. The arguments of Bourdieu (1977) and Miller (2005) resonate with the view of some scholars in the area of sociology of technology or social shaping of technology (SST), who claim that dominant technological arrangements tend to privilege some groups of society at the expense of others (Doolin & McLeod, 2005; Law, 1994). Therefore, it may be useful to borrow some concepts from the theories of SST to study how the digital divide may be objectified in the designs of mobile phones. Artefact–User Relations in SST Studies Scholars of SST view the contents of technology, and the process of its development and use as being socially shaped (Bijker & Law, 1992). Some of them have focused on the role played by users in these processes, for example, through creative use (Kline & Pinch, 1996; Oudshoorn & Pinch, 2003) and resistance (Kline, 2003; Laegran, 2003). Among these, some approaches such as the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) have paid specific attention to the role of design aspects of an artefact in user–technology relations, and the role they play in maintaining particular social orders. For example, Latour (1991) claims “technology is society made durable” (p. 103). How prevailing social orders can be deliberately or inadvertently incorporated into the design of a technological artefact is described by Akrich (1992). She notes that in designing a product, the producers envisage the world in which it will be used: “Designers … define actors with specific tastes, competences, motives, aspirations, political prejudices, and the rest” (p. 208). Having defined the actors and the world in which the product will be used, designers inscribe these views into the artefact. These inscriptions carry not only a specific configuration of the intended users of the artefact (Oldenziel, de la Bruheze, & de Wit, 2005) but also prescriptions of how it is to be used (Akrich, 1992). Such prescriptions incorporated into the designs allow people to perform certain activities with the artefacts while preventing other activities (Akrich & Latour, 1992). For example, van Oost (2003) describes how Philips incorporated a stereotypical female image of technological incompetence into shaving equipment for women by sealing the technology inside the equipment and thereby making it inaccessible to users, while a masculine stereotype of technological competence was inscribed in male shavers where the design enabled users to control certain technological functions. Among the various theorisations of how the material properties (i.e. design aspects) of technological artefacts assist or hinder different usage practices, a useful concept is affordances initially put forth by Gibson (cited in Hutchby, 2001b), and proposed for use in technology studies by Hutchby. “[A]ffordances are aspects of a given technology's materiality which only become relevant at the interface between that technology and some person's attempt to put it to use for certain purposes” (Hutchby, 2005, p. 668). Acknowledging that the material properties of artefacts can have a bearing on how it is used, the concept of affordances also highlights that these properties only become relevant in a meaningful way when a particular person attempts to use the artefact in some way. Thus, it is the material properties of the artefact in conjunction with beliefs, knowledge, skills, etc. of the user that determines how the artefact will be put into use. This in turn means that affordances of particular design characteristics of an artefact can vary according to who is trying to make use of it under what circumstances – i.e. affordances are historically and socioculturally situated phenomena (Bloomfield, Latham, & Vurdubakis, 2010). The concept of affordances has been used to study various aspects of the human–ICT relations (e.g. Flyverbom, 2005; Graves, 2007; Hammond, 2009), and mobile phone communication (Hutchby, 2001a; Hutchby & Barnett, 2005). In this paper I will use the concept to explore objectification of the digital divide in the design of mobile phones. This will be done by comparing the differences in affordances or “actionable properties” (Flyverbom, 2005, p. 228) offered by the mobile phone to two groups of users representing the socioeconomic elite and the underprivileged in society, thereby exploring how some functions of the phone are inaccessible to underprivileged users even though they possess the artefact with necessary technical properties. Methods This paper is the outcome of a part of a broader study on advertising and consumption of the mobile phone in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a developing country in South Asia, the population of which includes a small group of rich elite as well as a significantly large group of the poor. However, Sri Lanka also has a thriving mobile phone market with a penetration of over 98% of the population (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, 2013). Data was collected from a purposively selected sample comprising two categories of youth aged 19–25 years. One group represented the socioeconomic elite of the society called the “new urban middle class” (Liyanage, 2009, p. 35) that has a high income, and is directly exposed to global trends. All these participants were from the capital city Colombo and their parents were in elite occupations (e.g. doctors and senior managers). They had all received their secondary education either overseas, or from international schools or top local schools in Colombo and all had obtained or were in the process of obtaining a professional qualification or a bachelor's degree. At the time of the study some were engaged in higher studies or were employed in junior executive positions. For the purpose of this study I called this group ‘privileged youth.’ The second group represented a lower socio-economic stratum employed in semi- or unskilled manual work and coming from rural regions of the country, but employed in semiurban or urban areas. They had received their secondary education either from village schools or from schools in a town close their village. Participants in this group had received no higher education, apart from three who had obtained training from technical schools in relation to their current jobs. Parents of these participants were engaged in low level occupations (e.g. labourers, small scale farmers). This group I called ‘underprivileged youth’. I conducted six focus group discussions comprising three each of the two categories of participants. Each consisted of 4–8 participants (Barbour, 2007; Krueger & Casey, 2000) of similar socioeconomic backgrounds and who knew each other prior to the study. In total 16 privileged youth (9 male, 7 female) and 16 underprivileged youth (7 male, 9 female) participated in discussions. The discussions regarding how they use the phone in their daily life were about one and a half hours in length and were moderated by me. All discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The discussions with underprivileged youth were conducted, transcribed, and analysed in Sinhala (their mother tongue and mine). The excerpts presented here were translated at the time of writing. It should be noted that when speaking in colloquial Sinhala people often use sentences without a subject. I have inserted appropriate pronouns in the translation to make them meaningful; for example, I used the pronoun ‘we’ when a participant was referring to practices of not only himself or herself, but also common to the group of friends he or she associates with. The transcripts were analysed using a thematic analytical approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006) utilizing the NVivo software. They were initially coded with a set of open codes referring simply to the different activities users perform with the phone (e.g. listen to music, chat with friends). There was also a code for what was specifically mentioned as things ‘not done’ with the phone. Then the codes were grouped into broader themes of various social functions (e.g. fun and entertainment, personal relationships, work, information access). Finally I undertook a task of refining the themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006) in relation to affordances of the phone. For this purpose, I compared the activities of the two youth groups to identify differences and reasons for those differences. In this activity equal attention was paid to what was not said – i.e. things that were conspicuous by their absence – as to what was said. At this stage a few handsets and their manuals were also examined. The focus groups were conducted in May-July, 2009 and the examination of handsets and manuals in July 2010. At the time of writing this paper in 2013 new information was obtained about handsets to verify that no design changes have significantly affected the claims of this paper. Findings Similar to youth in most parts of the world, the mobile phone is an “extension of life and personality” (Rao, 2005, p. 23) of all youth in the study. Indeed, engaging with the phone in multiple different ways and trying out different new features is a part of their identity as a youth. As one underprivileged youth expressed: “Since we are youths,… we use everything that is there.” As such, they replace handsets regularly in order to access and try out new features introduced. This is common to both privileged and underprivileged youth. The findings discussed in detail below will demonstrate that even though there are financial constraints, the underprivileged youth actively pursue handsets with better features, and therefore, they do have physical access to phones with relatively sophisticated communication capabilities. However, as the findings will also demonstrate, privileged youth are adept at making use of new forms of communication features offered by the mobile phone; whereas the usage patterns of underprivileged youth are significantly restricted because the design of phones demands prior knowledge regarding the use of these communication platforms that have migrated to the phone from the computer. In other words, affordances offered by the mobile phones to the privileged youth are not accessible to the underprivileged youth due to incompetencies resulting from their sociocultural background. Physical Access As shown in the following excerpts, although physical access to handsets with new features can be a barrier for the underprivileged youth due to financial constraints, due to their enthusiasm about mobile phones they attempt to upgrade their phones often, and because of cheap availability of relatively sophisticated phones, they do have physical access to a considerable extent: I asked whether they change the phone from time to time: Pubudu (M)1 It happens to a great extent. When this one becomes out dated we2 go with the trend a bit. Can't deny that. Depends on money issues. Otherwise we like to buy. Pubudu (M)1 It happens to a great extent. When this one becomes out dated we2 go with the trend a bit. Can't deny