Untitled - socium.ge

138 Steve Woolgarlack of disaggregation. “The new Internet technologies were not being usedfor the purposes anticipated”? Yes, but the really important question is bywhom were they anticipated as having these purposes? This question directsus to a search for the structuring and distribution of views about Internet technologieswhich, we argue, is crucial to understanding the dynamics of theirreception and use, and hence to an appreciation of the particular characteristicsof the network society.Discussions of access and problems of the “digital divide,” which, alreadyin the short time since their original enunciation, have a tired feel about them,centered on government policy moves in relation to enabling access to thedigitally disadvantaged. Considerable optimism was invested in the newpublic access points. The disadvantaged would be able to access the Internetin public spaces through local libraries, kiosks, and at cybercafés and telecottages.Yet the research found that a surprisingly high percentage of peopleusing these spaces were already hooked up at home. It seems that the newaccess points were not providing access to those who did not have access;instead, they were providing alternative spaces for those who were already onthe “right side” of the digital divide. A number of the new access points failedbecause they were poorly supported in terms of resources for training andmaintenance. But the widely varying success of different “access points”seems also to depend on the social, cultural, and physical arrangements inplace. The difficulty with much early UK government policy on access toInternet technologies was their singular focus on the provision of equipment.Guided by an analytic skepticism about assumptions that “the kit” would itselfbe the main driver of network formation, our research was able to show theconsequences of overlooking the relevant sociological circumstances of use.Access to and participation in the British network society requires fosteringthe conditions of meaningful use, not just the provision of the right equipment.The theme of analytic skepticism is exactly in line with recent empiricalstudies which characterize reactions to new Internet technologies in terms ofparticipants’ efforts to “make the technology at home.” For example, Britishsocial scientists Miller and Slater (2000) have shown how the Internet wasabsorbed into Trinidadian culture. Far from transforming or otherwise significantlychanging the prevailing culture of communications, the Internet wasappropriated to support and enhance the existing Trinidadian diaspora. Millerand Slater explicitly reject the idea of virtuality or cyberspace as spaces orplaces apart from the rest of social life. Again, at a different level, Hughes etal. (2002) show how the introduction of new electronic systems into bankingled to great efforts by the clerical workers to make the technology at home. Farfrom “transforming banking,” the new systems became the focus of clericalworkers’ considerable efforts to accommodate them to prevailing workroutines and practices. It is not yet clear whether and to what extent these