– Många av dem jag mötte använder sociala medier och läser nyheter på internet. Allt det pekar på att de inte är digitalt utanför. Men när de till exempel ska ta del av skolans läroplattform då blir det plötsligt svårt. Då kan man säga att i den situationen är de plötsligt utanför, säger Ahmed Kaharevic som skrivit avhandlingen vid Institutionen för ekonomisk och industriell utveckling vid Linköpings universitet.
Door-knocking survey
“Many of the people I met use social media and access news on the internet. All this indicates that they aren’t digitally excluded. But when they, for example, want to access information on schools’ learning platforms, things suddenly get difficult. Then you can say that in this situation they are suddenly being excluded,” says Ahmed Kaharevic, author of the thesis written at the Department of Management and Engineering at Linköping University.
Marcus Pettersson
The second part of the research consists of interviews and focus groups with professionals and residents in Skäggetorp and in the Navestad district of Norrkoping. Ahmed Kaharevic has also spent a lot of time in both areas just observing and networking. He highlights the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods as a strength.
Higher demands on personal responsibility
His results show that access to mobile phones and computers is greater than that found in other studies in similar areas. The knowledge of how to use the technology also exists but depends on the situation. In particular, there are major difficulties in contacts with authorities. The residents of Skäggetorp and Navestad are trying both to fulfil their social obligations and to safeguard their rights, but the digitalisation of public services has made this more difficult.
“There are higher demands on users to know which public agency to turn to for a particular problem,” says Ahmed Kaharevic.
Ahmed Kaharevic’s research shows that when contacts with public agencies take place digitally instead of through personal meetings, greater responsibility is placed on the individual. Insufficient language command, limited ability to navigate digital services and insufficient knowledge of Swedish society then cause difficulty.
Digital platform for government services
He has several suggestions for action. One is to gather all government services on the same digital platform to make them easier to find. This is the case in many other countries, but not in Sweden. There is also a need for more education in languages, civics and digital skills through municipalities and non-governmental organisations, but above all the various actors must coordinate to make better use of resources. National efforts against segregation must also take digital exclusion into account.
Ahmed Kaharevic notes that there are currently political discussions about restricting access to the welfare state where one goal is to make individuals more active and thus reduce segregation. At the same time, the ongoing digitalisation risks countering this ambition.
“No matter what path you want to take – towards a more restrictive or more open welfare state – people need the skills and resources to be able to exercise their rights and obligations,” says Ahmed Kaharevic.
Translation: Anneli Mosell