that. Depends on money issues. Otherwise we like to buy. Open in new tab Pubudu (M)1 It happens to a great extent. When this one becomes out dated we2 go with the trend a bit. Can't deny that. Depends on money issues. Otherwise we like to buy. Pubudu (M)1 It happens to a great extent. When this one becomes out dated we2 go with the trend a bit. Can't deny that. Depends on money issues. Otherwise we like to buy. Open in new tab The youth further explained the reasons for changing their handsets regularly (about once a year on average): Imal (M) It happens because different phones are different. Like we, first bought a basic one, can only talk, no pictures nothing. Now, after a while you get tired of using the same phone. You feel like going to a better one. Pubudu (M) When you learn how to do all the things that can be done with it you feel it's no use anymore, when a better one comes. Imal (M) When you use it for a while you get used to it, really well. Then it's like you feel it's nothing special. That happens. Pubudu (M) Yes Imal (M) After that you move to one with more features. … Moderator So, you like to change phones to get one with some more features? Rohana (M) To a phone that is more advanced Imal (M) It happens because different phones are different. Like we, first bought a basic one, can only talk, no pictures nothing. Now, after a while you get tired of using the same phone. You feel like going to a better one. Pubudu (M) When you learn how to do all the things that can be done with it you feel it's no use anymore, when a better one comes. Imal (M) When you use it for a while you get used to it, really well. Then it's like you feel it's nothing special. That happens. Pubudu (M) Yes Imal (M) After that you move to one with more features. … Moderator So, you like to change phones to get one with some more features? Rohana (M) To a phone that is more advanced Open in new tab Imal (M) It happens because different phones are different. Like we, first bought a basic one, can only talk, no pictures nothing. Now, after a while you get tired of using the same phone. You feel like going to a better one. Pubudu (M) When you learn how to do all the things that can be done with it you feel it's no use anymore, when a better one comes. Imal (M) When you use it for a while you get used to it, really well. Then it's like you feel it's nothing special. That happens. Pubudu (M) Yes Imal (M) After that you move to one with more features. … Moderator So, you like to change phones to get one with some more features? Rohana (M) To a phone that is more advanced Imal (M) It happens because different phones are different. Like we, first bought a basic one, can only talk, no pictures nothing. Now, after a while you get tired of using the same phone. You feel like going to a better one. Pubudu (M) When you learn how to do all the things that can be done with it you feel it's no use anymore, when a better one comes. Imal (M) When you use it for a while you get used to it, really well. Then it's like you feel it's nothing special. That happens. Pubudu (M) Yes Imal (M) After that you move to one with more features. … Moderator So, you like to change phones to get one with some more features? Rohana (M) To a phone that is more advanced Open in new tab The first excerpt shows that financial constraints can be a barrier for the underprivileged youth in accessing better phones. However, the regularity with which these youth replace handsets in search for those with better features demonstrates that they have been able to overcome this barrier to a fair extent. All the participants in this group had phones with latest communication facilities (at the time), including either GPRS (Generalised Packet Radio Service) or 3G capability. This was the case for most of the participants in the underprivileged youth groups. Thus, in accordance with conventional wisdom, cheap availability of increasingly sophisticated handsets has helped in lessening the digital divide in terms of physical access. However, the story is somewhat different when one examines affordances – i.e. actionable properties of the phone. Different Affordances of the Phone Most of the privileged youth use the full range of communication features (and indeed other features) available on the mobile phone. Among the notable computer-based communications are accessing e-mail and Facebook through the phone. They have also combined other capabilities of the mobile phone with these new found methods of social networking. For example, by accessing Facebook through the phone, they transfer photos taken using the mobile phone, “from the phone, straight to Facebook” – according to one youth. In addition, they appear to have comfortably migrated from the computer to the mobile phone for web browsing activities. In contrast, the range of communication options used by the underprivileged youth is much narrower. For the most part they are limited to the use of talk and text. Conspicuous by absence is the use of computer mediated communication. Most underprivileged youth either did not speak about computing and Internet access, or explicitly referred to these activities as things they don't do. An examination of the reasons the two groups gave for not using features that are available on the phone reveal why certain features are ‘not actionable’ when it comes to the underprivileged youth. If the privileged youth do not use any features available on the phone, it is usually by choice: Sureni (F) Facebook, I get the