A competing viewpoint which assumes that the digital divide is a mirror of other types of socioeconomic inequalities, and suggests access and use are important determinants of the digital divide. In addition, other dimensions such as income, age, education, location, and IT skills impact access and use.
Published in Chapter:
Digital Divide and Broadband Access in an Italian Region
Enrico Ferro (Istituto Superiore Mario Boella, Italy), J. Ramon Gil-Garcia (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, Mexico), and Natalie Helbig (University at Albany, SUNY, USA)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-851-2.ch011
Abstract
Reducing the digital divide in order to build an information society for all is one of the top priorities for European policymakers. A better understanding of the determinants of broadband access at the individual level represents a key starting point for any e-inclusion policy. Based on a review of the literature on digital divide and broadband access, we document different approaches to understanding the digital divide and argue that these perspectives can also help to understand broadband access. Combining the digital divide and broadband literature provides a systematic and theory-based approach to the selection and inclusion of variables in different models. This chapter presents the results of a survey conducted in an Italian region. We provide some implications of our findings and argue that policymakers should explore the relationship between IT skills acquisition, broadband access, and Internet use in order to develop more effective policies and programs.