RECONCEPTUALIZING DIGITAL SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Abstract

This paper discusses conceptual tools which might allow an elaborated sociological analysis of the relationship between information and communication technology on the one hand, and social inequalities on the other. The authors seek to go beyond the familiar idea of the ‘digital divide’ to develop a focus on digital social inequality, through discussing three bodies of literature which are normally not discussed together. The paper thus addresses issues in feminist theory; the sociological field analysis of Pierre Bourdieu; and the Actor Network Theory. This paper shows that there are unexpected commonalities in these three perspectives which allow the possibility of effective cross-fertilization. All seek to avoid positing the existence of reified social groups which are held separate from technological forces, and all stress the role of fluid forms of relationality, from which social inequalities can emerge as forms of stabilization, accumulation and convertibility.

Keywords:

• sociology
• social theory
• digital divide

Notes

For example, we note the personal hostility in France between ‘classic’ sociologists of inequality notably Pierre Bourdieu, on the one hand, and those working in STS, such as Bruno Latour, on the other hand. These two groups rarely engaged with each others' work except through sniping critique and snide asides. See notably Bourdieu's dismissive comments on Latour in Sociology of Science and Reflexivity and Latour's (2005) critique of Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and field in Assembling the Social.

There is some attention to the biased content of the web, specifically the dominance of the English language, the operation of search engines, and the fact that the vast majority of hits focus on a very small number of sites produced by global corporations, e.g. the BBC, etc. However, in the debate on digital inequality itself these points are heavily underplayed in comparison with the question of effective use and there seems to be an implicit assumption that the question of content will be fixed later.