Inquiry into Triple Zero Service Outages
ACCAN recently submitted to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee’s Inquiry into Triple Zero service outages. Australians believe that access to mobile telecommunications is critical for participation in daily life.
From silence to signal: Nigerian women building digital pathways to justice
Over the past years, I have had the privilege of visiting communities and interacting with women across Nigerian states. During my most recent visit, between July and August this year, I toured Bauchi, Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Kaduna, where women are rewriting what connectivity means in their lives. Sitting with them in the community ICT hub, under the Trees and Learning Circle, I have seen how access to technology can become more than a technical matter; it can become a bridge to confidence, agency and solidarity.
The Digital Divide Is a Human Rights Issue: Advancing Social Inclusion Through Social Work Advocacy
Imagine your day-to-day life without reliable, consistent, and rapid access to the Internet. What kind of impact would this have on your ability to communicate with others, stay in touch with family and friends, complete your schoolwork, look for a job, keep up on current events, or take care of your daily financial transactions? What kind of impact would this have had on your life during the pandemic of 2020? The role and importance of technology has become glaringly obvious in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where society has been forced to rely even more heavily on technology for basic daily living including accessing basic goods, maintaining connections with others, working from home, and having the ability to complete schoolwork.
Cognitive influences in second-hand markets: from perception to purchase in rural smartphone consumption
This study aims to examine how rural consumers make second-hand purchase decisions beyond economic necessity. Using schema theory, we explore how perceived price fairness, product features, product quality and sustainable community influence drive purchase intentions in the rural second-hand smartphone market.
Foundations to thrive: Policy briefs for child and family wellbeing
Understanding how events in early life shape an individual’s destiny, in terms of their physical and mental health and their cognitive and emotional development, is at the heart of informing us about our future society. Human flourishing has therefore been a distinct theme of Koi Tū Centre for Informed Futures since it was founded over five years ago. Over that time, we have produced many evidence briefs that were initially aimed at health professionals but increasingly at the policy and philanthropic communities. Our work was given impetus by the late Chloe Wright, who recognised the importance of linking the science of parental and infant health to policymaking, and encouraged us to focus on the sciencepolicy interface. After her untimely death in 2023, the Wright Family Foundation supported us to expand our work, particularly within the policy domain; that work is now encompassed within the Chloe Wright Policy Unit of Koi Tū. The Chloe Wright Policy Unit focuses on the life course between conception and young adulthood. It analyses and summarises the evidence from biomedical, social, educational and psychological sciences to suggest integrated approaches to improving the outcome for the next generation. This is central to the concept of informing our society’s future.
Youth Digital Wellbeing - Research Report 2024
As students become increasingly active online, it is essential to help them navigate both the benefits and challenges of digital technology. According to the New Zealand Teens’ Digital Profile: A Factsheet (2018), nearly one-third of teens spend four or more hours online daily, while 38% report two to four hours. Although this data is six years old, feedback from New Zealand primary and intermediate students during discussions with the report's authors suggests that online engagement has likely risen significantly since then.
Offline and Overlooked: Digital exclusion and its impact on older people.
In the digital age, everything from accessing services and shopping, to socialising and entertainment is taking place on the internet. So, what happens if you’re not online? You get overlooked and left behind.