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The potential of ICT to generate 'solidaristic' practices among women home-based workers in Turkeyn twe_238 49..62 Nurcan Törenli The study indicates that in terms of the 'information poor' home-based women workers the opportunity provided by ICT to create formal employment for those who have no professional training or skills is very limited. ICT can be of benefit to the information poor if it is used to generate 'solidaristic' practices in order to combat labour exploitation by the subcontractors.Nurcan Törenli (torenli@media.ankara.edu.tr) holds the chair of Informatics in the Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Communication at Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey. He published on the new media and the political economy of communication, Information Society and telecommunication policy particularly TT/ICT opportunities and flexible working patterns. His current research focuses on e-commerce and its potential opportunities for national foreign trade. New Technology, Work and Employment 25:1

Özet "Firmadan Firmaya (B2B) Internet Temelli e-Ticaret

AThe purpose of this paper is to explore the advocacy networks in the local context of Turkey. To avoid the limitations stemming from the unfounded optimism of the mainstream theoretical approaches (Idealist model) undermining the level of socioeconomic development of Turkey, the paper employs the realistic/alternative approach called "knowledge society perspective." In the theoretical part (Section 2), I compare and contrast the two theoretical approaches and discuss the policy implications from a critical perspective. It is claimed that the knowledge society approach is more appropriate in the understanding of specific problems of Turkey with regard to the production, distribution, access, and power relationships in the context of ICTs. The main empirical focus of the paper is women advocacy networks and their use of ICTs. In order to substantiate the claims developed in the theoretical discussion, the results of the survey conducted among women advocacy networks are presented. The main finding of the survey shows that, in the context of Turkey, the ICTs and advocacy networks are used only by an elite sector of the Turkish women. In contrast with the assumed potential of the ICTs as inclusive technologies, the fact that they can work to exclude large segments of the population casts doubt on the universal validity claims of the mainstream theories.

The aim of this article is to evaluate digital exclusion from the perspective of women in disadvantaged areas of society; these women are ‘information poor’ because of the disabling effects of their income levels, socioeconomic situations and traditional cultures. Digital exclusion of women in Turkey, with the exception of a small social and political elite, is giving off alarming signals. Inadequate personal professional qualifications combined with the costs of access to and use of ICTs are having a growing adverse effect on the socioeconomic lives of women. This article evaluates the possibilities to remove the inequalities in public usage of ICTs in Turkey, and looks at the increase of collaboration among disadvantaged groups and the ability of organizations to find a voice. The article concludes that rather than the market approach theory - which maintains that that where there is effective competition and adequate information, the balance of the price mechanism concerned with production-consumption of information is automatically regulated - an informed public can achieve steady development of its society. In other words, the article argues that if the utilization of ICT opportunities in disadvantaged groups is left purely to time or ‘natural’ market processes, the process of digital exclusion will continue to increase rapidly. ICTs have both qualitative and quantitative dimensions in their access and use. When these dimensions do not match, and where there are no mechanisms used to ensure that they do match, their usage and spread will remain limited to specific groups. Under these conditions, the problems caused by the present inequalities in society will reach new proportions.