The Global Digital Divides: Explaining Change

✍ Scribed by James B. Pick, Avijit Sarkar (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 407
• Series: Progress in IS
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xxix
Introduction....Pages 1-29
Historical Background....Pages 31-56
Theoretical Model....Pages 57-81
The Global Digital Divide....Pages 83-111
China’s Digital Divide....Pages 113-154
India’s Digital Divide....Pages 155-195
Japan’s Digital Divide....Pages 197-234
United States Digital Divide....Pages 235-274
Digital Divide in Africa....Pages 275-310
Comparisons of Countries....Pages 311-335
The Roles and Policies of Governments....Pages 337-356
The Future of the Digital Divide....Pages 357-374
Back Matter....Pages 375-386

✦ Subjects

IT in Business; Geographical Information Systems/Cartography; Computer Appl. in Social and Behavioral Sciences; R & D/Technology Policy; Development Economics; Public Policy