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Matias Dodel

Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Social Sciences, Faculty Member

Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Communications, Faculty Member

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Matías Dodel is a Sociologist (PhD., M.A. & B.A.) and Psychologist (B.A.) who specializes in Information Society, Public Policy and Poverty/Inequality issues. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Sciecnes at Universidad Católica del Uruguay (UCU)Specialties: Information Society, E-Government, Public Policy, Poverty, Inequality

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Jonathan Zittrain

Harvard University

National University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy"

University of Central Florida

Alexi Gugushvili

University of Oxford

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Università di Bologna

University of Denver

LUISS Guido Carli

Linn Posey-Maddox

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

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Papers by Matias Dodel

Why Device-Related Digital Inequalities Matter for E-Government Engagement?

Social Science Computer Review, May 14, 2023

Mobile devices were key drivers for recent Internet expansion in lower-income countries, democrat... more Mobile devices were key drivers for recent Internet expansion in lower-income countries, democratizing access. Nonetheless, concerns arose regarding their role in the creation of new digital underclass related to the capital-enhancing consequences of Internet use. Among these, e-government engagement allows individuals to reduce the administrative burdens of governmental interactions. Nonetheless, its uptake has been proven to be highly stratified in Latin American countries where most services are not digital-by-default. The article argues that disparities in digital access play a role in this e-government divides. It examines the antecedents and determinants of household computer access and mobile-only Internet use, and e-government engagement in Brazil. Based on “TIC Domicilios 2019” survey, using logistic regressions to predict household access to computers, mobile-only Internet access, and e-government engagement. Mediation analyses of the latter models are conducted, testing the sequential nature of socio-digital inequalities based on the DiSTO framework. Findings show that living in a household with computers reduces the chances of being a mobile-only user and increases the odds of e-government engagement. Mobile-only access reduces e-government engagement. The effects of socioeconomic status and digital inequalities are mediated by household access to computers and mobile-only use. Implications for digital inclusion policies are discussed.

La gestión del riesgo en línea y el autocuidado

Acceso a las TIC en hogares del Uruguay urbano: logros y desafíos para la asentar los pisos de una integración digital

Competencias digitales: cómo se definen, entienden y miden

desde agosto de 2019, está integrado por más de dieciséis organizaciones activas, referentes de l... more desde agosto de 2019, está integrado por más de dieciséis organizaciones activas, referentes de la temática en el ámbito público, privado, académico, internacional y de la sociedad civil. Tiene como principal objetivo construir ciudadanía en entornos mediados por las tecnologías digitales, siguiendo lo establecido en el documento de estrategia. A partir de 2021, el Grupo de Trabajo de Ciudadanía Digital se ha organizado en tres subgrupos: Investigación, Gobernanza y Desarrollo de capacidades, con el objetivo de profundizar en cada una de las líneas contenidas en la Estrategia. Desde el subgrupo de investigación se trabajó en la selección y análisis de diferentes instrumentos de medición preexistentes, en relación con las competencias y dimensiones de uso planteadas en la Estrategia de Ciudadanía Digital, con el objetivo de generar indicadores que se ajusten al marco conceptual de dicho documento. Esta tarea fue realizada en conjunto por las siguientes organizaciones: Agesic, Anep, Inau, Miem, Pensamiento Colectivo, UCU, Utec y Utu. Como parte de este trayecto y a los efectos de compartir la labor que se viene realizando, surge el interés de publicar y difundir este artículo de trabajo, elaborado por el PhD Matías Dodel y la MSc Leticia Brandino Pontillo.

Inequalities and Privacy in the Context of Social Media

Routledge eBooks, Apr 27, 2023

Cascading Crises: Society in the Age of COVID-19

American Behavioral Scientist, 2021

The tsunami of change triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed society in a series of c... more The tsunami of change triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed society in a series of cascading crises. Unlike disasters that are more temporarily and spatially bounded, the pandemic has continued to expand across time and space for over a year, leaving an unusually broad range of second-order and third-order harms in its wake. Globally, the unusual conditions of the pandemic—unlike other crises—have impacted almost every facet of our lives. The pandemic has deepened existing inequalities and created new vulnerabilities related to social isolation, incarceration, involuntary exclusion from the labor market, diminished economic opportunity, life-and-death risk in the workplace, and a host of emergent digital, emotional, and economic divides. In tandem, many less advantaged individuals and groups have suffered disproportionate hardship related to the pandemic in the form of fear and anxiety, exposure to misinformation, and the effects of the politicization of the crisis. Man...

