MUNI

UNIVERSITY
TransformingLives

Chapter 3: Social Context of Computing

Ms. Salama Asikuru

+256788509910
s.asikuru@muni.ac.ug
 Chapter sub-topics
In this chapter, we shall discuss the following
sub-topics:
1.Social informatics
2.Social impact of IT on society
3.Online communities and their social implications
4.Philosophical context
5.Diversity, gender-related, cultural and accessibility issues
6.Globalization issues in computing
7.Digital divide
 Objectives
At the end of the Chapter, the student should be
able to;
★ define social informatics
★ understand the social impact of IT on society
★ know and explain the social implications of online
communities
★ describe the gender-related issues in computing
★ describe the factors contributing to digital divide
★ understand the advantages and disadvantages of
globalisation.

3
 Introduction
● Computer and computer related equipment has
invaded not only our work place, but also our homes
and schools.

○ This has been made possible with the

emergence of the internet, wireless
communication, smaller gadgets and therefore
making both the young and old to find solace in
computers.
○ Because, people have embraced the internet,
computers have become an integral part of our
social life/fabric.

4
 Con’t
● In this chapter we shall look at the social
effects of computer technology on our lives,
whether we’re @ home, school or work.

5
 Social Informatics
➢ Social informatics (SI) is a
multi-disciplinary perspective.

○ refers to the interdisciplinary study of the

design, uses and consequences of
information and communication technologies
(ICTs) that takes into account their
interactions with institutional and cultural
contexts.

6
 Con’t

○ it’s research may be done at group,

departmental, organizational, national and/or
societal levels of analysis, focused on the
relationships among information, information
systems, the people who use them and the
context of use.

7
 Con’t
According to Kling (1999),
➔ SI identifies a body of research that
examines the social aspects of
computerization.

➔ A more formal definition is ‘the

interdisciplinary study of the design, uses
and consequences of information
technologies that takes into account their
interaction with institutional and cultural
contexts.’
8
 Con’t
➔ Social informatics research involves
normative, analytical, and critical orientations,
although these approaches may be combined in
any specific study.

◆ The normative orientation refers to

research that aims to recommend
alternatives for professionals who design,
implement, use, or develop policy about
ICTs.

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 Con’t

➔ This type of research has an explicit goal of

influencing practice by providing empirical
evidence illustrating the varied outcomes
that occur as people work with ICTs in a
wide range of organizational and social
contexts

10
 Con’t
➔ Social informatics research involves
normative, analytical, and critical orientations,
although these approaches may be combined in
any specific study.

◆ The normative orientation refers to

research that aims to recommend
alternatives for professionals who design,
implement, use, or develop policy about
ICTs.

11
 Con’t
➔ Social informatics research involves normative,
analytical, and critical orientations, although
these approaches may be combined in any
specific study.

◆ The normative orientation refers to research

that aims to recommend alternatives for
professionals who design, implement, use, or
develop policy about ICTs.

12
 Con’t

◆ This type of research has an explicit goal

of influencing practice by providing
empirical evidence illustrating the varied
outcomes that occur as people work with
ICTs in a wide range of organizational and
social contexts

13
 Con’t
➔ The analytical orientation refers to studies
that develop theories about ICTs in
institutional and cultural contexts or to
empirical studies that are organized to
contribute to such theorizing.

➔ This type of research seeks to contribute to a

deeper understanding of how the evolution of
ICT use in a particular setting can be
generalized to other ICTs and other settings.

14
 Con’t
➔ The critical orientation refers to examining
ICTs from perspectives that do not
automatically (uncritically) adopt the goals and
beliefs of the groups that commission, design,
or implement specific ICTs.

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 Con’t

➔ It encourages information professionals and

researchers to examine ICTs from multiple
perspectives (such as the various people who use
them in different contexts, as well as people
who design, implement or maintain them) and to
examine possible “failure modes” and service
losses, as well as idealized expectations of
routine use.

16
 Con’t
Why Social Informatics Matters.

➔ Social informatics research pertains to information

technology use and social change in any sort of social
setting, not just organizations.

➔ Social informatics researchers are especially

interested in developing reliable knowledge about
information technology and social change, based on
systematic empirical research, to inform both public
policy debates and professional practice.

