Digital Exclusion for the Socially Excluded

 

(Source: MIT Techreview.com)

The perception of security that I carried since my past has evolved as I grew up. Security (freedom from Threats) was explained to me from a realist perspective, which is traditional or often concerned with the frame of reference of international relations (IR) that explains war and armed conflict. We understand and make sense of reality through a distinct understanding of self, and it evolves with our exposure to the world’s distinct cultures. As Anais Nin mentions “we see things not as they are, but as we are”. I viewed and shaped reality through the frame of reference of ‘me”.

Ken Booth in “Security and Self, Reflection of a fallen realist” addresses the issue of self-formation through social interactions and innate psychological traits that contribute to the development of one's identity. It also connects the notion of one's identity with one's position in society and highlights the need for non-state identities to be represented in the work of diplomacy. Booth's post-positivist perspective encourages us to look at security issues in terms of their impact on individuals, who exhibit distinct identities and roles that may or may not be shared by sociopolitical actors. Security issues, Booth said, and the theories used to study them, are fundamentally about individuals.

We saw the world go through the ravaging pandemic. Economies crumbled and fell to the depth of despair.  The economic, social, as well as individual disruption caused by the pandemic, was devastating.  In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital divide reared its ugly head. People turned to Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to adapt to changing uncertainty and operate with minimal disruptions than most of the society on the ground at a standstill. Due to the school closures, classes have been moved online. The use of digital technology to conciliate effective communication has increased. COVID – 19 pandemics in a way magnified the existing inequalities in terms of access to the internet and technology. As all the functioning of the economy and governance shifted to the online platform including the education and health sector.

The idea of ​​security as emancipation Approach (SAEA), is defined as the liberation of people (as individuals and groups) from those physical and human constraints that prevent them from carrying out what they would do voluntarily (Booth, 1991). For Booth, security issues and theories have at their core concept of individuality because only from this perspective can it be fully understood and hypothesized. While theorizing on security, he uses ethnic, sociocultural, and gendered narratives as indisputable characteristics, moving far beyond the usual military and state-centric perspectives. By such lenses, he explains the propensity and influence of a particular individual’s identity and role due to the excessive digital divide among the population. The digital divide in the case of India portrayed the usage gap between the rural and urban areas. While in the U.S blacks were the ones who had no access to smartphones and digital platforms. These social hierarchies, power structures, and relations deepened the already existing digital gap. Similarly, in the case of India caste, class, race, and the case of the US other subsisting social and power relations like color, gender were major actors. These inequal accesses to technology were mainly based on power structures prevalent in both these societies.  As we know existing digital inequality reinforces subsisting social inequality. Those on the “right side” of the digital divide (at all stages) benefit far more from using the internet at all levels than those on the “wrong side”. They're also better at dealing with unpleasant outcomes (cybercrime, disinformation, privacy loss, excessive use). 

Cynthia Enloe a famous feminist critique “Personal is political”. It seeks to blur the line between the public and private worlds, as the subjects themselves do not distinguish between the two. The personal is further conceptualized as being international, as is the international personal because international acts ruin an individual's reality and how he views everything around him. The personal, the political, and the international are a seamless web, as booth quoted. Individuals are embedded and embodied in the power structure and power relations, different hierarchies, caste, color, race. Individuals, regardless of caste class, should have a fully conducive environment to explore their potential. During Covid, people have had to deal with problems accessing food, water, and healthcare facilities. Security as emancipation approach advocates for digital access to Education, Employment, Freedom/Choice for the People.

To sum up, all that has been said so far, Cynthia Enloe's feminist security studies point to the "personal is international", and Ken Booth's Critical Security Studies with SAEA emphasize the focus on embedded and embodied individuals, both the importance of the "self" both in theory and in practical aspects of international affairs. They both take a cross-sectoral security perspective and, contrary to popular belief, view it in a much more positive, inclusive, and critical light, contrary to popular belief. They show the power structures and interactions that exist between people in various circumstances.

 

References:

1.   Booth, Ken. Security and Self: Reflections of a Fallen Realist. Routledge, 1997. 

2.  Hansen, Lene. ‘The Little Mermaid’s Silent Security Dilemma and the Absence of Gender in the Copenhagen School’. 2000. Millennium 29 (2): 285–30

3. Shepherd, Laura J. “Gender, Violence and Global Politics: Contemporary Debates in Feminist Security Studies.” Political Studies Review 7, no. 2 (2009): 208–19