Online and offline victimisation: a cluster analysis of adolescent victims of bullying and cyber-bullying in Chile

Journal of Children and Media, 2021

ABSTRACT Bullying and cyberbullying victimisation are serious problems worldwide, especially amon... more ABSTRACT Bullying and cyberbullying victimisation are serious problems worldwide, especially among children and adolescents. However, there is much research on risk factors, the evidence about victim typologies that combine online and offline bullying with the specific nature of the victimisation episodes and other sociodemographic and individual features is still scarce. This study contributes by combining the poly-victim framework with the cyberbullying and online risk approaches. We used data from the Kids Online survey conducted in 2016 and analysed a national sample of 1,000 Internet users in Chile between 9 and 17 years old. The aim was to classify youth based on their cyber and traditional bullying experiences and examine the clusters’ features based on age, sex, socioeconomic status, technology use and skills, risky offline behaviours and well-being. A two-step cluster analysis identified three groups: poly-victims (23%), occasional digital victims (30%), and frequent offline victims (41%). These groups significantly differed by age, sex, Internet use, digital skills, risky offline behaviours and psychological characteristics. These results highlight the heterogeneity and complexity of both traditional and cyberbullying and the need to tailor interventions for diverse types of victims. IMPACT SUMMARY a. Prior State of Knowledge: Bullying is a serious problem both in its traditional and cyber-forms. Both share commonalities and present divergences regarding risk factors and psychological consequences associated. Whereas they can be distinct types of victimisation, a significant percentage of victims suffer both. b. Novel Contributions: Frequent offline bullying, occasional digital victimisation, and poly-victimisation should be considered three victimisation forms. These three experiences differ significantly in their age and sex composition, Internet use, digital skills, risky offline behaviours and psychological characteristics. c. Practical Implications: Identification of victim groups is critical to developing a more tailored approach to support different victims and reduce various forms of harassment. Moreso, because the current impacts of bullying-prevention programs are relatively small.

Acceso a las TIC en hogares del Uruguay urbano: logros y desafíos para la asentar los pisos de una integración digital

De las tecnologías a los resultados tangibles. Los vínculos entre las habilidades digitales, los usos de Internet, y los beneficios obtenidos en el bienestar de los estudiantes de la educación media pública uruguaya

Socioeconomic Inequalities and Digital Skills

The Oxford Handbook of Digital Media Sociology, 2021

This article discusses the links between socioeconomic inequalities and digital skills, understoo... more This article discusses the links between socioeconomic inequalities and digital skills, understood here as the digital abilities, competences, and knowledge critical to participate fully in contemporary societies. The article starts by discussing what digital skills are and how they have been conceptualized in the literature. The article then describes digital skills’ roles in shaping and being shaped by socioeconomic inequalities such as age; gender; education; race, ethnicity, and sensorial disabilities–based disparities; and material access to the internet. Afterward, a summary of the evidence concerning how digital skills mediate the impact of structural disparities in tangible outcomes is presented, describing issues such as educational and occupational outcomes, subjective well-being, capital-enhancing consequences of internet use, and online safety and privacy. Finally, the article summarizes the key findings and outlines directions for future research on digital skills and s...

El acceso a Internet en personas con discapacidad visual INFORME FINAL DE PROYECTO

Este proyecto buscó hacer foco en uno de los ejes menos frecuentes en la literatura sobre desigua... more Este proyecto buscó hacer foco en uno de los ejes menos frecuentes en la literatura sobre desigualdades digitales: las discapacidades sensoriales; particularmente la visual. Las tecnologías digitales tienen gran potencial para generar un impacto positivo en la vida de las personas ciegas y con baja visión, pero la falta de accesibilidad a estas tecnologías y al contenido que ellas transmiten, puede provocar, por lo contrario, serias barreras.

