Beyond Digital Transformation: Digital Divides and Digital Dividends

Dear Colleagues, 

Over the past two decades, the use of digital technologies seems to have accelerated in all aspects of our life. The dynamics of technological transformations is promoting substantially greater computing capacity and consecutive waves of new technologies. As the development of new technologies spreads very rapidly, the digital divide (or digital inclusion) is increasingly becoming a social issue.

In some respects, we have witnessed a revival of the debate about the digital divide two decades after the first one. The literature contains various conceptualizations of the digital divide (DiMaggio and Hargittai, 2001; Katz and Rice, 2002; Mossber et al., 2003). Attitudes, access, skills, types of usage, and location are among the main determinants of the digital divide. The disparity in access consists of changes in the accessibility of the equipment, such as hardware, software, an Internet connection, etc., while the disparity in use consists of changes in skills, literacy, and types of use (Lentz and Oden, 2001; by Dijk and Hacker 2003). It is not sufficient to have the motivation and the skills to use technologies if the required equipment is lacking. Ben Youssef (2004) identified four levels of digital divides. The first focuses on economic and social inequalities linked to access to equipment and infrastructure. The second is attributed to the digital divide in ICT-related uses. Inequalities are manifested through the uses made by individuals and social groups. The third concerns the efficiency of use; for identical equipment rates, some nations and some individuals increase their performance faster than others. The fourth relates to learning modalities in a knowledge-based economy. As information and knowledge become abundant, ICT could be the origin of many inequalities linked to changes in learning processes and therefore to associated performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led many countries to lock down their citizens. During the lockdown period, there was a significant change in terms of e-service provision (E-education, E-health, E-commerce, E-governance, etc.) and in terms of Internet use. While an increase in the use of digital technologies was noticed, the debate about e-inclusion and inequalities was raised again. The digital divide was again suggested to be the main problem facing people during this time and into the future. Over 1.58 billion students were affected by school closures due to COVID-19, and half of them do not have access to the Internet and laptops in order to participate in distance learning (UNESCO, 2020). Inequalities in access and use facing workers who need to shift to e-work have not disappeared and seem to be more pronounced. 

Moreover, the ability of people to cope with the pandemic and to participate in social activities is contingent on their e-skills (competency to use digital technologies). While e-skilled people were able to work, maintain a virtual social life, make transactions (e-commerce) online, etc., other non-e-skilled people were locked down without the capacity to work, to interact, and to maintain a social life. The psychological impacts for some people were very significant. The same trends were observed among firms. While some firms were able to maintain their activities despite the lockdown (since they have the infrastructure and the skills), other firms fell behind the digital divide and were unable to maintain their activities. This was particularly true for SMEs.

This Special Issue welcomes theoretical and practical analyses of the different levels of digital divides (access, use, skills…) for different actors (individuals, workers, firms, regions, countries…). It aims to understand the structural/marginal changes in the trend of the digitalization of countries or regions and to characterize the different levels of the digital divides. This Special Issue also welcomes contributions at the methodological level presenting new ways of capturing the divides linked to the intensity of usage of ICT and the diversity of use of the Internet among groups of citizens and economic agents. While most policy-makers think that “digital divides” and related inequalities are growing and will constitute a real threat to their economies, in a post-pandemic era there is a need for researchers to provide well-assessed analysis of such assertions and discuss to what extent these fears are justified. 

To contribute to the ongoing debate on digital transformation and the digital divide, this Special Issue welcomes papers giving evidence of such an “assertion”, refining the definition of the digital divide, and providing an analysis of how technological changes are narrowing the digital divide.

Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:

• measuring digital divides;
• the definition of digital divides;
• digital divides in e-health;
• digital divides in e-education;
• e-governance and digital divides;
• e-skills;
• digital divides during the COVID-19 pandemic;
• intensity of internet use;
• cyber criminality and digital divides;
• digital innovation in order to narrow digital divides;
• e-participation and digital divides;
• fake news and e-skills;
• artificial intelligence and digital divides;
• internet of things and digital divides;
• post-pandemic measures and investment in digital technologies;
• case studies. 

Prof. Dr. Adel Ben Youssef
Guest Editor

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• digitalization
• digital dividend
• digital divide
• information and communication technologies
• innovation
• e-skills.