Access Denied? : Cultural Capital and Digital Access

Shraddha Kumbhojkar; Rahul Magar; Shantanu Ozarkar

doi:10.32351/rca.v4.1.70

Authors

Shraddha Kumbhojkar Savitribai Phule Pune University, History, Faculty Member https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0890-8585
Rahul Magar Savitribai Phule Pune University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2728-6817
Shantanu Ozarkar Savitribai Phule Pune University, Assistant Professor, Dept of Anthropology. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7930-854X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32351/rca.v4.1.70

Política de Crossmark DOI: https://doi.org/10.32351/politica-crossmark

Keywords:

Internet, university wi-fi, castes, exclusion, segregation

Abstract

The paper is a micro-level quantitative study of perceptions of social science students in India whether Free Wi-Fi has helped them learn better. It is commonly believed that digital resources are neutral about social inequalities. However, the survey finds that socio-cultural capital in the form of Caste, Gender, Language and Location has a negative impact on digital access even if it is free. The paper also instills hope as it finds that almost every student on the campus of a State University in Western Maharashtra has access to the Internet and majority of these students perceive that the digital access has improved their academic performance.

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Author Biographies

Shraddha Kumbhojkar, Savitribai Phule Pune University, History, Faculty Member

Shraddha Kumbhojkar is Assistant Professor at the Savitribai Phule Pune University in Pune, India. She has been teaching history since 1996. She is interested in Historiography, Exclusion Studies, Memory and Ancient and Modern History of India. She has two books related to Nationalism in Modern India and Modern Maharashtra to her credit. She is presently working on topics such as popular theatre in the nineteenth Century India, textbooks of history and the challenge of fundamentalism among Indian youth and Dalit studies.
Rahul Magar, Savitribai Phule Pune University

Rahul Magar is a doctoral student in the history department of the Savitribai Phule Pune University.
He has been working in the field of urban history of medieval South Asia. 'Burhanpur: A case study of medieval urban history' is his doctoral research thesis. Caste studies are also among his research interests. He is an assistant professor of history at C.B. Arts and Commerce College, Hiwara Ashram. He teaches Medieval History of India, Research Methodology, and Theories of History. He has attended several local and international conferences and seminars at the university level.
Shantanu Ozarkar, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Assistant Professor, Dept of Anthropology.

Shantanu Ozarkar is a Forensic anthropologist, professor of Biological Anthropology at the department of anthropology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India. Researcher in human evolution and variation using molecular biology techniques. He has been instrumental in organizing department conferences, and has published several research papers in the field of biological anthropology. At present, he is devoted to social research applying quantitative techniques as evidenced in this paper.

References

http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/variation.aspx accessed 16-11-2018. 36.1 Crore people in 1951. https://yourstory.com/2018/03/mobile-internet-users-india-reach-478-million-june-2018-iamai-report/ accessed 16-11-2018. 45.6 Crore users in 2017.

http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/taporwiki/index.php/How_do_you_define_Humanities_Computing_/_Digital_Humanities%3F accessed on 20-11-2018.

https://www.aicte-india.org/downloads/17by17.pdf accessed on 28 March 2018.

http://www.aicte-india.org accessed on 28 March 2018.

It was then known as University of Pune and has been renamed since 2014.

Interview with Professor Anjali Kshirsagar, Retd Head, Dept of Physics, SPPU. 10-1-2018. She led the next level of the CNC to provide wi-fi connectivity through optical fibres.

http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/document-reports/HRD_AR%202016-17.pdf P. 153. accessed on 28 -03- 2018

B. Benkatesh, Ashok Thakur, A Game-Changer for Higher Education, in The Hindu, 28-03-2018. Accessed from http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-game-changer-for-higher-education/article23366942.ece?homepage=true on 28-03-2018.

GPI is the ratio of female to male respondents and a less than 1 GPI indicates disparity in genders. Here 0.89 GPI means there are 89 female students to every 100 male students from our sample. It may be noted that women do not have any reservation at the level of P-G admission as per the Government of Maharashtra rules.