Facebook alerts, but very rarely … and I don't access my email and all through the phone because I don't want to be contactable that way. Sureni (F) Facebook, I get the Facebook alerts, but very rarely … and I don't access my email and all through the phone because I don't want to be contactable that way. Open in new tab Sureni (F) Facebook, I get the Facebook alerts, but very rarely … and I don't access my email and all through the phone because I don't want to be contactable that way. Sureni (F) Facebook, I get the Facebook alerts, but very rarely … and I don't access my email and all through the phone because I don't want to be contactable that way. Open in new tab For underprivileged youth, mostly it is not a matter of choice; for them, as shown below, it is because they lack some competency that is required. English as a barrier Often they are unable to understand instructions on the phone manual or the phone itself because instructions and the facilities themselves are in English, a language in which they have minimum proficiency: Imal (M) … Because everything is in English. We don't have that much of knowledge. So we can't use all the features Imal (M) … Because everything is in English. We don't have that much of knowledge. So we can't use all the features Open in new tab Imal (M) … Because everything is in English. We don't have that much of knowledge. So we can't use all the features Imal (M) … Because everything is in English. We don't have that much of knowledge. So we can't use all the features Open in new tab As previously noted, these youth are keen to access new features available on the phone; however, the language acts as a barrier. In Sri Lanka there are few handsets in the market that support Sinhala and have Sinhala manuals (11 models at the time of writing the paper). Further, many of them carry only the most basic features; for example, 5 of the 11 models do not even have GPRS capability, which is the lowest technological standard required for Internet access (Tilson & Lyytinen, 2006). Therefore, even though handsets with sophisticated features are available at affordable prices, the instructions to use them as well as the services themselves are not available in a language that the youth can understand. Phones that do support the language don't have sophisticated features. Lack of prior exposure A second reason for not using some features is the underprivileged youths' lack of prior exposure to computer related information technologies that have migrated to the mobile phone, and the resulting unfamiliarity with such communication platforms. For the privileged youth, computing and Internet browsing are familiar activities they have previously engaged in with the use of computers. Performing the same activities on the phone is a simple matter of transforming the skills to the new platform with minimum necessity of new knowledge or skills; indeed the smartphone has been called “a small computer with telephone capabilities” rather than a “phone with Internet-like capabilities” (Tee, 2005, p. 158). Therefore they use the phone as a convenient alternative device to a computer when the need arises: Lakmal (M) Now the 3G, the thing is like whenever I take my laptop, In Sri Lanka you don't get wireless LAN everywhere. So the important thing is, when you have the laptop the laptop has Bluetooth. Most of the laptops do and if your phone is 3G, what you can do is, if you're inside the university and you're, this happened a lot. Lab is, the lab is full. Computer lab. So if you have either to download something fast or do an assignment or do something like that what you can do is you can connect the phone, from 3G mode to the Internet, log in through Bluetooth and you can use the Internet on your computer. It is faster than the lab and much easier. Just takes about 10 seconds, less than 10 seconds to do all that. And you have the convenience of doing your thing on your own computer. Lakmal (M) Now the 3G, the thing is like whenever I take my laptop, In Sri Lanka you don't get wireless LAN everywhere. So the important thing is, when you have the laptop the laptop has Bluetooth. Most of the laptops do and if your phone is 3G, what you can do is, if you're inside the university and you're, this happened a lot. Lab is, the lab is full. Computer lab. So if you have either to download something fast or do an assignment or do something like that what you can do is you can connect the phone, from 3G mode to the Internet, log in through Bluetooth and you can use the Internet on your computer. It is faster than the lab and much easier. Just takes about 10 seconds, less than 10 seconds to do all that. And you have the convenience of doing your thing on your own computer. Open in new tab Lakmal (M) Now the 3G, the thing is like whenever I take my laptop, In Sri Lanka you don't get wireless LAN everywhere. So the important thing is, when you have the laptop the laptop has Bluetooth. Most of the laptops do and if your phone is 3G, what you can do is, if you're inside the university and you're, this happened a lot. Lab is, the lab is full. Computer lab. So if you have either to download something fast or do an assignment or do something like that what you can do is you can connect the phone, from 3G mode to the Internet, log in through Bluetooth and you can use the Internet on your computer. It is faster than the lab and much easier. Just takes about 10 seconds, less than 10 seconds to do all that. And you have the convenience of doing your thing on