Entre el cuaderno de comunicados y el smartphone: Los desafíos para la gestión en centros educativos uruguayos en el contexto de comunicación digital

Dixit, 2020

Este trabajo explora cómo se gestiona la comunicación en los centros educativos con uno de sus st... more Este trabajo explora cómo se gestiona la comunicación en los centros educativos con uno de sus stakeholders prioritarios: las familias. Los centros se enfrentan a un entorno que combina un uso masivo de comunicación digital por parte de las familias, junto a una importante varianza en los contextos socioeconómicos, políticas organizacionales y liderazgos. Se presenta un estudio de caso de una red de doce colegios privados en Montevideo (Uruguay), en los que se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas a directores y maestros. Los hallazgos señalan que, a pesar de la masificación de dispositivos digitales, directores y docentes continúan expresando preferencias por canales tradicionales para la mayoría de los emergentes comunicacionales. Aún sin un rechazo explícito a las tecnologías digitales, aparecen diferentes barreras que impiden su implementación. Se brindan recomendaciones para repensar la comunicación a partir de las estrategias organizacionales.

Del acceso a las capacidades digitales: aproximación al impacto de las nuevas tecnologías en el bienestar de los jóvenes uruguayos pre-Ceibal

I Congreso Uruguayo de Sociología. Grupo de Trabajo 07. Sociología de las Generaciones y Juventud, 2007

Si bien en los inicios del siglo XXI el Informe Mundial de Desarrollo Humano (2001) ya señalaba l... more Si bien en los inicios del siglo XXI el Informe Mundial de Desarrollo Humano (2001) ya señalaba la “relación entre los rápidos cambios tecnológicos y la expansión de las capacidades humanas”, existe al día de hoy suficiente evidencia teórica y empírica que indica que el efecto de las TIC en la expansión de las capacidades humanas no es directo ni lineal. Las inequidades pre-existentes a la aparición de las TIC no solo limitan los efectos positivos de las tecnologías en el bienestar, sino que la combinación de éstas con las dinámicas de las nuevas tecnologías pueden incluso ensanchar las brechas entre los diversos sectores de la sociedad. Políticas públicas de democratización del acceso a las TIC y educación en/a través de ellas, como el recientemente implementado Plan CEIBAL, intentan paliar las dinámicas ya mencionadas. Sin embargo, las primeras generaciones de nativos digitales (específicamente jóvenes de entre 14 a 29 años para este documento), atravesaron su socialización tecnológica y educación formal con anterioridad a la implementación de las políticas de democratización digital. Por lo tanto, en este grupo es posible ver con importante claridad -y cierto control sobre el factor generacional- las inequidades que genera liberar únicamente al mercado la distribución de los bienes y capacidades digitales. Por otra parte, debido a la peligrosa combinación de ausencia de información estadística confiable y la predominancia de enfoques reduccionistas en el abordaje de esta problemática, se hace difícil hasta la fecha aprehender -sin exagerar o disminuir en exceso- la magnitud de la “Brecha Digital” y la desigual distribución de los bienes y capacidades TIC en la estructura social, tanto para este como para el resto de los segmentos etarios. Partiendo del mencionado diagnóstico, el presente documento se aboca a sintetizar una conceptualización un tanto más compleja del impacto de las TIC en el bienestar que toma sus herramientas del enfoque de las capacidades de A. Sen, compartiendo grandes puntos en común con los Informes de Desarrollo Humano de Naciones Unidas abocados específicamente a la Juventud. En base a esta caracterización, se presenta un análisis a nivel descriptivo sobre las principales fuentes estadísticas oficiales sobre el acceso y uso a las TIC para este grupo etareo en Uruguay (ECH, ENAJ), tomando como objetivo final señalar las “brechas” más relevantes a la interna de este grupo etareo

Can one laptop per child reduce digital inequalities? ICT household access patterns under Plan Ceibal

Telecommunications Policy

Can One Laptop per Child Reduce Digital Inequalities? ICT Diffusion Patterns under Plan Ceibal

