Bypassing digital literacy: Marginalized citizens' tactics for participation and inclusion in digital societies

Author

Alexander Smit, Joëlle Swart, Marcel Broersma

Year

2025

Publisher

new media & society, SAGE

DOI/Link

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14614448231220383

Abstract

This article asks what digital literacy tactics low-literate Dutch adults employ to bypass
their low-literacy to be able to participate in digital society, and what the consequences
are for their socio-digital exclusion and inclusion. It contributes to a better understanding
of the impact of digitalization for low-literate citizens, and the linguistic and digital
barriers encountered in everyday life. Drawing upon participant observations and semistructured interviews with low-literate adult citizens in four libraries, a community
center, and a school for adult education (N=73), this article develops a taxonomy
of five tactics which enables low-literate citizens to digitally participate despite their
linguistic and digital barriers: (1) informal support structures, (2) formal support
structures, (3) non-written communication, (4) translation software, and (5) optimal
character recognition. We show how these tactics of appropriating the affordances of
information and communications technologies (ICTs), and making use of social networks
enable low-literate Dutch citizens to participate in socially situated manners, making
use of social support structures and digital literacies developed in relation to “foreign”
languages. Consequently, this study counters the stigma on such marginalized groups, who are often assumed to be unable or unwilling to participate, and presents them
as not adhering to the dominant discourse of participatory culture. Hence, the added
value of this study is threefold: (1) it centers the capabilities of low-literate citizens
stemming from social capital and obfuscated linguistic potential, (2) it gives visibility
toward more hidden everyday (digital) practices of marginalized subgroups with a larger
distance toward the digital society, and (3) it foregrounds the lived experiences of the
user and their (limited) use of ICTs, and how tactics are developed and practiced to
bypass linguistic and/or digital barriers showing situated agency and problem-solving
capacities. We argue that digital literacies should not be considered as a prerequisite for
digital participation and inclusion, as our findings show that low-literate Dutch citizens
are a highly diverse group that are capable of participating, despite their low (digital)-
literacy. However, they do so in socially situated and non-written manners, in line with
their digital and linguistic capabilities and barriers.

Keywords

Digital Literacy, Digital Inclusion

Media and Information Literacy Repository – South Asia

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