Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of boxes and figures
- Introduction
- one ICT: people and society
- two ICT and social welfare practice
- three Putting the I and the C back into ICT
- four Modelling information flows and needs: improving service quality
- five Modelling information flows and needs: improving organisational effectiveness
- six People, organisations and ICT
- seven Information exclusion and the digital divide
- eight Where next? Social welfare practice and e-government
- nine Where next? Social welfare practice and emerging technology
- Thinklist
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
nine - Where next? Social welfare practice and emerging technology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of boxes and figures
- Introduction
- one ICT: people and society
- two ICT and social welfare practice
- three Putting the I and the C back into ICT
- four Modelling information flows and needs: improving service quality
- five Modelling information flows and needs: improving organisational effectiveness
- six People, organisations and ICT
- seven Information exclusion and the digital divide
- eight Where next? Social welfare practice and e-government
- nine Where next? Social welfare practice and emerging technology
- Thinklist
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
Summary
Introduction
This chapter puts social welfare practice in the wider context of:
• the politicians who shape social welfare practice through legislation and policy;
• the current and future role of ICT in the democratic process;
• the role of ICT in developing and supporting the whole community;
• the use of ICT by the voluntary sector in campaigning for change;
• the potential risk of ICT in terms of the invasion of privacy and excessive government control.
It goes on to explore what the future might hold and translates this into practice for social welfare practitioners.
Democracy is the foundation of social welfare, and elected politicians are pivotal in this process – so it makes sense to start with politicians and their likely perspectives on ICT.
Politicians and ICT
A recurring theme of this book has been the lessons that can be drawn from societal responses to new technologies. One conclusion is that politicians like to be associated with new technology. Victorian politicians identified themselves with the growth of the railway (Hardy, 2003). A century later, Harold Wilson is remembered for his ‘white heat of technology’ speech:
… Wilson, summoned Labour to embrace the cult of the new and to harness the white heat of the technological revolution.… There was no room in the Labour movement for Luddites or antique working practices. (MacArthur, 1993, p 336)
A similar situation has developed between New Labour and ICT:
Given that New Labour is obsessed with ‘modernisation’ ever since its emergence as a political force, it was inevitable that it would find the Internet irresistible. And so it proved, with Downing St and the Cabinet Office pumping out windy phrases about making Britain the most ‘e-friendly’ country in the world, the appointment of an ‘e-envoy’ and a deluge of hooey composed by picking words and adding the ‘e-’ prefix as in ‘eGovernment’, ‘eLearning’, ‘eDemocracy’ … ‘Britain’, gushed Blair, ‘has the potential to become a technological powerhouse’. (Naughton, 2002)
The concept of the ‘certainty trough’ was introduced in Chapter Six. This model described the idea that ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’. It seems likely, then, that for the immediate future – despite the scale of the problems described in Chapter Six – ICT will continue to be seen as a panacea for managing the problems of social welfare.
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- ICT for Social WelfareA Toolkit for Managers, pp. 139 - 152Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2004