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

The study of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption signals that diffusion proc... more The study of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption signals that diffusion processes within highly unequal societies produces a stratification in the access to digital technologies and thus, maintains or even increases previous socio-economic disparities. Whereas technological utopians believed that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)-like programs could reduce societal inequalities, the economic literature studying their consequences mostly focused on student's human capital. Results found no impacts, even for successful programs such as Uruguay's own OLPC-inspired Plan Ceibal. We use an event-study approach to difference-in-differences to identify the impact of Plan Ceibal on the household demand for technological goods across income quintiles. Our results show that Plan Ceibal helped to bridge domestic digital disparities in terms of access to PC for low-income households and favored the demand for internet services. We argue that two diverse mechanisms are behind these results. Regarding PC access, whereas Plan Ceibal was conceived as a universal program targeting primary level students attending public schools, both poverty infantilization and dual-system educational stratification made the policy to exhibit heterogenous impact across different income groups. Regarding household connectivity, we argue that Plan Ceibal reduced the cost of the bundle required to consume internet services at the time of the study, impacting on those households with both reasonable shares of children attending a public school and sufficient income to afford the monthly internet charges.

“Someone wants to connect with you”: Predicting Uruguayan kids’ replies to online friendship requests

Global Studies of Childhood, 2021

Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for human development, involving an inherent tensi... more Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for human development, involving an inherent tension between children’s development and autonomy and their safety and well-being. The digital mediation of children’s increasingly autonomous participation in the social world has been one of the most heated issues for parents and policy maker, generally guided more by intuitions and moral panics than actual evidence on children’s online behavior. Based on a representative sample of all Uruguayan kids between 9 and 17 years old (Kids Online Uruguay, N = 948), this article contributes to the understanding of contact-related online behavior by studying how children react to online friendship requests. Ordinal logistic models were fitted to study the factors predicting different responses to friendship requests based on the strength of the ties between the child and the friendship requester. Our model integrates predictors deriving from three sets of literatures. We found that differences in ...

Predictores del uso problemático del teléfono celular en adolescentes costarricenses

Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Niñez y Juventud

Este artículo tiene por objetivo investigar los efectos del apoyo familiar y del grupo de pares, ... more Este artículo tiene por objetivo investigar los efectos del apoyo familiar y del grupo de pares, junto con la satisfacción con la vida, sobre el uso problemático de los teléfonos celulares entre los adolescentes costarricenses. Basado en datos de la encuesta nacional Global Kids Online, se desarrollaron modelos de ecuaciones estructurales para predecir el uso problemático de teléfonos celulares de adolescentes (M = 14.8, n = 530). Los resultados muestran que el apoyo entre pares correlaciona positiva y directamente con el uso problemático del teléfono celular, mientras que la percepción de la satisfacción con la vida tiene una correlación opuesta, funcionando como un factor protector. El apoyo del grupo de pares y, más aún, el apoyo familiar, ejercen efectos indirectos sobre el uso problemático del teléfono móvil.

When Lockdowns Force “Everyone” to Work From Home: Inequalities in Telework During COVID-19 in Uruguay

Working from home arrangements have been on the rise globally throughout the 21st century. Despit... more Working from home arrangements have been on the rise globally throughout the 21st century. Despite this trajectory, developing economies have trailed developed countries in adopting such arrangements. However, because of COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing measures, countries such as Uruguay, where teleworking was scarce and unregulated, were forced to adopt this practice to ensure business continuity. Under such conditions, preexisting organizational and individual disparities stratified the likelihood of working from home during the pandemic. Conventional wisdom holds that the main determinants potential-to-telework stems almost exclusively from the nature of jobs themselves. This article expands the traditional understanding of telework determinants by showing that during the first stages of the pandemic individual features of the worker, and organizational and managerial features of the employer, were both determinative of the likelihood that a given worker would work from ...

The Acceptance of Driverless Cars: The Roles of Perceived Outcomes and Technology Usefulness

American Behavioral Scientist

The accelerating development of autonomous vehicles is expected to have important effects on soci... more The accelerating development of autonomous vehicles is expected to have important effects on society such as reducing the number of traffic accidents, preventing the disabilities and deaths attributed to car accidents, and reducing pollution. However, their adoption depends on the willingness of the population to accept this innovation and incorporate it in their everyday activities. This study investigated the association between socio-demographic factors, political ideology, and attitudes toward technology and its perceived potential impact on society on support for driverless cars. We conducted a secondary analysis of a large sample of employees in the United States ( n = 2,470). Based on conceptual frameworks relevant to the study of technology adoption such as the self-interest hypothesis, the usefulness of the technology, ideological orientation, and socio-demographic gaps in attitudes toward technology, our results indicate that perceived social outcomes of driverless cars ar...