17
 Social impact of IT on Society
★ Every day, individuals use technology in fresh ways.
★ Computers are becoming more and more affordable;
they are still stronger as information-processing tools
in addition to simpler to use.
★ It follows that we can’t just share information fast
and efficiently, but we could even bring down barriers
of linguistic and geographical boundaries and states
are in a position to shares ideas and advice with one
another.

18
 Con’t
★ The world wide web has also opened up face to face
direct communication from various areas of the globe as
a result of the aid of video conferencing.
★ Many collaboration platforms are assembled along with
face to face call through mobile devices such as like
smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc.

19
 Con’t
Positive Impacts of IT on Society

● Price efficacy:
○ Information technology has helped to computerize the
company process thus streamlining companies to create
them extremely economical money-making machines,
○ This usually means that a company can be available
anytime anyplace, making purchases from various
countries easier and much more convenient.

20
 Con’t
● Generation of new projects
○ Computer programmers, Systems analyzers, Hardware and
Software programmers and Web designers are only some
of the many new job opportunities made with the
assistance of IT.
○ This usually means that many of middle and lower level
jobs are done away with inducing more people to become
jobless.
○ From mobile phone sign interceptions to email hacking,
most individuals are now concerned about their once
personal information becoming public awareness.
21
 Con’t
● Information Sharing
○ Now information just right on our fingertips. We can
access any information anywhere and anytime.
Information, news, views, etc. can be shared by
people all around the globe with the use of e-mail,
discussion groups on the Internet such as Google
Groups, Yahoo! Groups et
● Self Employment
○ ICT gadgets are help out us to do our jobs easier. We
can create our own business shops without the heavy
overheads of place, purchase items and sales in market
and make the advertising campaigns use of multimedia
application.
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 Con’t
● Social Relationship
○ ICT provides the facility to make contacts
and maintain relationships with people around the
world in our daily routine.
○ With the use of Internet and communication
channel, we can connect the people via e-mail,
social networking websites and cell phones.
○ It saves time and works inexpensive way.

23
 Con’t
Negative Impacts of IT

Much as IT impacts on society are positive, there are also

negative impacts on social community
● Reduced face-to-face interaction.
○ Now days, people mostly likes online communication
rather than real conversations so people tend
to become more individualistic and introvert.
● Social Disconnect.
○ Although the internet has reduced physical
distances between people, but that doesn’t means
they brought all closer together and emotional
distance is increased in some aspects.
24
 Con’t
● Reduced physical activity/Health Problems
○ Users may accept a more sitting lifestyle by the use
of ICT gadgets.
■ This can lead to health problems such as
headache, fatness, heart disease, diabetes,
repetitive strain injury or eyestrain, wrong
posture/position, neck pain, physical and mental
stress, etc because of continuous use.
● Cost
○ Many ICT gadgets are expensive. So they are cost
effective to purchase and to maintain.
○ Poor students cannot get the benefits of
e-learning due to the educational establishments.

25
 Con’t
● Job loss
○ Job losses may occur because of manual operations
being replaced by automation.
● Security/loss of privacy
○ Each ICT gadgets are integrated by specific
technology and uses Internet connections.
○ Data must be reserved as secure data so it needs to
protect from virus attacks and other forms of malware
are released daily.
○ Use of social networking web site risk of personal data
loss.

26
 Con’t
What are the social implications of online
communities?

● An online community is a group of people that use the

internet as a medium to communicate.
● Online social communities are the most effective form
of social networking, as these are created to bring
together like-minded people with common interests,
passions, and views.
● Building online communities have become the need of the
day as it can improve the quality of life.

27
 Con’t
● Nowadays, people spend much time in online communities
to network with virtual friends and play role plays.
○ provide an advantage for people with special needs
who cannot leave the house, because they benefit
from the accessibility of the internet.
○ Nevertheless, spending too much time in online
communities leads to drawbacks in the
development of the user’s personality

● We shall discuss the implications of online

communities on every sphere of life in the forums to
come.

