Gender, access to community telecenter and livelihood asset changes | |
| Author | Sani Naivinit |
| Call Number | AIT Diss no.GD-10-01 |
| Subject(s) | Computers and women--Thailand Information technology--Thailand Women in technology--Thailand |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Program in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. GD-10-01 |
| Abstract | Today, information can travel around the world instantaneously through networks comprising technologies as diverse as telephones, radio broadcasting, and the Internet. While new communication technologies are a vehicle of development; however, they can result in contrary effects. They can increase social, economic and political inequalities among and within regions and social groups that have different accessibilities to these technologies. The inequalities exists between the educated and the uneducated, among economic classes, and, globally, between the more and less industrially developed nations, among those in cities and those in rural areas, and especially between women and men. Women have been considered outsiders of a technology that historically and inherently has been seen as men’s domain. From the point of view of ‘liberal feminism’, women’s exclusion within the digital divide results from a lack of access to, and use of, digital technology such as computers and the Internet because of barriers related to gender stereotyping. Thus, there are attempts to increase the accessibilities of technologies for women and all marginalized people by building places called ‘telecenter’ or ‘community telecenter’ where they can use new technologies such as computers and the Internet. The study aims to examine the access to Community Telecenters (CTs) and the changes of people’s livelihood assets deriving from this access focusing in particular on gender dimensions of computer and Internet use in two Thai community telecenters. The study privileged a qualitative method through participatory observation and interviews of 37 respondents who were adult users of Pong CT in Phayao Province and SamKha CT in Lampang Province in Northern Thailand. The result of this study shows that computer attitude is more determining on whether one use CTs than computer knowledge and skills and, in that regard, that attitude between women and men users was found not to be markedly different. The users of CTs found themselves clearly drawing benefits from using computers and the Internet. Additionally, the study suggests that available time was an important element that influences the access to CTs, particularly for women users. Findings suggest that livelihood assets changed in specific areas with a rise in self-esteem being one of the most noticeable changes. With regards to gender, although it was found that there was only a small difference of financial opportunity between women and men, the findings point to more positive changes for women than men in terms of health enhancement and social connectedness whereas there were more men than women who experienced changes in self-esteem and education. Although this study looked at livelihood asset changes, these changes support the potential of ICTs as tools for enhancing poor rural people’s overall livelihood. The users of CTs found themselves clearly drawing benefits from using computers and the Internet. A main recommendation that can be learned from this study is that in order to use ICTs for development, particularly for the rural-poor, it is important that the ICT provider understands users’ characteristic. The user is not merely passive, and it is her or him who will draw benefit through their computer knowledge and skills and the information learned from Internet use. Foremost, providing rural people with access to ICTs can better prepare users to improve their own livelihood. |
| Year | 2010 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. GD-10-01 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Gender and Development Studies (GD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Doneys, Philippe; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Kusakabe, Kyoko;Igel, Barbara;Soparth Ponguan; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Australian Embassy; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2010 |