Re-conceptualizing the Global Digital Divide

• Author: Mira Burri
• Position: Berne, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute of the University of Berme
• Pages: 217-225

Re-conceptualizing the Global Digital Divide

2011

217

3

Re-conceptualizing the Global Digital Divide

by MIRA BURRI*, Berne, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow at the World Trade Institute of the University of Berme.

© 2011 Mira Burri

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Recommended citation: Burr i, Re-conzeptualizing the Global Digital Di vide, 3 (2011) JIPITEC 217, para 1.

Abstract: The article seeks a re-conceptualization of

the global digital divide debate. It critically explores

the predominant notion, its evolution and measure-

ment, as well as the policies that have been advanced

to bridge the digital divide. Acknowledging the com-

plexity of this inequality, the article aims at analyz-

ing the disparities beyond the connectivity and skills

barriers. Without understating the first two digital di-

vides, it is argued that as the Internet becomes more

sophisticated and more integrated into economic, so-

cial, and cultural processes, a “third” generation of di-

vides becomes critical. These divides are drawn not at

the entry to the net but within the net itself, and limit

access to content. The increasing barriers to con-

tent, though of a diverse nature, all relate to some

governance characteristics inherent in cyberspace,

such as global spillover of local decisions, regulation

through code, and proliferation of self- and co-reg-

ulatory models. It is maintained that as the prac-

tice of intervention intensifies in cyberspace, multiple

and far-reaching points of control outside formal le-

gal institutions are created, threatening the availabil-

ity of public goods and making the pursuit of public

objectives difficult. This is an aspect that is rarely ad-

dressed in the global digital divide discussions, even

in comprehensive analyses and political initiatives

such as the World Summit on the Information Soci-

ety. Yet, the conceptualization of the digital divide as

impeded access to content may be key in terms of

ensuring real participation and catering for the long-

term implications of digital technologies.

Keywords: Global Digital Divide; Access to Content, Cyberlaw

A. Introductory Remarks

1

Closing the digital gap has been viewed in all dis-

-

mary importance. Especially in the initial years of

the discussions on the digital divide, there seemed

to have been a broad understanding that

active participation in the information revolu-

-

-

munications technologies offer the less developed

countries unprecedented opportunities to ac-



-

den the range of opportunities for business and

the poor.”1

2

Beyond economic development, it is also of-

ten maintained that bridging the global digi-

tal divide



subvert authoritarian and repressive govern-

ments, thus promoting democracy, human rights,