This course explores the relationships between colonialism, the growth of digital networks and applications, and community development. It re-frames problems like the ‘digital divide’ by illustrating how people and communities are taking ownership and control of solving them.

It recognizes that this work faces significant challenges. Historic and ongoing inequalities restrict the abilities of individuals and communities to effectively use digital technologies. However, people are also undertaking many projects of self-determination, including in the area of technology development. This course explores these initiatives, focusing on how they represent expressions of Indigenous resurgence and innovation in the emerging network society.

The course was initially developed in 2013-2014 as SOCI 2804, a for-credit course in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). It is part of the First Nations Innovation project, which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The project is a partnership between UNB, Atlantic Canada's First Nations Help Desk, the First Nations Education Council in Quebec, and Keewaytinook Okimakanak K-Net Services in Ontario.
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Topic outline

6
TOPIC 6 – Putting the ‘last-mile’ first: Digital divides and alternatives
As we have seen throughout this course, powerful forces established in the past continue to shape the ways that our societies and communities are structured today. The network society contains many inequalities. The term ‘digital divides’ describes the challenges that some individuals and groups face in accessing broadband networks and digital technologies. However, these challenges do not dictate the futures of individuals or communities. Rather, they are opportunities and constraints that can be negotiated and re-shaped through people’s innovation and creativity. In this unit, we will learn more about the First Mile approach, which focuses on how people are addressing digital divides through community-driven technology development projects. Indigenous peoples around the world, including remote and rural First Nations in Canada, are actively engaged in bridging the digital divides they face. In doing so they are putting the ‘last-mile’ first.
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First Mile Connectivity Consortium
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Supported by the SSHRC-funded
First Nations Innovation Project
This course came about through discussions among the project partners, who wanted to generate freely available online resources to support community-based ICT development.

Please email the course developer Rob McMahon with any suggestions, or if you have additional material you'd like to see here.

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First Mile stories from around the world,
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