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From Inclusive Spaces to Inclusionary Texts: How E-Participation Can Help Overcome Social Exclusion

From Inclusive Spaces to Inclusionary Texts: How E-Participation Can Help Overcome Social Exclusion

Simon Smith
ISBN13: 9781605666990|ISBN10: 1605666998|EISBN13: 9781605667003
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-699-0.ch029
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MLA

Smith, Simon. "From Inclusive Spaces to Inclusionary Texts: How E-Participation Can Help Overcome Social Exclusion." Handbook of Research on Overcoming Digital Divides: Constructing an Equitable and Competitive Information Society, edited by Enrico Ferro, et al., IGI Global, 2010, pp. 533-548. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-699-0.ch029

APA

Smith, S. (2010). From Inclusive Spaces to Inclusionary Texts: How E-Participation Can Help Overcome Social Exclusion. In E. Ferro, Y. Dwivedi, J. Gil-Garcia, & M. Williams (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Overcoming Digital Divides: Constructing an Equitable and Competitive Information Society (pp. 533-548). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-699-0.ch029

Chicago

Smith, Simon. "From Inclusive Spaces to Inclusionary Texts: How E-Participation Can Help Overcome Social Exclusion." In Handbook of Research on Overcoming Digital Divides: Constructing an Equitable and Competitive Information Society, edited by Enrico Ferro, et al., 533-548. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2010. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-699-0.ch029

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Abstract

This account explores the use of ICT to overcome social exclusion by means of eParticipation initiatives in two spheres-health promotion and local democratic participation. They offer a contrast in terms of how we think about inclusion because the intended outcomes of their e-enablement may differ. Their construction as private or public goods affects the scope for intermediaries to act as agents of digital inclusion. In eHealth, digital inclusion is often a recruitment issue, since online discussion serves as a meeting-place where people provide mutual support to others who are co-present, whereas in local eDemocracy, inclusion is a representation issue, since online discussion is a narrative, reflecting on the political life of a territorial community. As a textual Internet is more amenable to intermediation than a spatial Internet, the possibilities for deploying ICT for social inclusion were enhanced when members of the eHealth virtual community began to ‘publicise’ the discursive goods they produced, which became translatable into community health benefits via intermediation and channel integration.

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