Understanding the costs and challenges of the digital divide through UK council services

Abstract

This study investigates the issue of digital exclusion resulting from the digitisation of government and council services within the United Kingdom. An initial analysis of customer support log data from a council in a large UK city helped identify the most commonly queried services and modes of support. The main findings are based on qualitative analysis of 10 interviews, structured around the results from the log analysis, conducted with front-line staff members at the central library of the same council. The study identifies a range of issues associated with the provision of e-government services and the subsequent under-utilisation by the public, including poor design, issues with effective access and the level of digital literacy among end users. The study also proposes the concept of the ‘digital carer’, a friend or family member who is relied upon by users unable to interact with e-government services themselves. The findings of this study have implications for the way in which these services are designed and delivered and point to the need for further work that can contribute to the UK digital economy by facilitating better access to e-government services and reduce digital exclusion, especially for elderly and marginalised users.

Digitalisation without detriment: A research agenda for digital inclusion in the future energy system

“…This was emphasised strongly by workshop participants and is a prominent theme in extant academic literature on digital inclusion. For someone to be digitally included, it often requires them to be able to trust (to a reasonable extent) that the technologies, actors, and supporting infrastructure they rely on will carry out their specific role and not cause distress or disruption to the people using them (Hunsaker and Hargittai, 2018;Harvey et al, 2021;Cuijpers and Koops, 2013). In addition, digital inclusion often requires using and navigating an array of platforms (e.g., Facebook, Uber), platforms that require people to have a certain level of trust in what they do, how they work, and that they provide appropriate information and don't operate nefariously (Trentham et al, 2015;Etzioni, 2019;Fan and Zhang, 2021).…”

“…Further to financial exclusion previously discussed, people with disabilities, refugees, and migrants are excluded from society in multifarious ways, and often have pre-existing relationships with local organisations, connections that many digital inclusion programmes have built on (Stone, 2021). Vulnerable groups can be sceptical of formal and larger governmental institutions, further reinforcing the reliance on, and close relationships with, smaller and local organisations (Harvey et al, 2021). People who face digital exclusion frequently turn to friends and family to carry out online tasks on their behalf (Richardson, 2018), echoing Hargreaves and Middlemiss' (2020) identification of these relationships as crucial to shaping energy demand.…”

Administrative burden in digital public service delivery: The social infrastructure of library programs for e‐inclusion

“…This includes receiving information ‘from a citizen perspective’ and communicated in ‘easy‐to‐understand language’ (Madsen et al, 2022). In the literature, such arrangements have been labeled as ‘information intermediaries’, who are situated in‐between government services and citizens in need of support (Harvey et al, 2021; Heinrich, 2016; Mervyn et al, 2014).…”

Development of e-government in the field of social services and benefits: Evidence from Romania

“…The use of e-government has been identified as the deepest gap that exists among individuals using the Internet (Al-Muwil et al, 2019). Additionally, in the UK context, another study identifies several factors associated with the underutilization of e-government services, such as poor design, effective access and level of digital literacy (Harvey et al, 2021). The article argues that digitalised welfare agencies simultaneously sustain existing lines of social stratification and enhance these by producing new forms of digital exclusion.…”