Low-income communities : technological strategies for nurturing community, empowerment and self-sufficiency at a low-income housing development

There are a number of historically familiar and unfamiliar forces at work in low-income communities in the United States. Recurrent forces include rapidly changing economic and demographic trends, Welfare Reform, and the increasing demand for affordable housing and a living wage. This thesis, through research-based exploration and observations of a particular information technology transfer project, considers a relatively contemporary concern known as the Digital Divide (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1995, 1997, 1999 & 2000) and examines the impacts that IT may have on low-income residents' ability to address their own challenges. This thesis uses data collected from a two-year longitudinal study, which we called the Camfield Estates-MIT Creating Community Connections Project, in order to address the following question(s): Can personal computing and high-speed Internet access support community building efforts; and can this access to technology empower low-income community residents to do more themselves? We gain insight into the likelihood that residents who have a personal computer and Internet access in their homes will feel a sense of community, will experience an increase in their social contact with others, and will strengthen their social ties. This research also explores whether outcomes gained through in-home computing can promote an increased sense of empowerment and the capacity to independently access relevant information related to a resident's needs, wants or purposes. Camfield Estates is a small, low- to moderate-income, housing development in Roxbury, Massachusetts with significant historical ties to its surrounding community.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• O'Bryant, Richard Louis, 1964-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joseph Ferreira, Jr.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/26910

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/26910