Campaigning for digital equality: the role of digital access attitudes in neoliberal context

ABSTRACT

Covid-19 has thrust social services into the work of meeting digital needs, and some practitioners are mooting the need for more universal digital access. Yet little is known of societal attitudes towards digital equality and the means to achieving it. This article discusses the sociodemographic origins of digital and digital access attitudes in the context of a neoliberal state. Applying multiple regression of participants’ answers to a campaign poll and content analysis of their comments, we found that: (i) digital access attitudes do not follow from the more widely known attitudes towards technology adoption; (ii) while public and social service professionals have greater sympathy towards digitally vulnerable populations, they also hold more neoliberal views towards how digital resources are to be distributed; and (iii) neoliberal ideology undergirds digital access attitudes. These findings have implications on digital services for social development.

KEYWORDS:

• Campaign
• inequality
• digital access
• attitudes
• neoliberalism

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Allkin Singapore for permission to use their campaign data and for campaign partners for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Irene Y.H. Ng

Irene Y.H. Ng is an associate professor in the Department of Social Work and the Social Service Research Centre, both at the National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on poverty, inequality and social welfare policies.

Arthur Soh

Arthur Soh is an undergraduate student in Economics and Social Work at the National University of Singapore. He is also a research assistant for the Social Service Research Centre.

Natalie Pang

Natalie Pang is an associate professor in Communications and New Media, and principal investigator at the Centre for Trusted Internet and Community, both at the National University of Singapore. Her research and teaching focuses on digital citizenship, digital inclusion and digital well-being.

Santosh Kumar

Santosh Kumar is the founder of Soul Probe, a consultancy that facilitates conversations to heal divisions and polarisation in society. He helped build OPPi, a civic tech platform that channels the voices of citizens for a democracy that is more participatory and consensus-based.

Bee Leng Ng

Bee Leng Ng is Divisional Director, Strategy and Transformation, Allkin Singapore. Her research interest lies in how low-income communities draw from their lived experiences of poverty to become co-creators of change.