ABSTRACT

The discourse of the digital divide continues to shift from questions of physical access to questions of empowerment and equality. Implicit in this shift is the need to make sense of technology use within marginalized communities, prompting the central question of this study: What happens to marginalized individuals after they gain digital access, and importantly, training? To explore this question, I observed and assisted a group of 18 mostly transnational, Latina individuals during a five-month long computer class in Newark, New Jersey. The study positions computers as a kind of “boundary object” existing as a material thing embedded within associated systems, local meanings, and practices as interpreted by the researcher. The voices and experiences of the classroom participants are examined through cross-disciplinary theoretical frameworks drawn primarily from Science and Technology Studies (STS) and a specific transnational study. Thus, the article makes a contribution to the field of Communication by bringing these theoretical concepts into conversation with pedagogical ethnography and Internet Communication Technologies (ICT).

摘要

数字鸿沟的讨论继续从物理访问问题转向赋权和平等问题。这种转变隐含的是需要理解边缘化社区中的技术使用，这引发了本研究的核心问题：边缘化的个人在获得数字访问权后会发生什么，更重要的是，培训？为了探讨这个问题，我在新泽西州纽瓦克的一个为期五个月的计算机课程中观察并帮助了 18 名主要是跨国的拉丁裔人士。该研究将计算机定位为一种“边界对象”，作为嵌入在研究人员解释的相关系统、当地意义和实践中的物质事物而存在。课堂参与者的声音和经验通过主要来自科学技术研究 (STS) 和特定跨国研究的跨学科理论框架进行检验。因此，本文通过将这些理论概念与教学民族志和互联网通信技术 (ICT) 进行对话，为传播领域做出了贡献。