28
Diversity, Gender-related, Cultural & Accessibility
Issues

Diversity Issues in Computing

29
 Con’t
Gender-related Issues in Computing

● Gender
○ social and cultural construct of roles, responsibilities,
attributes, opportunities , privileges, and
rights/entitlements, status, access to and control over
resources and benefits between men and women, girls
and boys in a given society.
○ It varies from place to place and overtime. Hence
gender differences are not biologically determined like
the sex of an individual, but are part of the culture,
values and practices of a given society

30
 Con’t
● Gender roles
○ are socially constructed and defined
responsibilities associated with our biological
set up.
○ the expected duties and responsibilities, rights,
privileges of men and women, boys and girls in
any given society.
○ Usually one gender is more privileged than
another.

31
 Con’t
● Sex
○ refers to biological characteristics that make an
individual female or male. Sex differences are God
given and Universal

● Sex roles
○ these are roles assigned to someone arising
from their biological differences between by
being female and male.
○ Pregnancy is an example of a sex role for
females, as only female have to bear children.

32
 Con’t
● Affirmative action
○ refers to preferential treatment measures for
redressing inequalities or imbalances in accessing
resources, power, opportunities.
○ It is a commitment but of a temporary nature.
● Gender equality
○ refers to equal enjoyment or treatment by men and
women of social valued goods, opportunities,
resources, and rewards,.
○ Gender equality does not mean the men and women
become the same but rather opportunities and life
chances are equal.
33
 Con’t
● Gender inequality
○ this refers to a form of social division, relating to
varying amount of power, resources and opportunity
between men and women, where one gender becomes
more socially privileged than the other.
● Gender equity
○ refers to the fairness and justice in the distribution of
resources, benefits, rights and responsibilities between
men and women, boys and girls in all spheres of life.
○ Gender equity embraces affirmative action where and
when necessary, and is a step towards equality and
women empowerment.

34
 Con’t
● Gender issues
○ this is a physical or statistical indicator of inequality
between men and women arising from discrimination
and/or marginalization within society.
● Gender gap
○ refers to a quantifiable indicator of gender
inequality .
○ It reveals the differences between men and women,
boys and girls, with regard to opportunities, such as
access to services, (education, health, market places,
mobility, etc) and productive resources and
participation in decision making.
35
 Con’t
● Gender issues
○ ICTs have created new economic and social
opportunities the world over.
○ However, ICT has not touched all of humanity.
○ Their use continues to be governed by existing power
relations where women frequently experience relative
disadvantage.
○ The countries of the South, particularly rural
populations, have largely been left out of the
information revolution, due to a wide range of barriers.
○ Amidst this inequality are individuals and organisations
that are working to use these technologies to further
gender equality.
36
 Con’t
○ These barriers pose even greater problems for women,
who are more illiterate and not know English, and lack
opportunities for training in computer skills.
○ Challenges are context-specific and are influenced by
deep-seated social, cultural and economic factors
○ SDG 5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all
women and girls and calls for enhanced use of enabling
technology.
○ ICTs in particular promote the empowerment of women.
○ ICT enables users to access, store, transmit, and
manipulate information.

37
 Con’t
● Reasons why ICT matters for gender equality:
○ Opportunity
■ The Internet is a great enabler, creating opportunities
for female entrepreneurs to enter global markets for
the first time.
■ ICT enables small business to boost their growth by
establishing international, level-playing field that
enables all businesses, regardless of size, location or
sector, to compete on an equal footing in global
markets.
■ Partnerships programmes can help realize the
opportunities ICT can offer, by boosting skilling,
equipping women with digital devices and providing
training.
38
 Con’t
○ Capacity
■ ICT can give women access to basic needs such
as healthcare and education.
■ The private sector plays a pivotal role in
investing in community-oriented training,
deploying infrastructure and delivering a wide
range of ICT services to meet these needs.

39
 Con’t
○ Understanding
■ Women are currently less likely than men to use or own
digital technologies, with gaps larger among youth and
those over 45 years old.
■ ICT improves efficiency, enhances coordination and
improves the quality of information gathered and shared
for development planning.
■ To leverage ICT for promotion of women empowerment,
governments need to be involved in understanding how the
ICT ecosystem works in practice, can help policy makers
develop policies that eliminate the barriers to access and
how challenges.
■ Good policies that aim at infrastructure & application
developments can close the gender ICT usage gap.
40
 Con’t
● What is sexual harassment?
○ Harassment can occur in many different social
settings such as the workplace, the home, school,
churches, etc. Harassers or victims may be of any
gender. Sexual harassment includes a range of
actions from mild transgressions to sexual abuse
or sexual assault. (Wikipedia)
○ Behaviour characterized by the making of
unwelcome and inappropriate sexual remarks or
physical advances in a workplace or other
professional or social situation. (lexico.com)

41
 Con’t
● Recommendations
○ Engendering ICTs is not merely about greater use of
ICTs by women. It is about transforming the ICT
system. This involves:
■ Governments building ICT policies with strong
gender perspectives and engaging with civil society
and gender and ICT experts on these areas.

