E-Government for Social Inclusion?
This chapter aims at examining the relationship between two concepts which at a first glance appear as irrelevant; on the one hand, it is the effort to achieve social inclusion—as part of a wider anti-poverty perspective—and, on the other hand, it is the notion of e-government, as a modern side of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). In the first part of the chapter, it is explained that anti-poverty strategies and policies are in fact trying to facilitate access to human rights and to a series of goods which are necessary for life in dignity. In the second part, the theoretical foundations of e-government are examined and there are also given some first views on how e-government might eliminate social exclusion and facilitate social inclusion. The third part is a synthesis of the previous two; it is devoted to the fundamental notion of access which appears as an aim and outcome of both anti-exclusion policies and e-government policies; if there is access, there is inclusion and if there is e-government, there is access. This means that e-government can, under certain circumstances, promote inclusion. The whole chapter is underlined by the concept that human capabilities for access are mainly understood as access to capabilities.