Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a light on the digital divide and its implications in a digital-first society. In the UK, where our research is focused, parts of society still lack the infrastructure and/or basic skills needed to access essential online services like health, welfare, food, housing and education. During the pandemic, these services became digital by necessity, forcing many people to seek help through informal networks such as community hubs. Based on our focus groups and interviews with voluntary and third sector organisations in the UK, we make a case in this chapter for a kinder, more holistic approach to the accessibility of essential online services, based on the hypothesis that such an approach creates the types of spaces in which the benefits of such services can be more safely realised.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Good Things Foundation (2021) A new manifesto for digital inclusion. https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/insights/new-manifesto-digital-inclusion/
Roe P (2008) The “value” of positive security. Rev Int Stud 34:777–794
Hall T, Smith RJ (2015) Care and repair and the politics of urban kindness. Sociology 49(1):3–18
Noble K (15 Feb 2022) Personal interview with Peter hall
Kocksch L, Korn M, Poller A, Wagenknecht S (2018) Caring for IT security: accountabilities, moralities, and oscillations in IT security practices. Proc ACM Hum-Comput Inter 2(CSCW): 1–20
Morris A, Coles-Kemp L, Jones W (July 2020) Digitalised welfare: systems for both seeing and working with mess. In: 12th ACM conference on web science companion, pp 26–31
Van Dijk J (2020) The network society. Sage, London
Age UK (2021) Digital inclusion and older people—how have things changed in a Covid-19 world? Online briefing paper. https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/reports-and-publications/reports-and-briefings/active-communities/digital-inclusion-in-the-pandemic-final-march-2021.pdf
Yates S (2020) COVID-19 and digital exclusion: insights and implications for the Liverpool city region. Policy brief. https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/publicpolicyamppractice/covid-19/Policy,Brief,031.pdf
House of Lords Select Committee on COVID 19, UK Parliament (2021) Select committee on COVID-19. Corrected oral evidence: living online. https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/1736/pdf/
McDonald M (2008) Securitization and the construction of security. Eur J Int Rel 14(4):563–587
Doty RL (1998) Immigration and the politics of security. Secur Stud 8(2–3):71–93
Smith GM (2005) Into cerberus’ lair: bringing the idea of security to light. British J Polit Int Relat 7(4):485–507
Coles-Kemp L (2020) Inclusive security: digital security meets web science. Found Trends® Web Sci 7(2): 88–241
Kazansky B (2021) It depends on your threat model: the anticipatory dimensions of resistance to data-driven surveillance. Big Data Soc 8(1):2053951720985557
Coles-Kemp L, Ashenden D (2017) An everyday story of country folk’ online? The marginalisation of the internet and social media in the Archers. In: Custard, culverts and cake. Emerald Publishing Limited
Tseng E, Sabet M, Bellini R, Sodhi HK, Ristenpart T, Dell N (2022) Care infrastructures for digital security in intimate partner violence. CHI’22. https://emtseng.me/assets/Tseng-2022-CHI-Care-Infrastructures-Digital-Privacy-IPV.pdf
Freed D, Palmer J, Minchala D, Levy K, Ristenpart T, Dell N (April 2018) A stalker’s paradise, how intimate partner abusers exploit technology. In: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems, pp 1–13
Matthews T, O’Leary K, Turner A, Sleeper M, Woelfer JP, Shelton M, Manthorne C, Churchill EF, Consolvo S (May 2017) Stories from survivors: privacy & security practices when coping with intimate partner abuse. In: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems, pp 2189–2201
Naseem M, Younas F, Mustafa M (2020) Designing digital safe spaces for peer support and connectivity in patriarchal contexts. Proc ACM Hum-Comput Inter 4(CSCW2):1–24
Ehn P (2008) Participation in design things. PDC ’08: proceedings of the tenth conference on participatory design, Bloomington, Indiana, 30 September–4 October 2008. ACM Press, New York, pp 92–101
Coles-Kemp L, Ashenden DM, O’Hara K (2018) Why should I? Cybersecurity, the security of the state and the insecurity of the citizen. Polit Gov 6(2):41–48
Vines J, Pritchard G, Wright P, Olivier P, Brittain K (2015) An age-old problem: examining the discourses of ageing in HCI and strategies for future research. ACM Trans Comput-Hum Inter (TOCHI) 22(1):1–27
Schout G, de Jong G, Zeelen J (2011) Beyond care avoidance and care paralysis: theorizing public mental health care. Sociology 45(4):665–681
Qiany S (2020) A personas guideline, from what they are to how to use. UX collective, Sept 23, 2020. https://uxdesign.cc/while-we-are-talking-about-personas-what-exactly-are-we-talking-525a645eb61a
Fuglerud KS, Schulz T, Janson AL, Moen A (2020) Co-creating persona scenarios with diverse users enriching inclusive design. In: Antona M, Stephanidis C (eds) Universal access in human-computer interaction. Design approaches and supporting technologies. HCII 2020. Lect Notes Comput Sci, vol 12188. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49282-3_4
Cipolla C, Manzini E (March 2009) Relational services. Knowl, Technol, Policy
Barros Pena B, Kursar B, Clarke RE, Alpin K, Holkar M, Vines J (2021) Pick someone who can kick your ass-moneywork in financial third party access. Proc ACM Hum-Comput Inter 4(CSCW3):1–28
Dunphy P, Monk A, Vines J, Blythe M, Olivier P (2014) Designing for spontaneous and secure delegation in digital payments. Interact Comput 26(5):417–432
Thrift N (2008) Non-representational theory. Routledge, London and New York
Jacobs J (1961) The death and life of great American cities. Vintage, New York
NCSC (2022) https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/information-for/individuals-families
Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security (2022) https://www.riscs.org.uk/digital-responsibility/
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Pallion Action Group and Karen Noble for their participation and generous contributions to this study. Lizzie Coles-Kemp’s participation in this study is funded by EPSRC grant EP/N02561X/1 and has been supported by the RISCS Digital Responsibility Fellowship (2020–2022). We would also like to thank Dr. Nick Robinson for his work to set-up the original programme of focus groups.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Coles-Kemp, L., Hall, P.A. (2023). Digital Security Narratives in the Time of COVID-19: A Case for Kindness. In: Martins, N., Brandão, D., Paiva, F. (eds) Perspectives on Design and Digital Communication III. Springer Series in Design and Innovation , vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06809-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06809-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-06808-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-06809-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)