Download or read book Mapping the Digital Divide in Africa written by Bruce Mutsvairo and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-09 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite issues associated with the digital divide, mobile telephony is growing on the continent and the rise of smartphones has given citizens easy access to social networking sites. But the digital divide, which mostly reflects on one's race, gender, socioeconomic status or geographical location, stands in the way of digital progress. What opportunities are available to tame digital disparities? How are different societies in Africa handling digital problems? What innovative methods are being used to provide citizens with access to critical information that can help improve their lives? Experiences from various locations in several sub-Saharan African countries have been carefully selected in this collection with the aim of providing an updated account on the digital divide and its impact in Africa.
Download or read book The Digital Divide written by Jan van Dijk and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to optimistic visions of a free internet for all, the problem of the ‘digital divide’ – the disparity between those with access to internet technology and those without – has persisted for close to twenty-five years. In this textbook, Jan van Dijk considers the state of digital inequality and what we can do to tackle it. Through an accessible framework based on empirical research, he explores the motivations and challenges of seeking access and the development of requisite digital skills. He addresses key questions such as: Does digital inequality reduce or reinforce existing, traditional inequalities? Does it create new, previously unknown social inequalities? While digital inequality affects all aspects of society and the problem is here to stay, Van Dijk outlines policies we can put in place to mitigate it. The Digital Divide is required reading for students and scholars of media, communication, sociology, and related disciplines, as well as for policymakers.
Download or read book Bridging the Mobile Digital Divide in Sub Saharan Africa Costing under Demographic Change and Urbanization written by Mr.Emre Alper and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Digital connectivity, including through the modern cellular network technologies, is expected to play a key role for the Future of Work in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We estimate the cost of introducing a full-scale 4G network by 2025 in SSA and an operable 5G network by 2040. We adapt the costing model of Lombardo (2019) by accounting for the significant demographic transformation and rapid urbanization in SSA. We use the WorldPop and GADM databases and the UN’s medium-variant population projections to project the population densities at the highest level of administrative division for each SSA country in 2025 and 2040. For full 4G connectivity, the required capital and operational costs stands approximately at US$14 billion by 2025 and for 5G connectivity, costs amount to US$57 billion in 2040, conditional on having the 4G in place by 2025. These costs roughly translate to 8.4 percent of annual subscriber income, on a median basis, by 2025 for 4G and 4.9 percent of subscriber income by 2040 for 5G. Having the infrastructure in place is not sufficient to bridge the mobile Digital Divide. In addition, policies are needed to address affordability and knowledge gaps.
Download or read book The Digital Silk Road written by Jonathan E. Hillman and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert on China’s global infrastructure expansion provides an urgent look at the battle to connect and control tomorrow’s networks. From the ocean floor to outer space, China’s Digital Silk Road aims to wire the world and rewrite the global order. Taking readers on a journey inside China’s surveillance state, rural America, and Africa’s megacities, Jonathan Hillman reveals what China’s expanding digital footprint looks like on the ground and explores the economic and strategic consequences of a future in which all routers lead to Beijing. If China becomes the world’s chief network operator, it could reap a commercial and strategic windfall, including many advantages currently enjoyed by the United States. It could reshape global flows of data, finance, and communications to reflect its interests. It could possess an unrivaled understanding of market movements, the deliberations of foreign competitors, and the lives of countless individuals enmeshed in its networks. However, China’s digital dominance is not yet assured. Beijing remains vulnerable in several key dimensions, the United States and its allies have an opportunity to offer better alternatives, and the rest of the world has a voice. But winning the battle for tomorrow’s networks will require the United States to innovate and take greater risks in emerging markets. Networks create large winners, and this is a contest America cannot afford to lose.
Download or read book ICTs and Sustainable Solutions for the Digital Divide Theory and Perspectives written by Steyn, Jacques and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ICTs and Sustainable Solutions for the Digital Divide: Theory and Perspectives focuses on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), which includes any technology used for communication and information. This publication researches the social side of computing, the users, and the design of systems that meet the needs of "ordinary" users.
Download or read book Technology and Social Inclusion written by Mark Warschauer and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2004-09-17 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of the discussion about new technologies and social equality has focused on the oversimplified notion of a "digital divide." Technology and Social Inclusion moves beyond the limited view of haves and have-nots to analyze the different forms of access to information and communication technologies. Drawing on theory from political science, economics, sociology, psychology, communications, education, and linguistics, the book examines the ways in which differing access to technology contributes to social and economic stratification or inclusion. The book takes a global perspective, presenting case studies from developed and developing countries, including Brazil, China, Egypt, India, and the United States. A central premise is that, in today's society, the ability to access, adapt, and create knowledge using information and communication technologies is critical to social inclusion. This focus on social inclusion shifts the discussion of the "digital divide" from gaps to be overcome by providing equipment to social development challenges to be addressed through the effective integration of technology into communities, institutions, and societies. What is most important is not so much the physical availability of computers and the Internet but rather people's ability to make use of those technologies to engage in meaningful social practices.
