Digital Inequalities in the Global South

by Massimo Ragnedda, Anna Gladkova

Overview

This book discusses how digital inequalities today may lead to other types of inequalities in the Global South. Contributions to this collection move past discussing an access problem – a binary division between ‘haves and have-nots’ – to analyse complex inequalities in the internet use, benefits, and opportunities of people in the Global South region. Using specific case studies, this book underlines how communities in the Global South are now attempting to participate in the information age despite high costs, a lack of infrastructure, and more barriers to entry. Contributions discuss the recent changes in the Global South. These changes include greater technological availability, the spread of digital literacy programs and computer courses, and the overall growth in engagement of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and languages in digital environments. This book outlines and evaluates the role of state and public institutions in facilitating these changes and consequently bridging the digital divide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030327057
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Series:	Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and IAMCR Series
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	372
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Massimo Ragnedda is Senior Lecturer in Mass Communication at Northumbria University, UK, where he conducts research on the digital divide and social media. He is the co-vice chair of the Digital Divide Working Group (IAMCR).

Anna Gladkova is Leading Researcher and Director of International Affairs Office at the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia. She is co-vice chair of the Digital Divide Working Group (IAMCR).

Table of Contents

1 Introduction.- 2. Understanding Digital Inequalities in the Global South.- Section I Digital Inequalities in South Asia.- 3 Impacts of the Digital Divide on the E-government
Portals of Nepal. - 4. A Widening Digital Divide and Its Impacts on Existing
Social Inequalities and Democracy in Pakistan.- 5. Widening the Wedge: Digital Inequalities and Social Media in India.- 6. ICTs, Power Prejudice and Empowerment: Digital
Exclusion of the Poorin Rural Bangladesh.- Section II Digital Inequalities in Central and Western Asia.- 7. Weaponization of Access, Communication Inequalities as
a Form of Control: Case of Israel/Palestine.- 8. Digital Inequalities in CIS Countries: Updated Approach to the Analysis of Situation.- 9. A Comparison of High-Skill and Low-Skill Internet
Users in Northeast Anatolia, Turkey.- Section III Digital Inequalities in Africa.- 10. 10 Digital Infrastructure Enabling Platforms for Health Information and Education in the GlobalSouth.- 11. Moving Beyond the Rhetoric: Who Really Benefits from Investments in Digital Infrastructure in Low-Income and Low-Literacy Communities in Malawi?.-12. Digital Inequality and Language Diversity: An Ethiopic Case Study.- 13. The End of the Public Sphere: Social Media, Civic Virtue, and the Democratic Divide.- 14. The Digital Divide: Observations from the South About a Failed Dialog with the North.- 15. Social Inequality, Technological Inequality and Educational Heterogeneity in the Light of the Conectar Igualdad OLPC Programme (Salta, Argentina, 2015–2017).- 16. Afro-Creole Nationalism and the Maintenance of the
Digital Divide: The Case of Jamaica.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This collection of essays by Anna Gladkova and Massimo Ragnedda is a strong contribution to our understanding about the social and cultural implications of the globalisation of digital economy. The editors have managed to present an impressive array of articles that cover different aspects of digital inequalities in the Global South. The book offers much unique information on and analytical insights into countries that are rarely, if ever, discussed in the connection to digital economy, such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Malawi, Jamaica, and others. The book is highly recommended to anybody interested in the overall social and cultural dimensions and consequences of digital economy. It is also an excellent introduction to studies of any kind of the Global South, as it offers a first-hand overview of the digital upheaval of these parts of the world.” (Hannu Nieminen, University of Helsinki, Finland)

“This book fills not just one but several empty spaces: usually media scholars look just at Western, rich world; this text is focused on Global South. Usually Digital Divide is referred to differences between North and South; this text looks into the often neglected problems within Southern countries. A must for those who wants to have an original view on the consequences of the digital revolution.” (Paolo Mancini, University of Perugia, Italy)

“Driven by a deep concern about digital injustice, and its destructive articulation with other forms of social and political injustice, Digital Inequalities in the Global South is a global and still detailed intersectional analysis of absence, whether it concerns ICTs, skills, power, sustainability, well-being, benevolence, or democracy. The book is an appreciated disruption of the digital fantasy of technologically-generated social well-being, but simultaneously defends ICTs as conditions of possibility for the exercise of information and communication rights.” (Nico Carpentier, Charles University, Czechia, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, and Uppsala University, Sweden)