Handbook of Research on Overcoming Digital Divides: Constructing an Equitable and Competitive Information Society

Citation

Cullen, R. (2011), "Handbook of Research on Overcoming Digital Divides: Constructing an Equitable and Competitive Information Society", Online Information Review, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 163-165. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521111113669

These two large volumes, consisting of 35 separate essays from over 60 contributors present a range of perspectives on an issue that has been well recognised for the past decade. Contributions mainly from the UK, USA, Europe (although Mexico and Turkey are also represented) explore the impact of a number of factors on what the editors define as “the inequality in the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and groups of individuals who are situated within a complex arrangement of social, environmental, political, and economic issues”. The aim of the collection is therefore to bring together diverse perspectives on this complex social problem, with a view to advancing research in the field. It is this research that presumably will provide the solutions that will help overcome these various “divides”. Few of the papers in the two volumes are focused directly on solutions; most focus on analysis of the existing situation, although inevitably these analyses can highlight ways to include those left behind, or excluded from the information society of the twenty‐first century.

The volumes are divided into five sections: The digital divide as a social problem; Digital divides as inequalities; Digital divides, competitiveness, and development; Digital divides, e‐government and e‐democracy; Approaches to study digital divides. The chapters in the initial section do a relatively good job of exploring high level issues, and the use of policy initiatives to address the digital divide. The second chapter in particular, by Calderaro, takes a global perspective, and explores the “unequal distribution of some of the infrastructure of the internet”, relating this to economic factors. The third chapter in this section shows through case studies based in India how policy can help alleviate some aspects of the digital divide, introducing the important place of the concept of market failure (the failure of an unimpeded market to allocate resources efficiently, necessitating state intervention where public good issues arise) in this debate. A further chapter in this section, by Corrocher and Raineri, by making comparisons between groups of developing countries rather than the more usual one between developed and developing countries, is able to identify other factors beyond economic resources (a necessary but not sufficient factor) that play a part in societies that have been more successful in their uptake of ICTs and in ensuring their citizens have the opportunity to participate in the information age.

The section titled Digital divides as inequalities covers a number of digital divide issues that have been extensively addressed in previous literature, issues such as gender, ethnicity, age, education, culture, and disabilities, as well as literacy (including information and digital literacy). Some of these chapters are essays, which provide an overview, others are specific research reports or case studies. Each has its own interest, although not all make the same contribution to our understanding of the problem.

Section 3 on Digital divides, competitiveness, and development contains a group of essays that focus on the grassroots of development, and the need to think more flexibly both about peoples' needs, and the technologies that best meet them (several papers here note the transformational value of mobile phones in developing economies – an issue noted in the past, but an ongoing phenomenon). The section on e‐government, with five chapters, is a similar mix of essays, most of which are grounded in case studies. These chapters highlight the shift to the use of ICTs for communication with citizens that governments, both national and local, have been experimenting with in the past decade, and the exclusion of some citizens from participation that this inevitably brings. As with other sections, the focus of some papers is rather broader than the digital divide. Chary and Aikin, for example, explore the attitude of officials using ICTs for communication with citizens, rather than the views of citizens. As with the occasional paper in the volumes on e‐health, these e‐government papers suffer from isolation from the broader context they are part of – and might more comfortably form part of a volume on e‐government and the digital divide.

The final section on methods for research into the digital divide canvasses both qualitative and quantitative approaches, although much can also be learned form earlier chapters about methodological approaches taken by authors to investigate issues in their own context.

These two volumes undoubtedly contain some interesting papers and some valuable new insights. The editors have done a good job in ensuring that papers are well edited, and that the structure of the volumes helps the reader get a feel for the whole of the set. Two additional features, a full bibliography of all references used in the chapters, and a “Detailed table of contents”, including an abstract of each paper, help navigate the contents. But overall the volumes suffer from the same problems that best many such compilations – lack of structure and focus, unevenness in texture and repetitiveness. (The definitions of key terms that follow in each chapter are certainly repetitive, and at times conflicting.)

As in many such volumes it is not always easy to fit all the contributions into a logical structure, resulting in ill‐fitting papers in several sections. A longer and more informative preface from the editors, especially one which explains the subtitle, and relates the contents to it more effectively, may have helped the reader see links that were not obvious to this reader, but the editors too seem overwhelmed by the bulk and diversity of material, and fail to show how it forms an integrated whole. A much more major flaw, however, lies in the fact that the index is totally inadequate, and several key topics in chapters are not included, where a minor and passing reference to the same topic in a later chapter is indexed. In a compilation this large, and one that claims to be a handbook, an adequate index is a vital tool to access the contents (the publishers and editors have introduced their own digital divide here!).

While this is one of the better efforts from IGI that I have seen in terms of quality and coherence of content, at the price that the publishers charge, to short‐change the reader on the quality and depth of indexing reduces the value of the work.