A ten-year longitudinal study of the impact of national, state, and local programs that address issues of digital divide and digital inclusion in Austin, Texas.
World Development Report 2016 Staff, World Bank Group
2016., 2016, 2015, 1-14-2016, 2016-01-13, 2016-01-14
eBook, Book
Peer reviewed
Open access
More than 40 percent of the world’s population has access to the internet, with new users coming online every day. Among the poorest 20 percent of households, nearly 7 out of 10 have a mobile phone. ...This report finds that traditional development challenges are preventing the digital revolution from fulfilling its transformative potential. For many people, today’s increase in access to digital technologies brings more choice and greater convenience. While this is great progress, many are still left out because they do not have access to digital technologies. To deliver universal digital access, one must invest in infrastructure and pursue reforms that bring greater competition to telecommunications markets, promote public-private partnerships, and yield effective regulation. The report concludes that the full benefits of the information and communications transformation will not be realized unless countries continue to improve their business climate, invest in people’s education and health, and promote good governance. The World Bank Group are already working with clients to promote competitive business environments, increase accountability, and upgrade education and skills-development systems to prepare people for the jobs of the future.
For a long time, a common opinion among policy-makers was that the digital divide problem would be solved when a country’s Internet connection rate reaches saturation. However, scholars of the ...second-level digital divide have concluded that the divides in Internet skills and type of use continue to expand even after physical access is universal. This study—based on an online survey among a representative sample of the Dutch population—indicates that the first-level digital divide remains a problem in one of the richest and most technologically advanced countries in the world. By extending basic physical access combined with material access, the study finds that a diversity in access to devices and peripherals, device-related opportunities, and the ongoing expenses required to maintain the hardware, software, and subscriptions affect existing inequalities related to Internet skills, uses, and outcomes.
Based on Bourdieu’s theory, this article focuses on the third-level digital divide in relation to offline outcomes of Internet use. Based on 30 in-depth qualitative interviews with young people in ...Madrid, we analyzed the mechanisms used to convert three main forms of capital—economic, cultural, and social—into digital capital (DC) and the subsequent reconversion of DC back into the three main forms of capital. We conclude that economic capital is the most basic form of digital inequality, imposing material barriers to access. Cultural capital is transformed into DC through people’s techno-socialization, while social capital is converted into DC by means of social practices and social support. DC can be retransformed into each of the three main forms of capital: to economic capital by means of professional networking and access to goods; to cultural capital through access to knowledge; and into social capital by the differential management of social ties.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had huge effects on the daily lives of most individuals in the first half of 2020. Widespread lockdown and preventative measures have isolated individuals, affected the ...world economy, and limited access to physical and mental healthcare. While these measures may be necessary to minimize the spread of the virus, the negative physical, psychological, and social effects are evident. In response, technology has been adapted to try and mitigate these effects, offering individuals digital alternatives to many of the day-to-day activities which can no longer be completed normally. However, the elderly population, which has been worst affected by both the virus, and the lockdown measures, has seen the least benefits from these digital solutions. The age based digital divide describes a longstanding inequality in the access to, and skills to make use of, new technology. While this problem is not new, during the COVID-19 pandemic it has created a large portion of the population suffering from the negative effects of the crisis, and unable to make use of many of the digital measures put in place to help. This paper aims to explore the increased negative effects the digital divide is having in the elderly population during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also aims to highlight the need for increased attention and resources to go toward improving digital literacy in the elderly, and the need to put in place measures to offer immediate solutions during the COVID-19 crisis, and solutions to close the digital divide for good in the long-term.
More and more countries have become greying societies along with the burgeoning of digital devices. The older generation suffers from a sharp digital divide. Although the information infrastructure ...is fully developed, the elderly, not having grown up with it, tend to lack digital literacy and hold less intention to learn to use digital technologies. In the past, it was cable TV which pervaded the market and because of its long history of development became indispensable in the lives of the elderly. Recently, the maturity of Smart TV, provides us with an appropriate digital learning tool to assist seniors in Taiwan to improve their digital literacy. This is done utilising a digital remote control, designed to be a mixture of new and old technologies that offers seniors a high degree of familiarity. The study explore the effects of technology anxiety, digital feedback, and familiar technological skills on the adoption of digital devices by the elderly. In addition, a learning strategy compatible with the existing living environment of the elderly is proposed. The findings and recommendations for an effective approach to this problem are discussed as well as limitations and future research directions.
As the world population ages and older adults comprise a growing proportion of current and potential Internet users, understanding the state of Internet use among older adults as well as the ways ...their use has evolved may clarify how best to support digital media use within this population. This article synthesizes the quantitative literature on Internet use among older adults, including trends in access, skills, and types of use, while exploring social inequalities in relation to each domain. We also review work on the relationship between health and Internet use, particularly relevant for older adults. We close with specific recommendations for future work, including a call for studies better representing the diversity of older adulthood and greater standardization of question design.
In this paper we ask the question “inequality of what” to examine the multiple inequalities revealed under the covid-19 pandemic. An intersectional perspective is adopted from feminist studies to ...highlight the intersection and entanglement between digital technology, structural stratifications and the ingrained tendency of ‘othering’ in societies. As part of a future research agenda, we propose that IS research should move beyond simplistic notions of digital divisions to examine digital technology as implicated in complex and intersectional systems of power, and improve our sensitivity to the positionality of individuals and groups within social orders. Implications for practice and policy are also discussed, including moving beyond single-axis analysis of digital exclusion.
•Digital inequality is relational and occurs along multiple fracture lines which demarcate social positioning.•Digital technology does not just provide ‘solutions’ and ‘innovations’, but also produces and reproduces social orders.•Individuals are not just users but also actors situated the intersection of various social structures and systems of power.•An intersectional approach sensitises us to the positioning and subjectivity of individuals and groups in power structures.
The Digital Divide Ragnedda, Massimo; Muschert, Glenn W
2013, 20130619, 2013-06-19
eBook
This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of inequality and the stratification of the digital sphere.
Grounded in classical sociological theories of inequality, as well as empirical ...evidence, this book defines 'the digital divide' as the unequal access and utility of internet communications technologies and explores how it has the potential to replicate existing social inequalities, as well as create new forms of stratification. The Digital Divide examines how various demographic and socio-economic factors including income, education, age and gender, as well as infrastructure, products and services affect how the internet is used and accessed. Comprised of six parts, the first section examines theories of the digital divide, and then looks in turn at:
Highly developed nations and regions (including the USA, the EU and Japan);
Emerging large powers (Brazil, China, India, Russia);
Eastern European countries (Estonia, Romania, Serbia);
Arab and Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Iran, Israel);
Under-studied areas (East and Central Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa).
Providing an interwoven analysis of the international inequalities in internet usage and access, this important work offers a comprehensive approach to studying the digital divide around the globe. It is an important resource for academic and students in sociology, social policy, communication studies, media studies and all those interested in the questions and issues around social inequality.
This paper presents highlights of research conducted into the Internet supported household activities of residents at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). The routines of residents in ...five distinct basic needs activity areas were examined in an effort to identify the role of the Internet in supporting these undertakings. The results indicate that the Internet can be characterized as an essential technical resource that supports the stability of TCHC households by helping to multiply and interconnect the activities that constitute household routines. By providing an explanatory model of the Internet’s role in supporting the stability of TCHC households, this research advances an argument for public intercession in the provisioning of household Internet services to help redress the digital divide in Canada’s most populous city.
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