Introduction to the Special Issue on Inequality in the Digital Environment

Abstract

Abstract:The purpose of this special issue is to explore social inequalities in the digital environment. The motivation for this issue is derived from the disproportionate focus on technological and economic aspects of the Information Society to the detriment of sociological and cultural aspects. The research presented here falls along three dimensions of inequality. Two papers explore the ways that race orders interaction online. A second pair of papers explores the experiences of technology users with physical and mental disabilities. A final paper looks at gender, and the higher rates of intimate partner violence experienced by women online. Taken as a whole, these five papers highlight some of the ways that the digital environment can reproduce or mitigate inequalities that have been molded and routinized in the physical environment.

Online Place Branding: Is Geography ‘Destiny’ in a ‘Space of Flows’ World?

“…Even if geography is still destiny in the adoption of Web 1.0, inequality is also a significant predictor. This finding supports the conclusions of other scholars [61,62] who warned about the potential of the 'space of flows' to reproduce or amplify socio-economic inequalities, despite their potential to liberate from constraints of the local geographic space [18]. The unidirectional place branding communication is limited by the social effects of globalization, such as inequality.…”

“…Although globalization and the network society have the potential to become equalizing forces, scholars [61,62] have recently highlighted that "the digital environment can reproduce or mitigate inequalities that have been molded and routinized in the physical environment" [61] (p. 580). Almost two decades ago, Schiller critiqued Castells' theory of network society by highlighting that old patterns still persist in this so-called new society, in the sense that "the social and economic inequalities characteristic of market economies tend to widen rather than close" [63] (p. 48).…”