Download or read book Digital Connectivity in sub Saharan Africa A Comparative Perspective written by Mr.Emre Alper and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-09-27 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Higher digital connectivity is expected to bring opportunities to leapfrog development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Experience within the region demonstrates that if there is an adequate digital infrastructure and a supportive business environment, new forms of business spring up and create jobs for the educated as well as the less educated. The paper first confirms the global digital divide through the unsupervised machine learning clustering K-means algorithm. Next, it derives a composite digital connectivity index, in the spirit of De Muro-Mazziotta-Pareto, for about 190 economies. Descriptive analysis shows that majority of SSA countries lag in digital connectivity, specifically in infrastructure, internet usage, and knowledge. Finally, using fractional logit regressions we document that better business enabling and regulatory environment, financial access, and urbanization are associated with higher digital connectivity.
Download or read book The Global Digital Divides written by James B. Pick and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes extensive data on the world’s rapidly changing and growing access to, use and geographies of information and communications technologies. It studies not only the spatial differences in technology usage worldwide, but also examines digital differences in the major world nations of China, India, the United States and Japan at the state and provincial levels. At the global level, factors such as education, innovation, judicial independence and investment are important to explaining differences in the adoption and use of technology. The country studies corroborate consistent determinants for technology usage for education, urban location, economic prosperity, and infrastructure, but also reveal unique determinants, such as social capital in the United States and India, exports in China and working age population and patents in Japan. Spatial patterns are revealed that indicate clusters of high and low technology use for various nations around the world, the countries of Africa and for individual states/provinces within nations. Based on theory, novel findings and phenomena that have remained largely unreported, the book considers the future of the worldwide digital divides, the policy role of governments and the challenges of leadership.
Download or read book OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance 2020 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regions and Cities at a Glance 2020 provides a comprehensive assessment of how regions and cities across the OECD are progressing towards stronger, more sustainable and more resilient economies and societies. In the light of the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report analyses outcomes and drivers of social, economic and environmental resilience.
Download or read book The New Presence of China in Africa written by Meine Pieter van Dijk and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book describes China's growing range of activities in Africa, especially in the sub-Saharan region. The three most important instruments China has at its disposal in Africa are development aid, investments and trade policy. The Chinese government, which believes the Western development aid model has failed, is looking for new forms of aid and development in Africa. China's economic success can partly be ascribed to the huge availability of cheap labour, which is primarily employed in export-oriented industries. China is looking for the required raw materials in Africa, and for new marketplaces. Investments are being made on a large scale in Africa by Chinese state-controlled firms and private companies, particularly in the oil-producing countries (Angola, Nigeria and Sudan) and countries rich in minerals (Zambia). Third, the trade policy China is conducting is analysed in China and compared with that of Europe and the United States. In case studies the specific situation in several African countries is examined. In Zambia the mining industry, construction and agriculture are described. One case study of Sudan deals with the political presence of China in Sudan and the extent to which Chinese arms suppliers contributed to the current crisis in Darfur. The possibility of Chinese diplomacy offering a solution in that conflict is discussed. The conclusion considers whether social responsibility can be expected of the Chinese government and companies and if this is desirable, and to what extent the Chinese model in Africa can act as an example - or not - for the West"--Publisher's description.
Download or read book The Digital Divide written by Massimo Ragnedda and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-19 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of inequality and the stratification of the digital sphere. Grounded in classical sociological theories of inequality, as well as empirical evidence, this book defines ‘the digital divide’ as the unequal access and utility of internet communications technologies and explores how it has the potential to replicate existing social inequalities, as well as create new forms of stratification. The Digital Divide examines how various demographic and socio-economic factors including income, education, age and gender, as well as infrastructure, products and services affect how the internet is used and accessed. Comprised of six parts, the first section examines theories of the digital divide, and then looks in turn at: Highly developed nations and regions (including the USA, the EU and Japan); Emerging large powers (Brazil, China, India, Russia); Eastern European countries (Estonia, Romania, Serbia); Arab and Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Iran, Israel); Under-studied areas (East and Central Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa). Providing an interwoven analysis of the international inequalities in internet usage and access, this important work offers a comprehensive approach to studying the digital divide around the globe. It is an important resource for academic and students in sociology, social policy, communication studies, media studies and all those interested in the questions and issues around social inequality.
