Low-income communities : technological strategies for nurturing community, empowerment and self-sufficiency at a low-income housing development

摘要

There are a number of historically familiar and unfamiliar forces at work in low-income communities in the United States. Recurrent forces include rapidly changing economic and demographic trends, Welfare Reform, and the increasing demand for affordable housing and a living wage. This thesis, through research-based exploration and observations of a particular information technology transfer project, considers a relatively contemporary concern known as the Digital Divide (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1995, 1997, 1999 & 2000) and examines the impacts that IT may have on low-income residents' ability to address their own challenges. This thesis uses data collected from a two-year longitudinal study, which we called the Camfield Estates-MIT Creating Community Connections Project, in order to address the following question(s): Can personal computing and high-speed Internet access support community building efforts; and can this access to technology empower low-income community residents to do more themselves? We gain insight into the likelihood that residents who have a personal computer and Internet access in their homes will feel a sense of community, will experience an increase in their social contact with others, and will strengthen their social ties. This research also explores whether outcomes gained through in-home computing can promote an increased sense of empowerment and the capacity to independently access relevant information related to a resident's needs, wants or purposes. Camfield Estates is a small, low- to moderate-income, housing development in Roxbury, Massachusetts with significant historical ties to its surrounding community.