Configurable Culture in Wealthy and Developing Markets: A Comparative Cross-National Perspective

Abstract

This chapter tracks the awareness and consumption of, engagement with, and attitudes surrounding new, digital, “configurable” cultural forms and practices, using data from surveys conducted across a diverse range of nations. Respondents included English-speaking, online adults in the USA, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, South Africa and the UK. These data are analyzed to examine the correspondences and differences between media consumers living within different cultural, technological and legal regimes. The analysis pays special attention to demographic factors such as age, and geographic divides such as the delta between “advanced economies” and “emerging markets and developing economies.” The data show that these factors have significant, measurable consequences for access to knowledge and cultural participation, in ways that threaten to compound these social inequities in the future. In fact, the data show that user age and national wealth are far greater factors in personal use of digital culture than the size of individual markets, the prevailing copyright law, or the overall level of engagement with digital media among the population at large.