By Robin Mansell
The prevailing view is that connecting the unconnected using digital technologies is necessarily a good thing for society as a whole, for the economy and for the individual. Although the relationship between infrastructure and digital platform development and inequality is complicated, policymakers tend to assume that their interventions will have a direct and positive impact on the take up and use of digital technologies and services, and a consequential beneficial impact on society. The main focus in policy is to reduce the access and literacy divides and, as a result, attention is given principally to the rate of investment in digital infrastructures and in digital skills acquisition.
DownloadThe current path of digital technology innovation is seen as inevitable and good for the economy and citizens. But as ROBIN MANSELL writes, there are looming and profound questions about digital divides we cannot ignore.
- Intermedia Issue:
- Vol 45, Issue 03
- Issue Date:
- September 2017
Robin Mansell
Professor Emerita of New Media and the Internet in the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science 
