[Air-L] Book announcement: Beyond the Digital Divide: Contextualizing the Information Society

[Petr Lupac]

Dear colleagues,

I would like to draw your attention to a book I published recently under
Emerald Publishing. I think that its final chapters, namely the fifth
chapter "Tenuous Assumptions in Digital Divide Research", is relevant to
the whole field of the Internet studies. The Introduction is freely
available at https://bit.ly/2OWkc89


Beyond the Digital Divide: Contextualizing the Information Society
<https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Beyond-the-Digital-Divide/?k=9781787565487>
Emerald Publishing
Petr Lupač <https://ksoc.ff.cuni.cz/en/staff/petr-lupac-ph-d/>

Book webpage:
https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Beyond-the-Digital-Divide/?k=9781787565487
Sample chapter (Introduction): https://bit.ly/2OWkc89


This book critically reviews existing digital divide research and
challenges its core thesis, which posits unequal Internet access as a newly
formed source of social disadvantage.

The author begins by introducing the building blocks of the information
society theory. The book goes on to present a systematic overview of
digital divide research - its development, arguments attesting to the
social gravity of the digital divide, and current findings on the uneven
diffusion and use of the Internet. It evaluates the validity of the
theories and concepts associated with digital divide research. The author
offers an overview and re-examination of six presumptions and biases found
in the prevailing approach to the digital divide. Given that Internet use
has, in certain contexts, become an absolute necessity, an alternative
approach is proposed, recognizing the indispensability of Internet use as
context dependent. The book concludes with a consideration of the
implications that this new perspective has for the information society
theory and policies as well as for the role of social science in the
informatization process.





-- 
Petr Lupac, Ph.D.
Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology
e-mail:petr.lupac-at-gmail.com
e-mail (work): petr.lupac at ff.cuni.cz
Web: http://ksoc.ff.cuni.cz/katedra/vyucujici/lupac/
Twitter: @PetrLupac
Skype: lupac_ffuk
Tel.: +42022161968 4   (Office hours only)
        +42022161968 0   (Department of Sociology)