Introduction: “Making Work Work During the Pandemic”

American Behavioral Scientist, 2022

Why Device-Related Digital Inequalities Matter for E-Government Engagement?

Social Science Computer Review, May 14, 2023

Mobile devices were key drivers for recent Internet expansion in lower-income countries, democrat... more Mobile devices were key drivers for recent Internet expansion in lower-income countries, democratizing access. Nonetheless, concerns arose regarding their role in the creation of new digital underclass related to the capital-enhancing consequences of Internet use. Among these, e-government engagement allows individuals to reduce the administrative burdens of governmental interactions. Nonetheless, its uptake has been proven to be highly stratified in Latin American countries where most services are not digital-by-default. The article argues that disparities in digital access play a role in this e-government divides. It examines the antecedents and determinants of household computer access and mobile-only Internet use, and e-government engagement in Brazil. Based on “TIC Domicilios 2019” survey, using logistic regressions to predict household access to computers, mobile-only Internet access, and e-government engagement. Mediation analyses of the latter models are conducted, testing the sequential nature of socio-digital inequalities based on the DiSTO framework. Findings show that living in a household with computers reduces the chances of being a mobile-only user and increases the odds of e-government engagement. Mobile-only access reduces e-government engagement. The effects of socioeconomic status and digital inequalities are mediated by household access to computers and mobile-only use. Implications for digital inclusion policies are discussed.

La gestión del riesgo en línea y el autocuidado

Acceso a las TIC en hogares del Uruguay urbano: logros y desafíos para la asentar los pisos de una integración digital

Competencias digitales: cómo se definen, entienden y miden

desde agosto de 2019, está integrado por más de dieciséis organizaciones activas, referentes de l... more desde agosto de 2019, está integrado por más de dieciséis organizaciones activas, referentes de la temática en el ámbito público, privado, académico, internacional y de la sociedad civil. Tiene como principal objetivo construir ciudadanía en entornos mediados por las tecnologías digitales, siguiendo lo establecido en el documento de estrategia. A partir de 2021, el Grupo de Trabajo de Ciudadanía Digital se ha organizado en tres subgrupos: Investigación, Gobernanza y Desarrollo de capacidades, con el objetivo de profundizar en cada una de las líneas contenidas en la Estrategia. Desde el subgrupo de investigación se trabajó en la selección y análisis de diferentes instrumentos de medición preexistentes, en relación con las competencias y dimensiones de uso planteadas en la Estrategia de Ciudadanía Digital, con el objetivo de generar indicadores que se ajusten al marco conceptual de dicho documento. Esta tarea fue realizada en conjunto por las siguientes organizaciones: Agesic, Anep, Inau, Miem, Pensamiento Colectivo, UCU, Utec y Utu. Como parte de este trayecto y a los efectos de compartir la labor que se viene realizando, surge el interés de publicar y difundir este artículo de trabajo, elaborado por el PhD Matías Dodel y la MSc Leticia Brandino Pontillo.

Inequalities and Privacy in the Context of Social Media

Routledge eBooks, Apr 27, 2023

Cascading Crises: Society in the Age of COVID-19

American Behavioral Scientist, 2021

The tsunami of change triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed society in a series of c... more The tsunami of change triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed society in a series of cascading crises. Unlike disasters that are more temporarily and spatially bounded, the pandemic has continued to expand across time and space for over a year, leaving an unusually broad range of second-order and third-order harms in its wake. Globally, the unusual conditions of the pandemic—unlike other crises—have impacted almost every facet of our lives. The pandemic has deepened existing inequalities and created new vulnerabilities related to social isolation, incarceration, involuntary exclusion from the labor market, diminished economic opportunity, life-and-death risk in the workplace, and a host of emergent digital, emotional, and economic divides. In tandem, many less advantaged individuals and groups have suffered disproportionate hardship related to the pandemic in the form of fear and anxiety, exposure to misinformation, and the effects of the politicization of the crisis. Man...

