Beyond the virtual binary ICTs as tools for bridging cultural divisions

of the author and not the views of the Flemish Community. The Flemish Community cannot be held accountable for the potential use of the communicated views and data. 1 The discourse on the digital divide is characterised by an emphasis on the notion of (equal) access to specific types of media technologies. Populations are divided into information haves and information have-nots; policies are oriented towards the stimulation of the adoption of these technologies. As such the threat exists that the articulation of this discourse becomes (and/or remains) a 'digital myth' (Frissen, 2000), which is predominantly media centred and technology determined thus reducing the social complexity to the virtual binary. This reduction highly contrasts with the basic and valuable premises of this discourse: to prevent and reduce social exclusion, and to increase different forms of societal participation. This paper aims to return to this basic premises by focussing on the abilities of ICT to stimulate access, interaction and participation, building on the theoretical distinction between access, first order participation (linked with interaction and cultural socialisation) and second order participation (linked with em/power/ment). This distinction will be used to analyse how (within the very local setting of an Antwerp cultural centre) ICT can function as one of the many tools available in daily life to increase social and cultural capital and to support an intercultural dialogue between 'high' and 'low' culture, between common sense knowledge and more elitist types of knowledge and between people with different ethnicity and gender. At the level of policy this case study clearly shows the need for targeted financial (project) support and for an increase in ICT-expertise. This will allow for developing both short and long-term visions on the use of ICT in cultural centres and for transcending the mere experimental of secundary status of cultural new media broadcasts.