Forces of globalisation and economic competition enhanced by, among others, the digital technologies, are radically transforming the social context. Digital technologies are characterised by a powerful and pervasive Internet as well as the related information and communication technologies. Globalisation is facilitated by the universally accessible, reliable and inexpensive communication assisted by these digital technologies. However, there is growing and valid scepticism regarding the digitally influenced socio-economic emancipation. This scepticism is mainly driven by a lack of understanding of digital literacy as a holistic process of creating the necessary social, economic and political changes within a given context. The understanding of digital literacy therefore needs to join a number of seemingly divergent views of digital technology when dealing with these technologies’ benefits in socio-economic emancipation. This understanding of digital literacy should therefore be shaped and focused more on understanding how digital literacy impacts the poor and marginalised, especially in looking at the socio-economic welfare of these marginalised sections of the society. This article discusses digital literacy by firstly looking at the shortcomings of the available definitions and approaches and then recommends a socio-economic development-orientated definition. The article brings to the fore the most critical digital literacy issues for socio-economic development. These issues are important; they ensure that digital literacy is not viewed in isolation, but rather in terms of its outcomes and consequences, especially with regard to socio-economic development.

中文翻译：

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数字素养：对包容性定义的追求

除其他外，数字技术增强了全球化和经济竞争的力量，从根本上改变了社会环境。数字技术的特征是强大而普遍的互联网以及相关的信息和通信技术。这些数字技术协助实现了普遍可访问，可靠且廉价的通信，促进了全球化。但是，对于受数字影响的社会经济解放，人们越来越怀疑。这种怀疑主要是由于缺乏对数字素养的理解，而数字素养是在给定背景下创造必要的社会，经济和政治变革的整体过程。因此，在处理数字技术的社会经济解放优势时，对数字素养的理解需要加入一些看似分歧的数字技术观点。因此，对数字素养的这种理解应形成并更多地集中于理解数字素养如何影响穷人和边缘化群体，尤其是在研究社会中这些边缘化阶层的社会经济福利时。本文首先探讨可用定义和方法的不足，然后提出面向社会经济发展的定义，以讨论数字素养。这篇文章突出了社会经济发展中最关键的数字素养问题。这些问题很重要。他们确保不会孤立地看待数字素养，