Online and offline victimisation: a cluster analysis of adolescent victims of bullying and cyber-bullying in Chile

Journal of Children and Media, 2021

ABSTRACT Bullying and cyberbullying victimisation are serious problems worldwide, especially amon... more ABSTRACT Bullying and cyberbullying victimisation are serious problems worldwide, especially among children and adolescents. However, there is much research on risk factors, the evidence about victim typologies that combine online and offline bullying with the specific nature of the victimisation episodes and other sociodemographic and individual features is still scarce. This study contributes by combining the poly-victim framework with the cyberbullying and online risk approaches. We used data from the Kids Online survey conducted in 2016 and analysed a national sample of 1,000 Internet users in Chile between 9 and 17 years old. The aim was to classify youth based on their cyber and traditional bullying experiences and examine the clusters’ features based on age, sex, socioeconomic status, technology use and skills, risky offline behaviours and well-being. A two-step cluster analysis identified three groups: poly-victims (23%), occasional digital victims (30%), and frequent offline victims (41%). These groups significantly differed by age, sex, Internet use, digital skills, risky offline behaviours and psychological characteristics. These results highlight the heterogeneity and complexity of both traditional and cyberbullying and the need to tailor interventions for diverse types of victims. IMPACT SUMMARY a. Prior State of Knowledge: Bullying is a serious problem both in its traditional and cyber-forms. Both share commonalities and present divergences regarding risk factors and psychological consequences associated. Whereas they can be distinct types of victimisation, a significant percentage of victims suffer both. b. Novel Contributions: Frequent offline bullying, occasional digital victimisation, and poly-victimisation should be considered three victimisation forms. These three experiences differ significantly in their age and sex composition, Internet use, digital skills, risky offline behaviours and psychological characteristics. c. Practical Implications: Identification of victim groups is critical to developing a more tailored approach to support different victims and reduce various forms of harassment. Moreso, because the current impacts of bullying-prevention programs are relatively small.

Acceso a las TIC en hogares del Uruguay urbano: logros y desafíos para la asentar los pisos de una integración digital

De las tecnologías a los resultados tangibles. Los vínculos entre las habilidades digitales, los usos de Internet, y los beneficios obtenidos en el bienestar de los estudiantes de la educación media pública uruguaya

Socioeconomic Inequalities and Digital Skills

The Oxford Handbook of Digital Media Sociology, 2021

This article discusses the links between socioeconomic inequalities and digital skills, understoo... more This article discusses the links between socioeconomic inequalities and digital skills, understood here as the digital abilities, competences, and knowledge critical to participate fully in contemporary societies. The article starts by discussing what digital skills are and how they have been conceptualized in the literature. The article then describes digital skills’ roles in shaping and being shaped by socioeconomic inequalities such as age; gender; education; race, ethnicity, and sensorial disabilities–based disparities; and material access to the internet. Afterward, a summary of the evidence concerning how digital skills mediate the impact of structural disparities in tangible outcomes is presented, describing issues such as educational and occupational outcomes, subjective well-being, capital-enhancing consequences of internet use, and online safety and privacy. Finally, the article summarizes the key findings and outlines directions for future research on digital skills and s...

El acceso a Internet en personas con discapacidad visual INFORME FINAL DE PROYECTO

Este proyecto buscó hacer foco en uno de los ejes menos frecuentes en la literatura sobre desigua... more Este proyecto buscó hacer foco en uno de los ejes menos frecuentes en la literatura sobre desigualdades digitales: las discapacidades sensoriales; particularmente la visual. Las tecnologías digitales tienen gran potencial para generar un impacto positivo en la vida de las personas ciegas y con baja visión, pero la falta de accesibilidad a estas tecnologías y al contenido que ellas transmiten, puede provocar, por lo contrario, serias barreras.

