Social exclusion in a digital society: how does digital delivery of services exclude marginalised groups?

Abstract

This paper explores the research question “How does digital delivery of services exclude marginalised groups, and what types of digital social exclusion occur?”. The aim of this grounded theory study was to understand the impacts of the rapid digitisation of services on communities with intermittent or poor digital connectivity. We conducted a qualitative study with 24 intermediaries who were helping digitally excluded people to gain access to services in two UK cities (London and Brighton) and one US city (New York). This research shows not only that digital exclusion is persisting, but that new forms of exclusion have emerged in which people are excluded through poverty, through being dependent on intermediaries to access digital services, by a lack of digital skills and through being forced to access poorly designed services. Drawing on these ideas and theories of social exclusion, adverse incorporation and marginalisation, our research findings suggest that digital exclusion is leading to new forms of exclusion that we conceptualise as “digital marginalisation”.