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Theme 9: Social Stratification and the
Digital Divide |
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Number
of abstracts currently posted to this Theme: 1 | 2 |
3 | 4 |
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 Return
to List of Themes |
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(Last
updated: October 10th, 2005) |
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The Experience of Non-users
of Computers and their Aspirations for their
Use: |
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Report of a Study in
South London |
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Mike
Cushman, Research
Fellow, Department of Information Systems |
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London School of Economics
and Political Science, London, England, UK |
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Ela
Klecun, Lecturer,
Department of Information Systems |
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London School of Economics
and Political Science, London, England, UK |
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Research undertaken as part of the Penceil Project
describes the attitudes of non-users of computers,
their perceptions of technologies and the uses
they might make of it. The research was undertaken
on a deprived London housing estate amongst an
ethnically and linguistically diverse community. |
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The research disclosed widespread anxieties about
ICT and a range of aspirations for gaining a competence
in its use that is far wider than the conventional
employment focussed curricula. While many respondents
wished to improve their employment chances through
ICT competency they also wanted to use ICT for
wider purposes; maintaining contact with countries
of birth and disperse family networks, supporting
children’s education and Internet shopping. |
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Respondents described computers as threatening
and different from other cognate technologies,
which they often skilfully interacted with (e.g.
mobile phones, ATMs, VCRs). This indicates a need
for a curriculum which improves understanding of
how IT operates as well as competent usage. |
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Many respondents expressed a general concern
that the world, based on IT, is moving past them,
yet they did not perceive many specific forms of
exclusion beyond limited job opportunities, but
anticipated growing difficulties. |
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Digital Divide and Digital
Opportunity in Taiwan |
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Chien
Wen-Yin, Doctoral Candidate |
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Department of Sociology
and United Daily Poll Center, National Taiwan
University, Chung-Ho City,
Taiwan |
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Chen Yu-Hua, Assistant
Professor |
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Department of Agriculture
Extension, National Taiwan University, Chung-Ho
City, Taiwan |
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As the pace of technological change accelerates,
certain segments of the population are at risk
of being left behind in the Information Age. Inequalities
in access to and use of ICT have become a central
social problem in the fast changing society like
Taiwan. Using the 26000 randomly selected samples
came from°uDigital Divide in Taiwan 2005°vconducted
by RDEC , this paper will provide a descriptive
analysis of issues related to the access and use
of ICT in Taiwan. |
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More specifically, ICT use is strongly conditioned
by social inequality and play an important role
in determining one’s opportunities. This
research will examine the extent to which inequities
in the access to and skills in using ICT and focus
on the role of technology in widening knowledge
gaps between different groups, based on socio-economic
status (gender/age/education/ income), ethnic groups,
disabilities and rural-urban location. For those
who are digitally excluded, why they make little
or no use of ICT and their acceptance of adopting
technology will also be discussed. |
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Finally, how policy helps to promote IT literacy
and turn the emerging digital divide into digital
opportunity for disadvantaged groups in Taiwan
will be considered. |
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Four Cities and the Mobile
Phone- Similarities and Disparities in the Finnish
Youth's Mobile Usage |
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Sakari Taipale, Junior
Lecturer in Development and International Cooperation |
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Department of Social Sciences
and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä,
Finland |
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The paper will discuss the youth’s mobile
phone usage in four Finnish cities. The selected
cities represent different geographical regions
suffering from diverse socio-economic problems.
Two of the cities (Helsinki, Jyväskylä)
can be described as national technology hubs and
school cities, whereas two other (Pori and Kuusamo)
are remoter and depopulating centres. Study places
and job prospects in these cities, for instance,
are more limited than in Helsinki or Jyväskylä. |
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The equal distribution of mobile handsets by
itself does not yet speak for the total absence
of digital divides in Finland. It is obvious that
dichotomies, like “haves-have nots”,
are inadequate to explain regional differences
in mobile phone usage within a given society. The
article will begin by arguing that also the ways
and purposes of using a mobile phone must be taken
into account when analysing the existence of digital
divides. The paper will analyse if there is any
regional disparities in mobile phone usage among
the Finnish youth and it will search for determining
variables for possible regional differences and
similarities in mobile phone usage. Moreover, the
paper will make a difference between three types
of mobile phone usage: time and place management,
facilitating social relations and amusement use.
The paper will be based on a postal survey gathered
in March and April 2005 and it will present some
initial findings on the subject matter and discuss
the concept of digital divide in more general.
The data consists of 15-25 years old Finnish speaking
adolescents. |
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The Implicit Assumptions of the Four Digital
Divides |
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Adel Ben Youssef, Assistant
Professor of Economics |
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EDHEC Business School,
University of Paris Sud, Paris, France |
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The digital divide is not a simple statement
established by international institutions in
search of justification and sense of their
actions. It is based on the coherent analytical
hypotheses very often accepted without being
discussed. The following article proposes to
identify these statements and criticize them
one after another. |
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Taking into consideration the diversity
of works concerning this subject we propose
a classification according to the four dimensions
following the rhythm of diffusion of Information
Communication Technologies (ICT) in a given
economy. The first dimension explains economic
and social inequality related to the access
to equipments and infrastructures. The second
one attributes the digital divides to the uses
tied with ICT. The inequalities tied with the
ICT depend on uses by individuals and social
groups. The third one concerns the efficiency
of uses. In other terms, certain nations, individuals
having identical levels of equipment raise
their performances more rapidly than the others.
The fourth dimension reflects more education
changes in the knowledge based economy. From
the moment when information and knowledge become
abundant the ICT can be the origin of numerous
inequalities related to changes in education
processes and as a consequence to the associated
performances. |
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