Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Society wide transformations have been made in ICT in the last few
years but the social diffusion of ICT networks has produced a digital
divide between the global North and South, and within countries.
•
Increasing attention has been paid to the impact of the ICT 'revolu-
tion' on development, but the outcomes are still unclear as wide
disparities exist in the diffusion of the Internet and other digital
platforms as a result of the intersection between socio-economic sta-
tus, age, gender and geography.
•
The current mobile phone revolution is transforming the IT land-
scape in the global South and it has the potential to empower disad-
vantaged communities by facilitating better access to local services,
democratization and social networks.
•
ICTs may well have the capacity to drive local development agendas
but new innovative approaches are required to mainstream access in
the world's poorest communities.
further
reading
Diane Perron's topic,
Globalization and Social Change: People and
Places in a Divided World
(2004), provides a detailed discussion of the
impact of the new ICT economy on communities in the global South,
while Pippa Norris offers a more detailed analysis of poverty and the
digital divide in
Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty
and the Internet
(2001). A special issue of the journal
Studies in
Comparative International Development
(2005, 40, Summer) examines
the impact of the digital divide on development in the global South and
recent case studies on a range of ICT and development-related issues,
including mobile phones and telecentres, can be found by accessing
the online
Development Informatics Working Group Papers
, edited by
Richard Heeks, at the Institute for Development Policy and Management,
University of Manchester (download available from www.sed.manchester.
ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/di/).
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