赋权视角下的空间数字包容性——对城市老年女性的实证研究

Digital inclusion from an empowerment perspective:An empirical study of urban female elderly

在数字技术成为城市治理新范式的背景下,如何营造具有数字包容性的空间并促进技术弱势群体的赋权成为一项关键议题。论文基于赋权的视角,以老年女性为研究对象,采用半结构化访谈的质性方法探究空间数字包容性的现状与数字资本的赋权作用。研究发现,人们对城市的空间感知发生了转变,线上与线下空间成为一个交融的连续体,线上空间的不确定性与风险性渗透进入线下空间。数字包容或排斥性导致人们进行“触网”或“断连”的空间选择,数字资本的提升能在福利、资源获取、意识、参与、控制这5个层次上促进技术弱势群体的赋权。论文进而提出数字包容性空间营造的逻辑与行动框架,应通过减少障碍因素来提高数字化迁移的自由程度,使“线下—线上”空间成为“包容的连通体”,并在非正式与正式环境、个体与制度的多种维度上共同采取行动,以发挥技术的赋权作用。论文丰富了数字地理学的实证研究成果,为提升中国城市规划与治理中的数字包容性提供依据。

As digital technologies become a new paradigm of urban governance,creating a digitally inclusive space and promoting the empowerment of technologically disadvantaged groups has become a vital issue.Based on the empowerment perspective,this study employed a qualitative research method—semi-structured interviews,and took urban female elderly as the research target,to examine the status quo of digital inclusiveness of space and the empowering effect of digital capital.The study found that the spatial perception towards the city has transformed,with online and offline spaces becoming an intertwined continuum,and the uncertainty and risks associated with online spaces permeating into offline spaces.The push-pull model of digital migration developed in this study theorizes that the inclusive or exclusive nature of digital space guides individuals in making spatial decisions of either"connecting"or"disconnecting".Increased digital capital can contribute to the empowerment of the technologically disadvantaged at five levels,including welfare,access,conscientization,participation,and control.The study found that the increase in urban female elderly's digital capital is concentrated at the welfare and access levels,and remains superficial at the deeper levels of conscientization,participation,and control.The article then proposed a logical and operational framework for making spaces digitally inclusive.The article suggested that the freedom of digital migration should be increased by reducing the barriers between online and offline spaces thereby creating an"inclusive continuum",and by acting on multiple dimensions of informal and formal environments and individual and institutional levels,to take advantage the empowering effects of technologies.This study enriches the empirical scholarship of digital geography and offers insights for improving digital inclusion within urban planning and governance in China.