[Air-l] New Book: Technology and Social Inclusion

[Mark Warschauer]

My new book has appeared.  Thanks to the many
of you in AoIR who contributed ideas and information
to it.
Mark

Mark Warschauer
Vice Chair, Department of Education
University of California, Irvine
tel: 949: 824-2526,  fax: (949) 824-2965
markw at uci.edu; http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw

------------------------


Technology and Social Inclusion:
Rethinking the Digital Divide
by Mark Warschauer, University of California, Irvine

Now Available from MIT Press
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?sid=
01CD9ACB-049C-4B90-841C-0E086475AB19&ttype
=2&tid=9239

Much of the discussion of new technologies and
social equality has focused on the oversimplified
notion of a bipolar "digital divide." This book moves
beyond one-dimensional discussion of "haves" and
"have-nots" to analyze in-depth the nuanced forms
of access to information and communication
technologies and the ways that differential access
contributes to social and economic stratification or
inclusion. Technology and Social Inclusion is
remarkable both for its conceptual
breadth-drawing on theory from political science,
economics, sociology, communications, psychology,
linguistics, and education-and for its global scope,
presenting case studies from the author's field
research in a range of developed and developing
countries, including Brazil, China, Egypt, India, and
the United States. The book is a must read for
scholars, university students, policy-makers,
educators, and community leaders who want to go
beyond simple head counts of who is on- or off-line
to better understand the complex intertwining of
technology and social transformation.

"An impassioned, thoughtful, and unique analysis of
the digital divide that incorporates evidence from
affluent and poor nations. Warschauer shows that
social context, far more than hardware, shapes
access to new technologies."
Larry Cuban, School of Education, Stanford
University

"The modern belief that new technologies hold the
key to human progress seems to be sacrosanct. 
Mark Warschauer's compelling critique of
technophilia offers a welcome corrective to this view.
He emphasizes that new technologies are neither
causes nor cures, shifting the emphasis to the social
context in which such technologies appear.  In so
doing, he provides renewed energy for a reevaluation
of the relation between technology and social
inequality."
Michael Cole, University Professor of
Communication, Psychology, and Human
Development, University of California, San Diego

For an overview of some of the main themes discussed
in the book, see the author's article, "Reconceptualizing
the Digital Divide," in First Monday, vol. 7, no. 7 
(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue7_7/warschauer)