Fostering digital participation and communication through social living labs: a qualitative case study from regional Australia

ABSTRACT

This qualitative case study explores the potential of social living labs to foster digital participation and communication among regional and rural communities. The context is Townsville, North Queensland (Australia) – one of the first communities connected to Australia’s National Broadband. The study focuses on two cases: inaugural social living lab events related to social interests identified by local residents. Drawing on interview and observation data, the study’s findings present a snapshot of digital participation and associated learning needs among this community. It also models a novel social living labs approach whose emphasis on informal learning differentiates it from more established living labs models that have a technological or product focus. This social living labs approach could be of interest to community developers, educators and residents. Addressing digital divide, it supports digital capacity building in Townsville and other regional and remote communities around Australia and the world.

KEYWORDS:

• Social living labs
• digital participation
• digital communication
• community
• regional Australia

Acknowledgements

Ethical clearance was approved by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) (ref 1400000017).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded by the Australian Research Council: LP130100469 Fostering digital participation through living labs in regional and rural Australian communities.

Notes on contributors

Hilary Hughes

Hilary Hughes is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, where she coordinates and teaches in the Master of Education (Teacher-Librarianship) program. Her qualifications include: PhD (QUT, Australia), MA Librarianship (Sheffield University, UK), BA Combined Hons Spanish and Romance Linguistics (Birmingham University, UK), AALIA. Hilary's research interests include digital and information literacies and informed learning, learning space design, and international student experience. She is currently Chief Investigator for two Australian Research Council ARC Linkage grants and has completed several other funded projects. In her research, Hilary draws on extensive previous experience as reference librarian and information literacy educator. In 2010 she was Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at Colorado University Denver.

Marcus Foth

Marcus Foth is the director of the QUT Design Lab, founder of the Urban Informatics Research Lab, and Professor in Interactive & Visual Design, School of Design, Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He is also an Honorary Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University, Denmark. He holds a Bachelor of Multimedia from Griffith University, a Bachelor of Computer Science (1st Class Honours) from Furtwangen University, Germany, as well as an MA (Digital Media) and a PhD in Urban Media Studies from QUT. Marcus’ research focuses on the relationships between people, place and technology. He leads a cross-disciplinary team that develops practical approaches to complex urban problems. He adopts human-computer interaction and design methodologies to build engagement around emerging issues facing our cities. He tweets @sunday9pm, @UrbanInf, and @QUTdesign.

Michael Dezuanni

Michael Dezuanni undertakes research and teaching in the field of digital cultures and education, which includes film and media education, digital literacies and Arts education. He is appointed by the Film, Television and Animation Discipline in the Creative Industries Faculty and is a member of the QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre.

Kerry Mallan

Kerry Mallan is a member of the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Her qualifications are in Education, including: Phd (James Cook University), M.Ed. St. (University of Queensland), B.Ed. St. (University of Queensland) and GradDip (Teacher-Librarianship) (Brisbane College of Advanced Education). She is also an Adjunct Professor at Beijing Normal University and Nanjing Normal University (China). Kerry was the founding director of the Children and Youth Research Centre at QUT from 2011–2016. She is the co-series editor at Palgrave Macmillan (UK) for the literature list – Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature. She has published extensively on children’s and youth literature and film. Other research interests include: young people’s use of digital technologies, youth cultures and popular media, rhetorical practices of digital texts and technologies, the application of critical theories to the study of texts, cultures, and societal practices.

Cherie Allan

Cherie Allan is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. Her qualifications include a PhD (QUT), M.Ed. (USQ), GradDipEd in Teacher-Librarianship (QUT) and BA (UQ). She teaches units on children’s and young adult literature in the Faculty’s post-graduate and undergraduate programs. Her book, Playing with Picturebooks: Postmodernism and the Postmodernesque (2012), was awarded the IRSCL Honor Book Award in 2013.