Entre el cuaderno de comunicados y el smartphone: Los desafíos para la gestión en centros educativos uruguayos en el contexto de comunicación digital

Dixit, 2020

Este trabajo explora cómo se gestiona la comunicación en los centros educativos con uno de sus st... more Este trabajo explora cómo se gestiona la comunicación en los centros educativos con uno de sus stakeholders prioritarios: las familias. Los centros se enfrentan a un entorno que combina un uso masivo de comunicación digital por parte de las familias, junto a una importante varianza en los contextos socioeconómicos, políticas organizacionales y liderazgos. Se presenta un estudio de caso de una red de doce colegios privados en Montevideo (Uruguay), en los que se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas a directores y maestros. Los hallazgos señalan que, a pesar de la masificación de dispositivos digitales, directores y docentes continúan expresando preferencias por canales tradicionales para la mayoría de los emergentes comunicacionales. Aún sin un rechazo explícito a las tecnologías digitales, aparecen diferentes barreras que impiden su implementación. Se brindan recomendaciones para repensar la comunicación a partir de las estrategias organizacionales.

Del acceso a las capacidades digitales: aproximación al impacto de las nuevas tecnologías en el bienestar de los jóvenes uruguayos pre-Ceibal

I Congreso Uruguayo de Sociología. Grupo de Trabajo 07. Sociología de las Generaciones y Juventud, 2007

Si bien en los inicios del siglo XXI el Informe Mundial de Desarrollo Humano (2001) ya señalaba l... more Si bien en los inicios del siglo XXI el Informe Mundial de Desarrollo Humano (2001) ya señalaba la “relación entre los rápidos cambios tecnológicos y la expansión de las capacidades humanas”, existe al día de hoy suficiente evidencia teórica y empírica que indica que el efecto de las TIC en la expansión de las capacidades humanas no es directo ni lineal. Las inequidades pre-existentes a la aparición de las TIC no solo limitan los efectos positivos de las tecnologías en el bienestar, sino que la combinación de éstas con las dinámicas de las nuevas tecnologías pueden incluso ensanchar las brechas entre los diversos sectores de la sociedad. Políticas públicas de democratización del acceso a las TIC y educación en/a través de ellas, como el recientemente implementado Plan CEIBAL, intentan paliar las dinámicas ya mencionadas. Sin embargo, las primeras generaciones de nativos digitales (específicamente jóvenes de entre 14 a 29 años para este documento), atravesaron su socialización tecnológica y educación formal con anterioridad a la implementación de las políticas de democratización digital. Por lo tanto, en este grupo es posible ver con importante claridad -y cierto control sobre el factor generacional- las inequidades que genera liberar únicamente al mercado la distribución de los bienes y capacidades digitales. Por otra parte, debido a la peligrosa combinación de ausencia de información estadística confiable y la predominancia de enfoques reduccionistas en el abordaje de esta problemática, se hace difícil hasta la fecha aprehender -sin exagerar o disminuir en exceso- la magnitud de la “Brecha Digital” y la desigual distribución de los bienes y capacidades TIC en la estructura social, tanto para este como para el resto de los segmentos etarios. Partiendo del mencionado diagnóstico, el presente documento se aboca a sintetizar una conceptualización un tanto más compleja del impacto de las TIC en el bienestar que toma sus herramientas del enfoque de las capacidades de A. Sen, compartiendo grandes puntos en común con los Informes de Desarrollo Humano de Naciones Unidas abocados específicamente a la Juventud. En base a esta caracterización, se presenta un análisis a nivel descriptivo sobre las principales fuentes estadísticas oficiales sobre el acceso y uso a las TIC para este grupo etareo en Uruguay (ECH, ENAJ), tomando como objetivo final señalar las “brechas” más relevantes a la interna de este grupo etareo

Can one laptop per child reduce digital inequalities? ICT household access patterns under Plan Ceibal

Telecommunications Policy

Can One Laptop per Child Reduce Digital Inequalities? ICT Diffusion Patterns under Plan Ceibal

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

The study of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption signals that diffusion proc... more The study of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption signals that diffusion processes within highly unequal societies produces a stratification in the access to digital technologies and thus, maintains or even increases previous socio-economic disparities. Whereas technological utopians believed that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)-like programs could reduce societal inequalities, the economic literature studying their consequences mostly focused on student's human capital. Results found no impacts, even for successful programs such as Uruguay's own OLPC-inspired Plan Ceibal. We use an event-study approach to difference-in-differences to identify the impact of Plan Ceibal on the household demand for technological goods across income quintiles. Our results show that Plan Ceibal helped to bridge domestic digital disparities in terms of access to PC for low-income households and favored the demand for internet services. We argue that two diverse mechanisms are behind these results. Regarding PC access, whereas Plan Ceibal was conceived as a universal program targeting primary level students attending public schools, both poverty infantilization and dual-system educational stratification made the policy to exhibit heterogenous impact across different income groups. Regarding household connectivity, we argue that Plan Ceibal reduced the cost of the bundle required to consume internet services at the time of the study, impacting on those households with both reasonable shares of children attending a public school and sufficient income to afford the monthly internet charges.

