[This research brief sketches the information characterization of the “have-less” in Nepal by unveiling Internet (data) consumption and online activity quantitatively. You can find the brief at http://www.martinchautari.org.np/files/Research-Brief-23_English.pdf]
Conventionally, digital inequality has been seen as a deviance that can be fixed by increasing access. We argue that such framing shifts our focus away from critical issues about how Internet is used, who benefits and who is excluded in the end or even during the drive for increasing connectivity. We suggest that in an evolving landscape of digital expansion, the distinct in-between tier of the information have-less appears. The formation of this have-less group is a result of particular social transformations where communication technologies start to play crucial roles in the lives of the marginalized groups such as migrant workers, unemployed youth, and the old. We show that in utilizing the binary categories of “haves” vs. “have-nots,” the dominant narrative of Nepali Internet misses out the information stratification in Nepali society. Consequently, Internet policies, based on inaccurate ground assessment, will have no or limited impact on the lives and livelihood of the very users for whom the massive investment in the digital infrastructure is being rolled out. We call for a new set of policies that explicitly recognize the information stratification and make use of distinct technosocial characteristics of the information have-less in striving for the universal connectivity in the country.
Conventionally, digital inequality has been seen as a deviance that can be fixed by increasing access. We argue that such framing shifts our focus away from critical issues about how Internet is used, who benefits and who is excluded in the end or even during the drive for increasing connectivity. We suggest that in an evolving landscape of digital expansion, the distinct in-between tier of the information have-less appears. The formation of this have-less group is a result of particular social transformations where communication technologies start to play crucial roles in the lives of the marginalized groups such as migrant workers, unemployed youth, and the old. We show that in utilizing the binary categories of “haves” vs. “have-nots,” the dominant narrative of Nepali Internet misses out the information stratification in Nepali society. Consequently, Internet policies, based on inaccurate ground assessment, will have no or limited impact on the lives and livelihood of the very users for whom the massive investment in the digital infrastructure is being rolled out. We call for a new set of policies that explicitly recognize the information stratification and make use of distinct technosocial characteristics of the information have-less in striving for the universal connectivity in the country.
