Uma perspectiva crítica para as políticas públicas de inclusão digital no Brasil: estudo de caso sobre não-usos e não-usuários de internet

Abstract

In the 1990s, the concept of the digital divide approached the existence of a social inequality between those who had and those who had not access to computers and the Internet. Employed initially in the US and European contexts, that concept was linked to the economic development of countries and, in the 2000s, influenced the international political agenda and public policymaking in countries like Brazil. However, many scholars have proposed critical views over the concept, suggesting that it should broaden beyond access as a strategy for analyzing the social implications of Internet use while the network becomes widespread. In Brazil, scholars often translate the term digital divide as digital exclusion, and they have been concerned with aligning this debate with a previous analysis about inclusion in the context of the country’s historical, social inequalities. One of the critical issues of this scenario affects conceptions about uses/users. Often uses/users are perceived as homogenous, and no attention is given to the multiple possibilities of engagement/disengagement that people may have with the Internet as a technology. Besides, it is common to find studies that consider access itself as inclusion and reaffirm ideas of technology determinism and neutrality. This dissertation, then, has three goals. The general purpose was analyzing, from the perspective of studies included in the Latin American Thought in Science, Technology, and Society (PLACTS), of the context of public policies for digital inclusion in Brazil, particularly between 2010 and 2019. Therefore, we seek to understand the different conceptions about Science and Technology, and we propose principles for a critical perspective of digital inclusion that goes beyond ideals of determinism and neutrality. From this previous perception, the first specific goal is to contextualize, for the Latin American scenario, the discussion about non-uses and non-users of the Internet, which is growing in the research community in Human-Computer Interaction and Science, Technology and Society Studies. Scholars have affirmed the relevance of studying non-use as complex phenomena, not explained only as a “phase” in technology adoption, but frequently motivated by active resistance, by previous social issues, and even partial non-use. Finally, the second specific goal is to undertake a case study about the indicators on non-uses and non-users present in the ICT Households Survey 2018, carried out annually, since 2005, by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br). After analyzing indicators and the context of the survey, we present suggestions on how non-use could be better addressed, including respecting public policies. This study is an interdisciplinary, qualitative, and exploratory-explanatory research that uses bibliographic and documentary research and case studies as data collection methods.Our analysis points out possibilities for expanding the debate on digital inclusion towards public policies guided by a more in-depth view of this issue and strengthening the research agenda on the subject in Brazil.