■ International fora such as the World Summit of

the Information Society (WSIS) being used to
challenge northern and corporate dominance of the
ICT arena.

42
 Con’t
■ Collecting information with sex-disaggregated
statistics and gender indicators on access to, use
of and content of ICTs, on employment and on
education.

■ Promote and recruit more women to

decision-making positions in regional and
international economic policy organizations, as
well as in IT firms and ministries.

43
 Con’t
■ Ensure that women benefited fully from
ICT-related education, training and
entrepreneurship opportunities, and equal
access as producers and consumers of ICT
through public and private partnerships.

○ Combine economic literacy and ICT literacy to

create opportunities for poor rural and urban
women

○ Encourage educated women to acquire ICT

skills
44
 Con’t
■ Mobilize more resources for successful
ICT-for-women’s economic empowerment
projects
■ Include content about women and gender issues
in all official Government & Institutional
websites, and also utilize social media for
promoting gender equality issues.

■ Ensure that, when adopting measures to protect

privacy and security in ICT, particular interests
and concerns of women, such as issues relating to
trafficking, are fully addressed.

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 Con’t
■ Develop, promote and implement research
programmes that permit ongoing and
comprehensive analysis of the impact of ICT on
gender equality and women’s empowerment
■ Provide preferential pricing for ICT-related
devices and activities of public and
non-governmental educational and health
institutions.
■ Develop the ICT Infrastructure both in rural and
urban centres for many to access the ICT
services.

46
 Con’t
Cultural Issues in Computing

● “Culture is the collective programming of the mind which

distinguishes the members of one group or category of
people from another” Geert Hofstede
● One of the areas of computing where the impact of culture
is actively being studied is in Human-Computer Interaction
● Cultural issues in computing affect;
○ data representation,
○ database design,
○ communication protocols,
○ software engineering methods, and
○ user interface designs

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 Con’t
● Culture impacts issues of language, dates and numbers
presented, what colors and symbols are appropriate
on a website, and how well software development and
evaluation procedures work.

● Successful software systems now are written in a way

that adapting them to a particular culture can be done
easily.

● This is the idea of globalization/localization in which

software is built in such a way that localizing it to a
particular language and other cultural preferences
can be done easily.

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 Con’t
● The goal of addressing culture in computing is:

○ Build systems that are adaptive to the

cultural preferences of a user; and

○ Be able to work effectively in an

environment where differences in culture
exist.

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 Con’t
● In order to achieve that, the computing professionals
need to:
○ Using globalization/localization technology to build
software that is adaptive to cultural preferences
of the user.

○ Building technology that supports globalization and

localization.

○ Understanding the influence of culture on our

professional interactions.

50
 Digital divide
● ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) offer
many advantages: greater access to information, cost
reduction in the labour sector, greater connectivity
between people, etc.

● However, digitalisation is not happening equally all over the

world, because imbalance exists and this is known as the
digital divide.

● Digital divide is a term that refers to the gap between

demographics and regions that have access to modern
information and communications technology, and those that
don't or have restricted access.

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 Con’t
○ This technology can include the telephone,
television, personal computers and the Internet.

● The digital divide refers to the difference between

people who have easy access to the Internet and
those who do not (Techopedia,2019).

● In Africa only 39.3 % of its inhabitants had Internet

access, compared to 87.2 % of Europeans and 94.6 % of
Americans (the Internet portal World Stats as of May
2020)

52
 Con’t
Causes and Types of digital divide

● The digital divide was initially attributed to

underdevelopment and was perceived as something
temporary that would disappear with the
popularisation of technology.

● Instead, the divide persists today despite the mass

marketing of electronic devices with Internet access.

● The causes can range from the high price of the

above-mentioned devices to the lack of knowledge
about their use or the lack of infrastructure for their
access.
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 Con’t
● Access divide.
○ It refers to the possibilities that people have to
access this resource.

