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.
Conclusion: Towards a New Theory of Information Society.
Understanding Indispensability: Contexts, Networks and Discourses 7.
Tenuous Assumptions in Digital Divide Research 6.
Digital Divide Research 5.
Manuel Castells: Towards the Digital Divide of the Information Age 4.
Searching for the Core of the Information Society Theory: Developments, Versions, Arguments 3.
Introduction 2. 1.
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.
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 author offers an overview and re-examination of six presumptions and biases found in the prevailing approach to the Digital divide.
It evaluates the validity of the theories and concepts associated with Digital Divide research.
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.
The author begins by introducing the building blocks of the information society theory.
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