your own computer. Lakmal (M) Now the 3G, the thing is like whenever I take my laptop, In Sri Lanka you don't get wireless LAN everywhere. So the important thing is, when you have the laptop the laptop has Bluetooth. Most of the laptops do and if your phone is 3G, what you can do is, if you're inside the university and you're, this happened a lot. Lab is, the lab is full. Computer lab. So if you have either to download something fast or do an assignment or do something like that what you can do is you can connect the phone, from 3G mode to the Internet, log in through Bluetooth and you can use the Internet on your computer. It is faster than the lab and much easier. Just takes about 10 seconds, less than 10 seconds to do all that. And you have the convenience of doing your thing on your own computer. Open in new tab Here Lakmal uses the phone as a convenient method of accessing the Internet when the computer lab at the university is crowded. Some youth also search for phones with specific computer applications because “I'm like currently feeling the need to have er.. email [and], Internet… access on my phone.” The underprivileged youth, however, have had minimum or no previous interaction with computers and do not possess any skills in computer mediated communication to use the computing facilities of the mobile phone in sending or accessing information. Therefore, even though the facilities are available on their phones they are unable to benefit from them. Ironically, providing cheap access to the Internet is a key area in which the mobile technologies are expected to reduce the digital divide. The irony of this situation was brought into sharp focus in one discussion: Pubudu (M) …There are also many things to learn, but it depends on one's level of education whether those can be used. Moderator Did you mean getting information? Pubudu (M) Yes, information, I mean actually through GPRS and things, I mean there are useful things. We of course don't access them much because our knowledge is not enough to go to that level. But otherwise, there are many things to learn actually. Pubudu (M) …There are also many things to learn, but it depends on one's level of education whether those can be used. Moderator Did you mean getting information? Pubudu (M) Yes, information, I mean actually through GPRS and things, I mean there are useful things. We of course don't access them much because our knowledge is not enough to go to that level. But otherwise, there are many things to learn actually. Open in new tab Pubudu (M) …There are also many things to learn, but it depends on one's level of education whether those can be used. Moderator Did you mean getting information? Pubudu (M) Yes, information, I mean actually through GPRS and things, I mean there are useful things. We of course don't access them much because our knowledge is not enough to go to that level. But otherwise, there are many things to learn actually. Pubudu (M) …There are also many things to learn, but it depends on one's level of education whether those can be used. Moderator Did you mean getting information? Pubudu (M) Yes, information, I mean actually through GPRS and things, I mean there are useful things. We of course don't access them much because our knowledge is not enough to go to that level. But otherwise, there are many things to learn actually. Open in new tab Here Pubudu is aware that it is possible to access information and thereby knowledge through “GPRS and things.” However, access to that knowledge is denied to them because their current skill level is insufficient to make use of the facilities of the phone and user manuals of phones, which make constant references to ‘your favourite website’ or ‘your favourite browser,’ assuming users have the necessary knowledge. The contrast is clear: Computer mediated communication capabilities of the phone are actionable properties only to those who are already familiar with the technologies, not to those who are novices. In the cases of both the language barrier and the lack of prior familiarity with computers, the users are prevented from using many features available on the phone when their skill levels come into contact with the design of the phone. Given that they consider doing various things with the phone as a characteristic of being a youth, and that they upgrade handsets for the purpose of accessing new features, it can be assumed that given the opportunity, they would make use of, or at the very least, try out these sophisticated features. This means that because the design of the phone requires skills these users do not possess they are prevented from getting the full benefit of facilities that are available to them through the phone, thereby perpetuating the digital divide, even though they have physical access to the facilities. Some signs of overcoming difficulties It should be noted that the conventional wisdom of providing cheap physical access to the facilities is not completely without merit; because, the underprivileged youth do not always passively accept the non-actionability of phone features. For example, they attempt to overcome the language barrier to some extent by using the English alphabet to compose Sinhala SMS. This is possible because many less educated people in Sri Lanka are at least aware of the sounds of English letters. Also, as shown in the excerpt below, the enthusiasm of the youth to engage with the new features of a phone drives them to seek ways of finding out how to use them: Imal (M) But, but