○ This is where socio-economic differences

between people and between countries come into
play, since digitisation requires very costly
investments and infrastructure for less
developed regions and for rural areas.

54
 Con’t
● Use divide.
○ It refers to the lack of digital skills, which
impedes the handling of technology.

○ In this regard, and to give an example, the

International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
points out that there are 40 countries in which
more than half of their inhabitants do not know
how to attach a file to an email.

55
 Con’t
● Quality of use gap.

○ Sometimes they have the digital skills to find

their way around the Internet, but not the
knowledge to make good use of and get the most
out of it. For example, with regard to access to
quality information.

56
 Con’t
Consequences of digital divide

● Lack of communication and isolation

○ People in remote areas who do not have access to the
Internet are disconnected. Something similar
happens to urban residents who are disconnected
which causes social isolation.

● Barrier to studies and knowledge

○ The coronavirus crisis has shown the effects of the
digital divide in education: teachers and students out
of the loop because they lack sufficient technology
and digital skills. It also increases lack of knowledge
by limiting access to knowledge.
57
 Con’t
● Accentuates social differences
○ Digital illiteracy reduces the chances of finding a job
and accessing quality employment, which has a
negative impact on the workers' economy.

● Gender discrimination
○ As we saw at the beginning, the digital divide
negatively affects women more than men, which
violates the principles of gender equality.

58
 Con’t
Strategies on bridging digital divide

● Digital literacy programs. They instruct people in

less-favoured areas of Internet use to improve
their personal well-being.

● Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI). This

project, led by an international coalition of
governments, businesses and civil society, aims to
lower the cost of broadband in specific areas in
Africa, Asia and Latin America.
●

59
 Globalization
● Technology has increased communication between
countries, disseminated vast amounts of information to all
areas of the world, and aided businesses that operate
globally.

● On the upside, it can raise the standard of living in poor

and less developed countries by providing job opportunity,
modernization, and improved access to goods and services.

● Technology advancements that include global

telecommunication infrastructure, cross-border transfer
of data, Internet, satellite networks and wireless phone
contributed to the globalization process (Kabamba, 2008).
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 Con’t
● Globalization is the spread of products, technology,
information, and jobs across national borders and
cultures. In economic terms, it describes an
interdependence of nations around the globe
fostered through free trade.
● [https://www.investopedia.com]
● Globalization can universally be areal when;
○ Access to the ICT Devices challenges
○ Infrastructure related Challenges
○ Human Resource Related Challenges

61
 Con’t
● Advantages of Globalization;
○ Increased free trade between nations
○ Increased liquidity of capital allowing
investors in developed nations to invest in
developing nations.
○ Corporations have greater flexibility to
operate across borders.
○ Global mass media ties the world together .

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 Con’t

○ Increased flow of communications allows vital

information to be shared between individuals and
corporations around the world.
○ Greater ease and speed of transportation for goods
and people.
○ Reduction of cultural barriers increases the global
village effect .
○ Spread of democratic ideals to developed nations.
○ Greater interdependence of nation-states.
○ Reduction of likelihood of war between developed
nations.

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 Con’t
● Disadvantages of Globalization

○ Increased flow of skilled and non-skilled jobs from

developed to developing nations as corporations
seek out the cheapest labor.
○ Increased likelihood of economic disruptions in one
nation affecting all nations.
○ Corporate influence of nation-states far exceeds
that of civil society organizations and average
individuals.

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 Con’t

○ Threat that control of world media by a handful

of corporations will limit cultural expression.
○ Greater chance of reactions for globalization
being violent in an attempt to preserve cultural
heritage .
○ Greater risk of diseases being transported
unintentionally between nations.
○ Spread of a materialistic lifestyle and attitude
that sees consumption as the path to prosperity.

65
 Con’t

○ International bodies like the World Trade

Organization infringe on national and individual
sovereignty.
○ Increase in the chances of civil war within
developing countries and open war between
developing countries as they vie for resources.
○ Decreases in environmental integrity as polluting
corporations take advantage of weak regulatory
rules in developing countries.

66
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Apparatus
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conducted by the Division for the
Advancement of Women. Retrieved June
(Vol. 20, p. 2002).
67
 Con’t
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68