Beyond The Digital Divide: Contextualizing The Information Society

Description

This book critically reviews existing digital divide research and challenges its core thesis, which posits unequal Internet access as a newly formed source of social disadvantage. The author begins by introducing the building blocks of the information society theory. The book goes on to present a systematic overview of digital divide research - its development, arguments attesting to the social gravity of the digital divide, and current findings on the uneven diffusion and use of the Internet. It evaluates the validity of the theories and concepts associated with digital divide research. The author offers an overview and re-examination of six presumptions and biases found in the prevailing approach to the digital divide. Given that Internet use has, in certain contexts, become an absolute necessity, an alternative approach is proposed, recognizing the indispensability of Internet use as context dependent. The book concludes with a consideration of the implications that this new perspective has for the information society theory and policies as well as for the role of social science in the informatization process. Beyond the digital divide: Contextualizing the Information Society......Page 2 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Table of Contents......Page 10 List of Figures......Page 12 List of Tables......Page 13 Chapter 1: Introduction......Page 16 Chapter 2: Searching for the Core of the Information Society Theory: Developments, Versions, Arguments......Page 22 2.1. Milestones in the Development of the Information Society Theory......Page 23 2.2. Arguments and Versions......Page 25 3.1. Earlier Castells: Epistemological Sources and Urban Sociology......Page 32 3.2. Later Castells and His Theory of Society......Page 38 3.3. Network Society......Page 44 3.3.1. The Formation of a New Economy and Globalization......Page 45 3.3.2. Network Enterprise......Page 47 3.3.3. The Global Geometry of the New Economy: Segmentation and Exclusion......Page 48 3.4. In the Internet Galaxy......Page 49 3.4.1. The Transformation of Mass Communication......Page 50 3.4.2. The Transformation of Sociability......Page 51 3.4.3. The Transformation of Resistance......Page 53 3.4.4. A Path to Change: Bridging the Digital Divide......Page 55 3.5 Addendum: A Blunt Critique of Castells’ Late Theory of Society......Page 57 Chapter 4: Digital Divide Research......Page 60 4.1 Early Research: The Widening Divide......Page 63 4.2 Turn of the Millennium: Closing the Digital Divide?......Page 66 4.2.1 The ‘Different Rates of Internet Adoption’ Argument......Page 67 4.2.2 The ‘Non-Exceptionality of ICT’ Argument......Page 68 4.2.3 The ‘Organically Closing Digital Divide’ Argument......Page 70 4.3 …And Yet it Widens!......Page 73 4.3.1 National Level: Bridging the Divide is Far on the Horizon......Page 74 4.3.2 The Global Digital Divide......Page 90 4.4.1 The Disconnect between Diffusion of Innovations Research and Digital Divide Research......Page 95 4.4.2 Critique of the Diffusion of Innovations Theory: A False Target......Page 97 4.4.3 The Perpetual Resurgence of the Digital Divide......Page 99 4.4.4 Adaptation of the S-Curve: Stratification and Normalization Model......Page 103 4.5 The Deepening Divide: The Final Argument......Page 105 4.5.1 Van Dijk’s Digital Divide Model......Page 109 4.5.3 Motivation and Barriers to Access......Page 113 4.5.4 Digital Skills......Page 119 4.5.5 Intermezzo: The Myth of the Digital Generation......Page 130 4.5.5 Gaps in Internet Usage......Page 133 Chapter 5: Tenuous Assumptions in Digital Divide Research......Page 148 5.1 The Reduction of Information and Communication (Technologies) to that of the Internet......Page 149 5.2. The Assumption of Universal Impact: Proportional, Positive and Constant Outcomes......Page 151 5.3 The Assumption of the Universal Necessity of Internet Use......Page 162 5.4. Individual-blame Bias: The Assumption of Isolated Users......Page 165 5.5. Pro-Innovation Bias and the Presupposed Inevitability of Further Informatization......Page 168 5.6. The Presupposed Feasibility of Closing the Digital Divide......Page 169 Chapter 6: Understanding Indispensability: Contexts, Networks and Discourses......Page 174 6.1 Contexts and Networks......Page 175 6.2. Contextualizing the (Research on the) Digital Divide......Page 180 Chapter 7: Conclusion: Towards a New Theory of Information Society......Page 190 Bibliography......Page 196 Index......Page 222