Second Order Divide in Internet Usage in Developing Countries (original) (raw)
Related papers
Sociological Inquiry, 2010
The Global Digital Divide (GDD) in Internet and related forms of information technologies has gained some press and scholarly attention in recent years. Although the contours and causes of Internet diffusion around the globe are now better understood, a number of questions and avenues remain unanswered or unexplored, particularly concerning the role of socio-demographic structures and even conflict processes on Internet diffusion. This study addresses the current state of the digital divide and sheds new light on the barriers that continue to inhibit developing nations' lag with the West in Internet connectivity. Focusing on a large sample of the world's developing nations, this project finds that although the GDD is narrowing, the gap is still large and that specific demographic properties (high fertility) and conflict processes threaten to keep many societies in the periphery of cyberspace. The authors also find that urban agglomerations work to amplify Internet demand over time and that maturing economies may no longer require democratization as a pathway to Internet development. Implications of these findings and future directions of research are briefly discussed.
2013
""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.""
(2004) The Global Digital Divide – Within And Between Countries
IT&SOCIETY, 2004
The diffusion of the Internet (and its accompanying digital divides) has occurred at the intersection of both international and within-country differences in socioeconomic, technological and linguistic factors. Telecommunications policies, infrastructures and education are prerequisites for marginalized communities to participate in the information age. High costs, English language dominance, the lack of relevant content, and the lack of technological support are barriers for disadvantaged communities using computers and the Internet. The diffusion of Internet use in developed countries may be slowing and even stalling, when compared to the explosive growth of Internet access and use in the past decade. With the proliferation of the Internet in developed countries, the digital divide between North American and developed countries elsewhere is thus narrowing, but remains substantial. The divide also remains substantial within almost all countries, and is widening even as the number and percentage of Internet users increases, as newcomers to the Internet are demographically similar to those already online. People, social groups and nations on the wrong side of the digital divide may be increasingly excluded from knowledge-based societies and economies.
Social Science Computer Review, 2003
This article concerns the comparative dimension of the digital divide, the global digital divide, assessing processes of various sorts that shape this differentiating feature and mapping its trends of change. The authors (a) "map" the global digital divide with multiple indicators to find patterns of varying degrees of differentiation between countries worldwide and between blocs of countries and (b) assess the various national characteristics that contribute to the level of IT connectedness. The authors compare the effects of these various social national conditions on the pervasiveness of IT. Their preliminary results indicate that it is neither political nor economic national characteristics that are the determinants of IT connectedness but that cultural features are the prime causes. In this sense, the global digital divide is more a product of networking into global society than it is a mere reflection of local economic capabilities.
Reconstruing the digital divide from the perspective of a large, poor, developing country
Journal of Information Technology, 2004
The global digital divide is usually measured in terms of differences between rich and poor countries in the extent to which they use ICTs in general and the Internet in particular. Such a view of the problem, however, ignores the fact that there are all kinds of ways in which poor, illiterate persons in developing countries benefit from the Internet without any use of computers and Internet connectivity. Most of these benefits occur as a result of intermediaries who, in one way or another, transfer relevant parts of the knowledge available from the technology to recipients in a form that is relevant to their specific needs. Using India as an illustration of this argument, we find that usage understates actual beneficiaries by at least 30 percent. On the basis of this finding, we suggest that a reconstrued notion of the digital divide be based on usage as well as other more indirect forms of benefit from the Internet in developing countries. To this end, much more needs to be known ...
2010
Socio 20 DOI: The Global Digital Divide (GDD) in Internet and related forms of information technologies has gained some press and scholarly attention in recent years. Although the contours and causes of Internet diffusion around the globe are now better understood, a number of questions and avenues remain unanswered or unexplored, particularly concerning the role of socio-demographic structures and even conflict processes on Internet diffusion. This study addresses the current state of the digital divide and sheds new light on the barriers that continue to inhibit developing nations’ lag with the West in Internet connectivity. Focusing on a large sample of the world’s developing nations, this project finds that although the GDD is narrowing, the gap is still large and that specific demographic properties (high fertility) and conflict processes threaten to keep many societies in the periphery of cyberspace. The authors also find that urban agglomerations work to amplify Internet dema...
The Digital Divide. The Internet and Social Inequality in International Perspective, Routledge, 2013
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). Providingan 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.
The Global Digital Divide6editsfinal
This study focuses attention upon groups of countries at varying levels of development (high, medium and low), determines what types of information technology policies have been implemented within them and shows where such countries are in the various technological indices to indicate the level at which the digital divide can be said to exist in the various regions of the world with special emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region. It provides a window for policy makers to determine the impact of such policies upon economic growth and development in these groups of countries. It can ultimately determine their interconnectivity with the rest of the world and the significance of that digital divide.