Download or read book Determinants of a Digital Divide in Sub Saharan Africa written by Piet Buys and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most discussions of the digital divide treat it as a "North-South" issue, but the conventional dichotomy doesn't apply to cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although almost all Sub-Saharan countries are poor by international standards, they exhibit great disparities in coverage by cell telephone systems. Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas and Wheeler investigate the determinants of these disparities with a spatially-disaggregated model that employs locational information for cell-phone towers across over 990,000 4.6-km grid squares in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using probit techniques, a probability model with adjustments for spatial autocorrelation has been estimated that relates the likelihood of cell-tower location within a grid square to potential market size (proximate population); installation and maintenance cost factors related to accessibility (elevation, slope, distance from a main road, distance from the nearest large city); and national competition policy. Probit estimates indicate strong, significant results for the supply-demand variables, and very strong results for the competition policy index. Simulations based on the econometric results suggest that a generalized improvement in competition policy to a level that currently characterizes the best-performing states in Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to huge improvements in cell-phone area coverage for many states currently with poor policy performance, and an overall coverage increase of nearly 100 percent.
Download or read book Digital Inequalities in the Global South written by Massimo Ragnedda and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-06-29 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Emerging Challenges Smart Business and Digital Economy 2023 ICECH 2023 written by Nguyen Danh Nguyen and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zusammenfassung: This is an open access book. Hanoi University of Science and Technology - School of Economics and Management, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, University of Economics and Business - Vietnam National University, Hanoi, National Economics University - Faculty of Business and Management, The University of Danang - University of Economics, Vietnam National University - International School, Foreign Trade University, University of Hertfordshire (UK), AVSE Global (France) and PPM School of Management (Indonesia) will organize The 11th International Conference on Emerging Challenges: Smart Business and Digital Economy, Vietnam on November 3-4, 2023. We would like to invite you to be a part of the ICECH2023 and submit your research papers for presentation consideration. The aim of ICECH2023 is to provide a forum for academics and professionals to share research findings, experiences and knowledge for adaptation and business strategy in a post-Covid as well as various uncertainties and complexities in the world in the Asia-Pacific region. We welcome the submissions in Economics, Business, Innovation Management, and Business Law
Download or read book Broadband Networks in the Middle East and North Africa written by Natalija Gelvanovska and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The existing telecommunications infrastructure in the Middle East and North Africa MENA suffers from various regulatory and market bottlenecks that are hampering the growth of the Internet in most countries and related access to information and to potential new job sources.
Download or read book Theorizing Digital Divides written by Massimo Ragnedda and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-22 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although discussion of the digital divide is a relatively new phenomenon, social inequality is a deeply entrenched part of our current social world and is now reproduced in the digital sphere. Such inequalities have been described in multiple traditions of social thought and theoretical approaches. To move forward to a greater understanding of the nuanced dynamics of digital inequality, we need the theoretical lenses to interpret the meaning of what has been observed as digital inequality. This volume examines and explains the phenomenon of digital divides and digital inequalities from a theoretical perspective. Indeed, with there being a limited amount of theoretical research on the digital divide so far, Theorizing Digital Divides seeks to collect and analyse different perspectives and theoretical approaches in analysing digital inequalities, and thus propose a nuanced approach to study the digital divide. Exploring theories from diverse perspectives within the social sciences whilst presenting clear examples of how each theory is applied in digital divide research, this book will appeal to scholars and undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in sociology of inequality, digital culture, Internet studies, mass communication, social theory, sociology, and media studies.
Download or read book Media Infrastructures and the Politics of Digital Time written by Stine VOLMAR and published by Recursions. This book was released on 2021-09-06 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Digital media everyday inscribe new patterns of time, promising instant communication, synchronous collaboration, intricate time management, and profound new advantages in speed. The essays in this volume reconsider these outward interfaces of convenience by calling attention to their supporting infrastructures, the networks of digital time that exert pressures of conformity and standardization on the temporalities of lived experience and have important ramifications for social relations, stratifications of power, practices of cooperation, and ways of life. Interdisciplinary in method and international in scope, the volume draws together insights from media and communication studies, cultural studies, and science and technology studies while staging an important encounter between two distinct approaches to the temporal patterning of media infrastructures, a North American strain emphasizing the social and cultural experiences of lived time and a European tradition, prominent especially in Germany, focusing on technological time and time-critical processes.
