‘E-stablishing’ an Inclusive Society? Technology, Social Exclusion and UK Government Policy Making
‘E-stablishing’ an Inclusive Society? Technology, Social Exclusion and UK Government Policy Making
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“电子建立”包容性社会？技术、社会排斥和英国政府政策制定
作者：
N. Selwyn
在许多工业化国家，信息和通信技术（ICT）现在被视为政府可以解决社会排斥问题的现成手段。事实上，在英国，这一观点已迅速转化为数十亿磅的政策议程，旨在利用信息和通信技术实现社会包容性目的。然而，除了对弥合所谓的“数字鸿沟”和减轻信息“富人”和“穷人”之间的差距的口头关切之外，很少有关键性的考虑，即政府如何利用技术来实现社会包容性目标。因此，本文探讨了英国政府的信息和通信技术为基础的社会政策驱动器通过官方文件，政策声明和政治话语-考虑的“问题”，它规定要解决的问题，政策的实质内容，并认为这样做的理由和好处。在探讨了这些政策的官方建设，本文然后探讨了如何有充分的理由，这一政策框架是在实现其既定的目标，扩大获得信息和通信技术，有效地促进“社会包容性”。本文最后通过发展这种信息和通信技术的政策，揭示了更深层次的经济理由通知这个表面上的“社会”政策方案的关键角度。
In many industrialised countries information and communication technology (ICT) is now being seen as a ready means through which governments can address issues of social exclusion. Indeed, in the UK this perspective has been quickly translated into a multi-billion pound policy agenda aimed at using ICT for socially inclusive purposes. Yet, beyond rhetorical concerns over bridging the perceived ‘digital divide’ and alleviating disparities between the information ‘rich’ and ‘poor’, little critical consideration has been given to how technology is being used by governments to achieve socially inclusive aims. This paper therefore examines the UK government’s ICT-based social policy drive through official documentation, policy statements and political discourse – considering the ‘problems’ that it sets out to address, the substance of the policies, and the perceived rationales and benefits for doing so. Having explored the official construction of these policies, the paper then examines how well founded this policy framework is in terms of achieving its stated aims of widening access to ICT and effectively facilitating ‘social inclusion’. The paper concludes by developing a critical perspective of such ICT policies which reveals deeper economic rationales informing this ostensibly ‘social’ policy programme.