This article critically reviews well-established and recent trends in digital divides literature and research, highlighting new elements of divides and the related research and making recommendations about future research. First, it disentangles some aspects of the puzzling nature and ongoing importance of digital divides. It then discusses how the concept of digital divides has evolved over the last two decades and how research literature has examined it on the basis of different attempts at contextualisation. The article brings together theoretical and empirical insights and suggests that digital divides be revisited so as to illustrate the need for less linear and more properly contextualised approaches to the concept and phenomenon of digital divides where technology, society and politics will be jointly taken into consideration to explain divides. It specifically proposes that digital divides and the research into these be revisited so as to emphasise the critical role of socio-cultural and decision-making dynamics in structuring the adoption of ICT in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Thus, it argues that the web of cultural traits in a society, with its own gaps and disparities, as well as policy and regulation dynamics, are in a constant dialogue with technology, together influencing digital divides and entailing implications for other forms of division in society.
This paper presents a focus group study of the role of digital inclusion in overcoming disability stigma. It reviews stigma literature and contrasting disability models, ultimately arguing the value of the biopsychosocial approach to the role of digital inclusion in disability stigma. The paper qualitatively explores the stigma experienced by people with disabilities and the ways in which digital inclusion might affect such experiences. It asserts that the benefits of digital inclusion depend, simultaneously, on bio-medical, social, and personal/psychological levels. In addition, prominent barriers to digital inclusion, such as low accessibility and usability and ineffective technology design, are determined by complex biopsychosocial factors, rather than purely bio-technical or social factors. Thus, the paper recommends the adoption of the biopsychosocial model of disability into digital inclusion research, in order to generate longitudinal insights into the actual and potential role of digital inclusion in people with disabilities' social inclusion and welfare.
This paper addresses the role of trust and regulation where small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union make use of e-business in a digital business ecosystem (DBE). We argue that in order for digital business to develop among entrepreneurs in the EU and within different industry sectors and geographical locations, trust and regulation are of critical importance.The paper assesses the importance of this argument and focuses on the interplay of regulatory and trust-based issues that need to be accommodated before one can expect SMEs to engage in ebusiness supported within a DBE environment. It then presents a taxonomy that addresses key regulatory issues and fosters trust. The paper proposes the taxonomy as the vehicle for the simplification of a bewildering array of laws, standards, norms and expectations, as well as for the elimination of regulatory overlap and conflict. The contribution of the taxonomy is demonstrated in the last section of the paper, where it is empirically tested and applied to SMEs which participated in the EU funded DBE project.
This paper presents an in-depth study of intra-disability diversity in the digital realm and the related role of individuality and selectiveness in the digital choices and experiences of people with disabilities (PwD). The study adopts the interactionist model of disability and problematises conceptual uniformity in research that focuses on the medical and socially-constructed features of disability as those determining digital constraints and affordances for PwD. Through primary qualitative evidence, it argues that individuality and selectiveness shape a complex terrain of intra-disability diversity, which forms the nuances and experiences of digital inclusion for PwD. Thus, it invites researchers to move beyond disability-fixed categorisations and offers a 3-tier recommendation for future research to explain the range of PwD' perceptions and experiences in the digital realm.
(Bakardjieva, 2005;Haddon, 2000;Katz and Rice, 2002;Klamer et al., 2000;Selwyn, 2004;Silverstone, 2003Silverstone, , 2005Tsatsou, 2011aTsatsou, , 2011bVerdegem and Verhoest, 2009;Wyatt et al., 2002; and others).
This paper examines the views of researchers in five social science and humanities disciplines on their digital literacy and the training they need or have undertaken. Theoretically, the paper draws upon two competing conceptualisations of digital literacy: digital literacy as 'user skills' and digital literacy as 'user-technology interactivity'. Empirically, it suggests that social science and humanities researchers' understandings and evaluations of their digital literacy unfolds at two levels -the factual and the perceptual -and involves not only (technical) skills but also user experiences, emotions, and complex processes of learning, practicing and self-development when interacting with technology. Furthermore, researchers challenge the value of generic institutional training for literacy enhancement and envision the development of informal communities of experience exchange and knowledge-sharing across the research community. These findings lead to recommendations on training provision and support the conceptualisation of digital literacy as a process where user interactivity with technology results in certain experiences, reflections and lessons, rather than merely reflecting users' technical skills.
The literature embraces several arguments regarding the influence of online communication platforms and practices on communicative, semantic, affective and organisational elements of citizen activism. Although organisational matters are inherent in most discussions in this area, there is a need for empirical insight into under-explored cases of citizen activism that can contribute toward addressing questions about the informal organisation of citizen activism and the associated role of social media. This paper presents an interview study of the role of Facebook in the informal organisation of the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan. The study found that participants in the Sunflower Movement engaged more with Facebook's information-spreading and information-sharing functions than with its networking affordances. They used these functions to enhance the public's engagement with the movement and recruit new participants, as well as to initiate, support and coordinate offline action. In addition, in the context of the Sunflower Movement, Facebook appeared to support the largely self-organised and loosely structured character of the coordination of offline action. It also fostered movement participants' actions and feelings of 'altruism' toward other participants as well as their desire to 'awaken' other groups and the public at large. Regarding leadership, the study shows that leadership structures still exist in technologically mediated citizen activism, but they are often challenged by activists, while decision-making is a lot more complex and multi-layered than in the past.
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