“Someone wants to connect with you”: Predicting Uruguayan kids’ replies to online friendship requests

Global Studies of Childhood, 2021

Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for human development, involving an inherent tensi... more Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for human development, involving an inherent tension between children’s development and autonomy and their safety and well-being. The digital mediation of children’s increasingly autonomous participation in the social world has been one of the most heated issues for parents and policy maker, generally guided more by intuitions and moral panics than actual evidence on children’s online behavior. Based on a representative sample of all Uruguayan kids between 9 and 17 years old (Kids Online Uruguay, N = 948), this article contributes to the understanding of contact-related online behavior by studying how children react to online friendship requests. Ordinal logistic models were fitted to study the factors predicting different responses to friendship requests based on the strength of the ties between the child and the friendship requester. Our model integrates predictors deriving from three sets of literatures. We found that differences in ...

Predictores del uso problemático del teléfono celular en adolescentes costarricenses

Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Niñez y Juventud

Este artículo tiene por objetivo investigar los efectos del apoyo familiar y del grupo de pares, ... more Este artículo tiene por objetivo investigar los efectos del apoyo familiar y del grupo de pares, junto con la satisfacción con la vida, sobre el uso problemático de los teléfonos celulares entre los adolescentes costarricenses. Basado en datos de la encuesta nacional Global Kids Online, se desarrollaron modelos de ecuaciones estructurales para predecir el uso problemático de teléfonos celulares de adolescentes (M = 14.8, n = 530). Los resultados muestran que el apoyo entre pares correlaciona positiva y directamente con el uso problemático del teléfono celular, mientras que la percepción de la satisfacción con la vida tiene una correlación opuesta, funcionando como un factor protector. El apoyo del grupo de pares y, más aún, el apoyo familiar, ejercen efectos indirectos sobre el uso problemático del teléfono móvil.

When Lockdowns Force “Everyone” to Work From Home: Inequalities in Telework During COVID-19 in Uruguay

Working from home arrangements have been on the rise globally throughout the 21st century. Despit... more Working from home arrangements have been on the rise globally throughout the 21st century. Despite this trajectory, developing economies have trailed developed countries in adopting such arrangements. However, because of COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing measures, countries such as Uruguay, where teleworking was scarce and unregulated, were forced to adopt this practice to ensure business continuity. Under such conditions, preexisting organizational and individual disparities stratified the likelihood of working from home during the pandemic. Conventional wisdom holds that the main determinants potential-to-telework stems almost exclusively from the nature of jobs themselves. This article expands the traditional understanding of telework determinants by showing that during the first stages of the pandemic individual features of the worker, and organizational and managerial features of the employer, were both determinative of the likelihood that a given worker would work from ...

The Acceptance of Driverless Cars: The Roles of Perceived Outcomes and Technology Usefulness

American Behavioral Scientist

The accelerating development of autonomous vehicles is expected to have important effects on soci... more The accelerating development of autonomous vehicles is expected to have important effects on society such as reducing the number of traffic accidents, preventing the disabilities and deaths attributed to car accidents, and reducing pollution. However, their adoption depends on the willingness of the population to accept this innovation and incorporate it in their everyday activities. This study investigated the association between socio-demographic factors, political ideology, and attitudes toward technology and its perceived potential impact on society on support for driverless cars. We conducted a secondary analysis of a large sample of employees in the United States ( n = 2,470). Based on conceptual frameworks relevant to the study of technology adoption such as the self-interest hypothesis, the usefulness of the technology, ideological orientation, and socio-demographic gaps in attitudes toward technology, our results indicate that perceived social outcomes of driverless cars ar...

Introduction: “Making Work Work During the Pandemic”

American Behavioral Scientist, 2022