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Full-Text Articles in Science and Technology Studies
Social Capital And Electronic Networks: For Profit Vs. For Community Approaches, John Sullivan, Eugene Borgida, Melinda Jackson, Eric Riedel, Alina Oxendine, Amy Gangl
Social Capital And Electronic Networks: For Profit Vs. For Community Approaches, John Sullivan, Eugene Borgida, Melinda Jackson, Eric Riedel, Alina Oxendine, Amy Gangl
Alina Oxendine
In this article, the authors discuss the implementation of a community electronic network in a rural Minnesota town. The network is intended to help the community keep up with global technological progress by increasing access to the Internet. The current project compares this community approach to electronic networks with an economic, for-profit approach utilized in a nonequivalent control community. Drawing on the theory of social capital, the authors consider the relative impacts of privately oriented social engagement versus publicly oriented political engagement in relation to collective outcomes. The findings to date show that in the presence of a broadly based …
A Tale Of Two Towns: Assessing The Role Of Political Resources In A Community Electronic Network, John Sullivan, Eugene Borgida, Melinda Jackson, Eric Riedel, Alina Oxendine
A Tale Of Two Towns: Assessing The Role Of Political Resources In A Community Electronic Network, John Sullivan, Eugene Borgida, Melinda Jackson, Eric Riedel, Alina Oxendine
Alina Oxendine
In this study we examine responses to the recent expansion of information technology in two rural Minnesota towns. One of these towns took a cooperative approach to technology access, developing a community electronic network, while the other town relied on a more individualistic, entrepreneurial model. The present study examines citizens' attitudes concerning social, political, and technological issues in these two communities, with the goal of uncovering what kinds of attitudes and resources citizens need to have in order to help support and sustain a community electronic network. Structural equation modeling is used to specify the relationships among individuals' economic, political, …
Civic Culture Meets The Digital Divide: The Role Of Community Electronic Networks
Civic Culture Meets The Digital Divide: The Role Of Community Electronic Networks
Alina Oxendine
The concept of social capital reflects the norms and social relations embedded in the social structure of societies that enable people to coordinate community action to achieve desired goals. Our research focuses on the role that norms of cooperation and civic and political culture play in addressing the “digital divide” in computer use and Internet access. We review evidence from mail surveys of randomly selected respondents in two rural Minnesota communities as well as qualitative focus group and archival evidence suggesting that the communities have adopted different approaches to technology diffusion. Whether information technology is viewed as a public or …