when we get a phone, we go to the maximum. I mean from what we know Rohana (M) We go forward as we get used to it Imal (M) Like you know Rohana (M) Even by finding out from someone we try to go beyond that, forward Imal (M) But, but when we get a phone, we go to the maximum. I mean from what we know Rohana (M) We go forward as we get used to it Imal (M) Like you know Rohana (M) Even by finding out from someone we try to go beyond that, forward Open in new tab Imal (M) But, but when we get a phone, we go to the maximum. I mean from what we know Rohana (M) We go forward as we get used to it Imal (M) Like you know Rohana (M) Even by finding out from someone we try to go beyond that, forward Imal (M) But, but when we get a phone, we go to the maximum. I mean from what we know Rohana (M) We go forward as we get used to it Imal (M) Like you know Rohana (M) Even by finding out from someone we try to go beyond that, forward Open in new tab This indicates that when the underprivileged get physical access to the technologies, they do make attempts to make use of them, which could then lead to narrowing the digital divide. However, there was little evidence in this study to show that these attempts have been successful to an appreciable extent. Discussion This study clearly demonstrates that the affordances or actionable properties presented by the mobile phone to privileged and underprivileged youth in society are significantly different. Many of the physical properties of the mobile phone are not “actionable” (Flyverbom, 2005, p. 228) when they come into contact with the skill levels of underprivileged users. This shows that affordable physical access to ICT devices is insufficient by itself to fully bridge the digital divide. Clearly, some affordances of the phone are contingent on the sociocultural background of the users. This discrimination can be explained from a design perspective by examining the perceived user that has been inscribed in the design (Akrich, 1992; Akrich & Latour, 1992) of the handsets. Internet access and computing capabilities, as they have been built into the phone and described in manuals, assume prior interaction with computers and the Internet. In other words, the users envisaged by designers are already users of these ICTs who simply seek to transfer those facilities from the computer to the mobile phone. Those who do not already possess the necessary skills are thus effectively prevented from accessing them. This could well be the reason why previous research has identified prior access to Internet through computers as a key factor that determines whether users would utilise sophisticated features of the phone (Zainudeen & Ratnadiwakara, 2011). This contradicts the expectation of using the mobile phone to bridge the Internet access divide (Zainudeen, et al., 2010). The case of language barrier is similar: English language skills are presupposed for users of phones with enhanced capabilities. That this poses problems for users who are not proficient in the language has been noted in previous literature (Castells, et al., 2007). What is also interesting is designers' perception regarding intended users of Sinhala supported handsets. The assumption of designers appears to be that users who require Sinhala support would only be using the basic functions of the phone. This clearly contradicts the notion of making ICT cheaply accessible to underprivileged users. What is evident is that the user configurations (Oldenziel, et al., 2005) inscribed in the designs of the phone privilege those in the higher social strata who are already familiar with the workings of the computer and Internet, and are proficient in the English language. This objectification of social privileges in mobile phone designs is akin to the reproduction of class in the manner proposed by Bourdieu (1977). As previously noted, habitus comprises internalised class conditions that leads to the embodiment of certain skills and habits without conscious thought (Bourdieu, 1977). Given the working class background of the underprivileged youth in this study, it is unlikely that they would have had a social upbringing that would have led to unconscious embodiment of English language skills or the skills necessary for operating a computer. Further, their level of education and the institutions from which they had received their secondary education indicate they have had little opportunity of receiving a formal education that would have developed the said skills. Compared to the schools in the capital city, rural schools in Sri Lanka are vastly inferior in physical and human resources; further, opportunities for students to learn any language other than the mother tongue are almost nonexistent (Hettige, 2002). In sum, the habitus and other life conditions of underprivileged youth have not equipped them with the necessary formal and tacit knowledge that is required for the use of computer based communication platforms of the mobile phone. In a manner similar to the school curricula that favour students who arrive at school already endowed with certain types of cultural capital (Bourdieu as cited in Thomson, 2002), the designs of handsets favour those who already possess the relevant cultural capital needed for using such features. Even following the instruction manual of a phone with new features requires a fairly high level of cultural capital – i.e. English language competency. Cultural capital is related to economic capital (Bourdieu, 1983/2004). Lack of economic