TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital inclusion across the Americas and the caribbean
AU - Robinson, Laura
AU - Schulz, Jeremy
AU - Dodel, Matías
AU - Correa, Teresa
AU - Villanueva-Mansilla, Eduardo
AU - Leal, Sayonara
AU - Magallanes-Blanco, Claudia
AU - Rodriguez-Medina, Leandro
AU - Dunn, Hopeton S.
AU - Levine, Lloyd
AU - McMahon, Rob
AU - Khilnani, Aneka
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal).
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - This research brings together scholarship across the Americas and Caribbean to examine digital inclusion initiatives in the following countries: Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, the United States, and Canada. Across the cases, several themes emerge that offer important indicators for future digital inclusion initiatives. First, public policy can effectively reduce access gaps when it addresses the trifecta of network, device, and skill provision. Second, this triple-crown of public policy is highly effective for longitudinal effect when implemented early via educational institutions. Third, ruralurban digital inequality is resistant to change such that rural populations benefit less from policy initiatives than their urban counterparts. Fourth, digital inclusion in rural areas and among marginalized populations is most effective when cocreated with communities to ensure community investment, participation, and control. Fifth, stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic are rapidly increasing our dependence on digital technologies, making digital inclusion more important than ever for education and rural communities. We therefore close the article with discussion of how the COVID-19 pandemic is amplifying digital disadvantage and exclusion across the Americas, the Caribbean, and the globe.
AB - This research brings together scholarship across the Americas and Caribbean to examine digital inclusion initiatives in the following countries: Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, the United States, and Canada. Across the cases, several themes emerge that offer important indicators for future digital inclusion initiatives. First, public policy can effectively reduce access gaps when it addresses the trifecta of network, device, and skill provision. Second, this triple-crown of public policy is highly effective for longitudinal effect when implemented early via educational institutions. Third, ruralurban digital inequality is resistant to change such that rural populations benefit less from policy initiatives than their urban counterparts. Fourth, digital inclusion in rural areas and among marginalized populations is most effective when cocreated with communities to ensure community investment, participation, and control. Fifth, stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic are rapidly increasing our dependence on digital technologies, making digital inclusion more important than ever for education and rural communities. We therefore close the article with discussion of how the COVID-19 pandemic is amplifying digital disadvantage and exclusion across the Americas, the Caribbean, and the globe.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Caribbean
KW - Digital divide
KW - Digital inclusion
KW - Digital inequalities
KW - Latin America
KW - North America
KW - Pandemic
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087405491&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.17645/si.v8i2.2632
DO - 10.17645/si.v8i2.2632
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85087405491
SN - 2183-2803
VL - 8
SP - 244
EP - 259
JO - Social Inclusion
JF - Social Inclusion
IS - 2
ER -