Panayiota Tsatsou

The Role of Society's Culture and Decision-making from a Top-down and Bottom-up Perspective : Implications for the European Information Society

Digital Divides in Greece

Special Issue: Vulnerable People's Digital Inclusion in a Perplexed Milieu of Intersectional Vulnerabilities

This edited collection explores the role of digital inclusion in the welfare and social inclusion of vulnerable people. With interdisciplinary contributors from six continents, working in diverse fields such as digital media studies, social computing, community informatics and cultural studies, the collection brings together theoretical and applied research evidence on three vulnerable population categories: ethnic minorities, older people and people with disabilities. Each section is accompanied by a critical commentary on the research insights presented, from third sector community and policy experts. The collection explores whether vulnerable populations face similar experiences and challenges in relation to their digital inclusion status, stressing the central presence of intersectionality, and arguing for the inclusion of the age, ethnicity/immigration status and disability aspects of one’s identity. At the same time, it argues for multi-directional action that tackles intersectional discrimination in the digital realm on behalf of more than one single population category or group. Challenging popular discourse on the overcoming of digital inequalities in the West, this essential book contends that accounts of non-western contexts do not focus on the parameter of vulnerability or on particular population groups. Chapter 'Enhancing Older Adults’ Digital Inclusion Through Social Support: A Qualitative Interview Study.” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Theoretical and Applied Perspectives

Vulnerable People and Digital Inclusion

This book examines the hotly debated subject of digital divides and specifically addresses the Western-Southern divide in Europe. It offers insights into selected countries of Southern and Western Europe - Greece, Portugal and the UK - and assesses the role of socio-cultural and decision-making parameters in the Western-Southern divide. It explores ordinary people's insights into the digital divide and links them to the role policymakers and regulators play in the development of the information society. Thus, it offers an innovative approach that crosses disciplines and brings new media studies closer to cultural studies and the study of politics. The study identifies the role of decision-making and socio-cultural parameters in the Western-Southern divide in Europe and concludes that this divide should be seen as a ladder of divides influenced by a complex set of socio-cultural and policy/regulatory factors. The book reaches significant case-specific conclusions for the Western-Southern divide and argues that it is its profoundly socio-cultural and political/regulatory nature, while highlighting the implications for the European information society as a whole.

Culture, Politics and the Western-Southern Divide

Digital Divides in Europe

Jyoti Choudrie

Sherah Kurnia

Social Inclusion and Usability of Innovative ICT-enabled Services is a cutting-edge research book written for researchers, students, academics, technology experts, activists and policy makers. The book explores a wide range of issues concerning innovative ICT-enabled digital services, their usability and their consequent role in social inclusion, It includes the impacts of the use of ICT-enabled digital services on individuals, organisations, governments and society, and offers a theoretically informed and empirically rich account of the socio-technical, management and policy aspects of social inclusion and innovative ICT-enabled digital services. This publication offers insights from the perspectives of Information Systems, Media and Communications, Management and Social Policy, drawing on research from these disciplines to inform readers on diverse aspects of social inclusion and usability of innovative ICT-enabled digital services. The originality of this book lies in the combination of socio-technical, management and policy perspectives offered by the contributors, and integrated by the editors, as well as in the interdisciplinary and both theoretically framed and empirically rich features of the various chapters of the book. While providing a timely account of existing evidence and debates in the field of social inclusion and technology usability, this book will also offer some original insights into what practitioners, experts and researchers are to expect in the near future to be the emerging issues and agendas concerning the role of technology usability in social inclusion and the emerging forms and attributes of the latter. Through a collection of high quality, peer reviewed papers; Social Inclusion and Usability of Innovative ICT-enabled Services will enhance knowledge of social inclusion and usability of innovative ICT-enabled digital services and applications at a diverse level.

Social Inclusion and Usability of ICT-enabled Services.

This book considers the lessons learnt so far from the emergence of the Internet and the development of the field of Internet studies, whilst also considering possible directions for the future. Examining broad media theories and emerging theorisations around the Internet specifically, it explores the possibility of the development of an Internet theory in the future. A comprehensive overview of the field, Internet Studies considers key issues of social importance that the study of the Internet draws upon, such as the role of the Internet in civic participation and democratisation, the development of virtual communities, digital divides and social inequality, as well as Internet governance and policy control. At the same time, it examines the role of the Internet in social research and the development of highly interdisciplinary and rapidly developing Internet research. Hence, this volume maps key areas of certainty and uncertainty in the field of Internet studies and, as such, it will be of interest to scholars and students of media and communication, sociology and social research methods.

Past, Present and Future Directions

Internet Studies

A comprehensive overview of the field, Internet Studies considers key issues of social importance that the study of the Internet draws upon, such as the role of the Internet in civic participation and democratisation, the development of virtual communities, digital divides and social inequality, as well as Internet governance and policy control.

Panayiota Tsatsou

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