Moving on up in the information society? A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between Internet use and social class mobility in Britain

Abstract

Many universal access policies are based on the assumption that the removal of the digital divide will enhance social mobility. But this assumption is not supported by the available evidence. Using four waves of longitudinal data from Britain we show that Internet use has a positive effect on social class mobility, while controlling for age, gender, education, health, and previous social class membership between 1997 and 2013. In doing so, we contribute to a wider discussion of the relationships between social and digital inequalities and highlight the challenges and potential of this methodological approach for future research.

Keywords:

• Digital divide
• digital inclusion
• digital inequalities
• Internet use
• reciprocal effects
• social class
• social mobility

Notes

1 Absolute rates of mobility refer to the actual proportions of individuals of given class origins who are mobile to different class destinations, while relative rates compare the chances of individuals of differing class origins arriving at different class destinations and thus indicate the extent of social fluidity (Goldthorpe 2013). In a more socially fluid society where people start out from has less effect on where they end up.

2 HNC and HND stand for the Higher National Certificate and Higher National Diploma respectively. They are British qualifications that are broadly equivalent to one year or more of university education. “A-levels,” “O-levels,” and “CSEs” are all various forms of subject specific qualifications that are taken by school children in England and Wales at the age of 16, 17, and 18.

3 “hisec-mivoc” is used in the BHPS data set to denote qualifications that fall within the mid vocational range.