"The rapid development of the information society has accentuated the importance of digital divides, which refer to economic and social inequalities among populations due to differences in access to, use of, or knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICT). This book discusses the cu
...
rrent state of digital divides, ranging from global." (Publisher description)
more
"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 communic
...
ations 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, Russia, India, China); 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)." (Publisher description)
more
"Aiming to bring some of the network-cultural forms of collaboration into ICT debates dominated by standard policy and research procedure, the Incommunicado project does not offer a univocal master-narrative of what’s wrong with the world of ICT, or of how it should be. Members of the Incommunicad
...
o network are pursueing multiple vectors of inquiry that are unlikely to converge in yet another civil society declaration or intergovernmental policy proposal but - at best - coordinate possible interventions across the imperial terrain of a global network economy, at least heighten our sense of the incommensurability of competing info-political visions. To stress the simultaneity of these efforts, and to take stock of where we think incommunicado ‘is’ at the time of this writing, the entries below are a first attempt to identify some of these vectors." (Instead of an introduction, page 3)
more