Internet, Social Capital, and e-Inclusion in Post-Conflict Belfast: Expectations of Community Workers

In this paper, we discuss Belfast community workers' expectations about the influence of the Internet on social capital and on social inclusion among youngsters from segregated areas of the city. For the purpose of conducting onsite research, we selected one of the main organizations working with young people and distributed a questionnaire among the organization's workers. The results show that according to the workers' expectations, the Internet is increasing the openness of youngsters' minds and their social integration, giving a glimmer of hope in light of the challenges of segregation; at the same time, those surveyed indicated that the Internet is not strengthening ties among the young people they work with. Secondly, we verified that different Internet use by the respondents correlated to different expectations, and we found a slight difference in expectations between "higher" and "lower" Internet users.