BUCKING THE TREND? UNDERSTANDING THE “OUTLIERS” IN DIGITAL INCLUSION RESEARCH

Abstract

This presentation will present data from in-depth interviews with 20 purposively sampled individuals who are part of this group to address these questions. In addition, the interviews will include discussion of a socioeconomic genogram and provide information about the meaning the Internet has in the participant’s lives (Bertaux and Thompson, 2006). Given the relative newness of the focus of this research, such a qualitative approach is appropriate. Indeed, qualitative research on Internet use by people from lower socio economic backgrounds (e.g. work by Bakardijeva and Smith, 2001; Clayton and McDonald, 2013; Mehrat and Merkel, 2004) highlights the significant complexity of this area, raising issues around the meaning and value of the Internet in people’s lives and what it really means to be digitally included.