capital is responsible, at least in part, for lack of cultural capital of the underprivileged youth which results from the low exposure to advanced information and communication technologies either at home or at school. There is a vicious circle in operation: Originally the digital divide is in the form of low physical access due to costly ICTs, which then results in low cultural capital. When the ICTs finally become affordable through the mobile phone, they cannot be effectively used because the designs presuppose users who possess necessary cultural capital. This means that the digital divide has been objectified in the designs of mobile phones, thereby contributing to its perpetuation instead of its reduction. Implications for Policy and Further Research This study has policy implications for those who seek to bridge the digital divide through mobile phones. It shows that although a number of recent studies have called for policy measures to support affordable access (Aker & Mbiti, 2010; de Silva, et al., 2011; Zainudeen & Ratnadiwakara, 2011), providing access alone is clearly insufficient. Greater attention needs to be paid to designing handsets that will enable underprivileged users to reap the benefit of a wider range of mobile communication applications. Although it is encouraging that some researchers in the design domain are paying attention to this (e.g.Bhamidipaty & Deepak, 2007; Parikh, 2006, 2007), their interest is certainly not reflected in the mainstream commercial designs. Given that market capitalism is driven by profit, it is not surprising that commercial enterprises direct their R&D efforts towards more profitable consumers in the higher social strata (Castells, et al., 2007). Therefore, it is at the policy level that this issue can be addressed effectively. In terms of further research, this study points out the need for more digital divide researchers to heed the call of Doolin and McLeod (2005) for ICT researchers to adopt a more critical interpretive stance by connecting interpretations of technological systems to the wider historical and social context in order to identify who benefits from existing arrangements of technology. In so doing, this research examined how extant social inequities are reproduced in mobile handset designs and how that is implicated in the use of computer-mediated mobile communication platforms by underprivileged users. However, the study was based primarily on user talk, supplemented by a limited examination of some handsets and their manuals. More extensive ‘disaggregation’ of the handsets (Donner, 2008) in relation to user characteristics is likely to yield richer evidence of this phenomenon. More in depth study is also required on how underprivileged users overcome some of the difficulties caused by inequities incorporated in technological systems. While some attempts at overcoming the difficulties were hinted at in this study, there wasn't sufficient evidence to explore the phenomenon fully. In conclusion, this paper did not intend to argue that the mobile phone is totally unsuitable for bridging the digital divide. The technology does have potential for achieving this purpose; however, it is not likely to happen as a matter of course. Unless closely studied and properly channelled, it could just as easily contribute to widening the divide instead of bridging it. Acknowledgements This paper is based on some of the results of a PhD project supervised by Professor Cynthia Hardy and Professor Graham Sewell of the University of Melbourne. The author wishes to thank them and acknowledge their contributions to the project. Notes 1 In using excerpts from focus group discussions, I will use the following presentation practices for easy understanding of the reader. Ellipsis indicates that I have omitted some sections. The speakers will be referred to by a pseudonym followed by ‘M’ or ‘F’ to identify the gender. Therefore Pubudu (M) would mean that Pubudu is a male. However, the gender of speakers in the excerpts does not imply that I inferred gender specific significance in relation to what is discussed. 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Conditions for adoption of more-than-voice mobile services . Information Technologies & International Development, 7 ( 3 ), 45 – 59 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat About the Authors Dinuka Wijetunga is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing of the Faculty of Management and Finance, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She received her PhD from the University of Melbourne. Her research interests are consumer culture, and social class and stratification dynamics in consumption. She is also interested in macro impacts of marketing and business, and critical management/marketing. Address: Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management and Finance, University of Colombo, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka. Email:dinuka@fmf.cmb.ac.lk Author notes * Accepted by previous editor Maria Bakardjieva © 2014 International Communication Association
TI - The Digital Divide Objectified in the Design: Use of the Mobile Telephone by Underprivileged Youth in Sri Lanka
JF - Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
DO - 10.1111/jcc4.12071
DA - 2014-04-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/the-digital-divide-objectified-in-the-design-use-of-the-mobile-klIkjsHYxt
SP - 712
EP - 726
VL - 19
IS - 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -