Restrictions on Active Citizenship in Rural Areas in Poland Due to Digital Exclusion: Research Results

Nowadays, active citizenship cannot exist without active using information-communication technologies (ICT). In countries of EU, various types of electronic services for citizens have been developed for supporting or enabling active citizenship. The level of their use depends on access to the Internet, skills and actual use of ICT, and awareness of the needs of the citizens. A person digitally excluded, i.e. not using ICT, becomes a “second-class” citizen, increasingly being removed to the margins of the social life. This marginalization has a social dimension, because the citizen does not use the services offered to him by the society (e.g. social networking sites), state or local governments, and their active citizenship is limited. Marginalization has the financial dimension - the increased costs paid by citizens in their daily lives. The paper presents the results of survey on the level of access to ICT in rural areas in Poland. It also shows the areas of digital exclusions and their causes. Conclusions regarding the actions that increase an active citizenship have been made. These conclusions relate to ensuring an access to ICT, training and public awareness, i.e. to develop the awareness and the needs of citizens.