Borrowed Competence: Socially Extending the Mind to Extend Digital Practices

Abstract

This study extends current understanding of digital competence by exploring alternative skill sets harnessed by digitally disadvantaged groups that enable their practices to continue. By combining practice theory with the socially extended mind framework, we address the research question: What forms of offline competence support the integration of digital practices among a disadvantaged consumer group, and how do these competences influence the cohesion and continuity of their practices? Through an ethnography of a ‘Street Church’ community, we demonstrate how different forms of offline social interaction (i.e., sequential, synchronised, substitutive) and group culture function as valuable resources for guiding digital practices, without requiring practice carriers to embody digital skills. This study challenges conventional conceptualisations of competence, illustrating that competence no longer needs to be embodied but can be 'borrowed'. This shifts the focus away from 'what' defines competence to 'how' different forms can produce similar outcomes in practices.