| Cyberworld unlimited?
Digital Inequality and New Spaces of
Informal Education for Young People International Conference, February 9th -11th 2006 / Bielefeld, Germany |
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Poster Presentation and Project Exhibition
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| Cyberworld unlimited? Digital Inequality and New Spaces of Informal Education for Young People International Conference February 9th -11th 2006 |
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Today,
the internet is regarded as the central resource for knowledge and
information. Associated with this, the idea is that everyone is
able and even expected to serve himself or herself according to
his or her own needs via this medium. Since more and more services
are delivered online the internet seems to allow its users to enjoy
specific advantages in dealing with their everyday life.
However, using the internet is based on a range of preconditions. New results of empirical and theoretical research indicate the rise of a social divide in this context. Within the internet, differences in ways of use can be identified alongside social inequalities. They mirror boundaries of the „real life“ in the virtual space e.g. in terms of forms of communification and spaces for appropriation (in a sense of self-formation processes of social actors). These are not only shaped by individual preferences but particularly by social structures and processes. This appears in two dimensions: by processes of social closure and by service structures which only reach special target groups – prevalently in contrary to their own intention. In the context of the broader debate on education it is stated that formal educational structures are to be urgently completed by arrangements which are structured in informal resp. nonformal ways. Particularly the internet is suggested to play a special role in this respect. However, the phenomenon of digital inequality points to limitations consolidated by effects of cultural, social and material resources: Economical resources affect opportunities of access, priorities of everyday life shape respective intentions of internet use, social relationships have an impact on the support structures available and ways of appropriation reproduce a specific understanding of informal education (“Bildung”). This produces an early stratification of opportunities especially for the subsequent generation and may lead to extensive inequalities regarding the distribution of advantages in terms of education. Thus the capacity of the virtual space in terms of participatory opportunities and democratic potentials raises concerns of major relevance with respect to social and educational policy. From the perspective of different disciplines involved in these issues, it is essential to clarify this issue in empirical as well as theoretical ways and to make it utilizable for a future-oriented practice. In particular, the following questions are central for the analysis:
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