Author: Chinazam Felicia Okorie|SRS2021

Editor: Aneka Rebecca Rajbhandari|SRS2021

On December 7th,the fourth seminar of thelecture series on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), organized by the Silk Road School was held and key focus was placed on the theme of social inclusion in this digital age. Professor Yan Hui of the School of Information Resource Management at the Renmin University, Beijing Campus, delivered the lecture citing his experience in the field of Information Sciences. Professor Yan has a first degree in Library Science and a PhD in Information Science from Peking University as well as visiting scholar experience at the University of Illinois. He also currently serves as a supervisor for doctorate research students in Information Science with research interests including community informatics and digital inequality.

Through out the seminar, Prof Yan adopted a very calm experience-sharing approach to take the students through his 15 year career journey in community informatics to set the tone and provide a context for his discussion styled engagement with the students on the topic of social inclusion in the digital age. The discussion centered around an action field study carried out in China by Professor Yan to discover the digital divide amongst different segments of the society including low income communities, the disabled, rural women and unemployed citizens, and in general digital gaps between the rich and the poor-with the overall aim of exploring ways to include marginalized populations in digital life.

To begin, the Professor enjoined the students to think about the intersection between social inclusion and the digital age by posing 5 important questions:

1. 1. Have you got equal access to computer and the Internet?

   2. Can you get equal opportunity to use mobile internet?

   3. Do the disabled have equal chances to know and use AI devices?

   4. Could the marginalized population own equal chances to digital application in pandemic?

   5. Is there sufficient policy empowering the disadvantaged in the digital age?

As a way of reflecting on these questions, the students attempted to first define the key term “social inclusion”. Professor Yan then introduced the definition proposed by the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs;

“Social inclusion is the process by which efforts are made to ensure equal opportunities –that everyone, regardless of their background, can achieve their full potential in life. Such efforts include policies and actions that promote equal access to (public) services as well as enable citizen’s participation in the decision-making processes that affect their lives”.

Based on the adopted definition above, students provided feedback to the initial posed questions. A pattern emerged in the responses to indicate that inequality is universal but to varying degrees depending on levels of development especially of internet infrastructure in different countries.

Prof Yan continued sharing the lessons and learning outcomes from his action field research experience in the last four years in different parts of China including Xian andSichuan province where he and his team attempted to immerse themselves in the daily lives of ordinary citizens to observe how they interact with and adapt ICT to their daily lives for a range of activities such as using QR codes to access hospital facilities during the pandemic and using the map app to order a taxi on the cell phone.

One of the key findings from his research in Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County showed the effort in bridging the digital divide by the donation of computers to schools and hospitals by some foundations however some of the foundation’s volunteers were incompetent in knowledge transfer due to their very busy schedule.The action field research which took the Professor and his team to Anhui, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan,Heibei and Xingjiang over a ten year period tells a similar story of digital inequality and deprivation especially for women and children especially in the less developed provinces.

In conclusion, Prof. Yan suggests that improved digital inclusion may have a resultant postitve effect on social inclusion of marginalized communities. He ended his presentation on a high note with optimistic recommendations for digital inclusion using the proposed model below.

The participating students for this seminar were the first year students of the SRS Masters in Contemporary China Students program. Overall, it was an interactive seminar and an effective way for the students to learn about China through the Professor’s first hand experience and research. Among the participants, some students have shared their opinion on the lecture and the topic.

Jose Ricardo Vargas Rojas from Costa Rica shares:

“The key takeaway of this seminar for me was how we were taught how advantaged we are to access Information and Communication Technology (ICT) granting us opportunities to develop ourselves in life.”

Clayton Boylan from the United States of America also shares:

“I think that disabled people are hurt tenfold by being disconnected in this day and age, and that getting connection to the disabled, the elderly, and those in need should be prioritized, but those disadvantaged communities who otherwise cannot access/afford internet connection must be addressed immediately afterwards. In my country and many others, the struggle often comes from unwillingness to spend money in areas that internet providers will receive too few customers. However, internet isn’t a fancy car or some takeout food, it is a necessity in our day and age. It quite literally saves lives by allowing people to contact ems and crisis teams, it allows people to voice concerns more effectively and forces governments to confront this problem or illicit a response from the people, and it allows people to keep in contact no matter where they are on the planet. These benefits to society shouldn’t be disregarded just because some internet companies can’t turn a profit creating broadband connection there. In my opinion is when governments should intercede on behalf of the people to either incentivize the creation of said infrastructure or they build it themselves. The fact that so many people are disconnected from the internet makes me realize that when statesmen use terms like “superpower” they are entirely disconnected from society. They don’t concern themselves with the struggles at home only the struggles abroad.”