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Award ID contains: 2125012

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  1. This article theorizes and proposes a novel construct,community digital capacity, to measure collective digital capacity at a community level. Community digital capacity is the extent to which the culture, infrastructure, and digital competence of family and community enable and support digital practices. We address a critical gap in individual digital literacy assessments and address limitations with existing theories that do not show digital inequities in the context of underlying systemic and structural challenges posed by one's social position. Building on insights from Computer Supportive Cooperative Work and Social Computing and Human-Computer Interaction for Development communities, we recognize that digital training initiatives must shift toward critical cultural and social practices that encourage full participation in community affairs. Accordingly, we created 28 items covering three domains---individual, social, and infrastructure. We conducted cognitive interviews with a public housing community to refine the items and capture the construct fully. We assessed their factor structure in two Southeastern Michigan cohorts. After dropping eight items based on contribution to Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR), the public housing residents exhibit a two-factor structure (SRMR=0.09) consisting of nearly independent factors for the individual and social domains, with all items loading positively on their respective domain. We contribute an initial measure for researchers and practitioners to assess community members' access to shared digital resources and support, offering a tool to assess broader social and structural factors contributing to the digital divide. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 2, 2026
  2. Digital skills are essential for engaging in employment, healthcare, education, and government services. However, the digital divide remains a social inequality, especially among marginalized populations. Through a community-engaged research approach, we conducted a digital skills learning intervention in a U.S. public housing community, where residents frequently face socioeconomic challenges and limited access to digital resources. Public housing is a community seldom explored in CSCW and HCI research and provides a unique context to study the ongoing digital skills gap. Through the lens of situated learning theory, we study how sociocultural factors impact the efficacy of a community-based computer skills learning intervention. Specifically, we examine how the public housing community organized various resources---online learning materials, instructors, peer social support, and on-the-job learning opportunities---for digital skills development. Notably, the training leveraged instructor critical care and peer support to develop a learning community between residents and leaders of the community NGO that continued beyond the formalized training program. We contribute to CSCW and HCI work on collective and assets-based approaches to enhancing digital capacity. Our work provides implications for building collective grassroots digital skills learning infrastructure that could create new digitally-engaged employment opportunities. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available May 2, 2026
  3. This paper presents findings from an empirical study that uncovers the economic, psychological, and socio-cultural adaptation strategies used by recent Afghan refugees in a midwestern U.S. state. Through 14 semi-structured interviews conducted between February and April 2023, this study investigates how Afghan refugees utilize technology, tools, and skills in their resettlement process, and builds upon Hsiao et al.'s conceptualization of sociotechnical adaptation. The findings reveal (i) gender and collectivist cultural values play a big role in determining the types of adaptation strategies used by men versus women, (ii) strategic choices in terms of the type of support sought depending on shared versus non-shared identity of host community members, (iii) a notable tension between economic adaptation and preserving socio-cultural values is observed, and (iv) creative, collective solutions by women participants to address economic challenges, contributing to the discourse on solidarity economies in HCI. Key contributions include (a) design implications for technological products that can aid in psychological adaptation, fostering solidarity economies, and creating digital safe spaces for refugees to connect with shared-identity host populations, and (b) policy and program recommendations for refugee resettlement agencies to enhance digital literacy among refugees. 
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