The Emergence of the Indigenous Field of Practice: Factors affecting Australian Indigenous Household ACT adoption

Abstract

This paper examines the factors affecting adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Australian Indigenous households in a rural context. Drawing on the sociological notion of structure and agency it is argued that being engaged in external fields influences Indigenous household ICT adoption. In this paper, a conceptual schema is developed by drawing on Bourdieu's theory of habitus to explain the low uptake of ICTs in Indigenous households in Australia. The research illustrates the value of habitus to understand ICT adoption from a rural Australian Indigenous perspective. Case analysis suggests that this research has practical and policy implications.