Digital inequalities 3.0: Emergent inequalities in the information age

Laura Robinson (1) , Jeremy Schulz (2) , Hopeton S Dunn (3) , Antonio A. Casilli (4, 5, 6, 7) , Paola Tubaro (8, 9, 10, 11) , Rod Carveth (12) , Wenhong Chen (13) , Julie B Wiest (14) , Matías Dodel (15) , Michael Stern (16) , Christopher Ball (17) , Kuo-Ting Huang (18) , Grant Blank (19) , Massimo Ragnedda (20) , Hiroshi Ono (21) , Bernie Hogan (19) , Gustavo Mesch (15) , Shelia R Cotten (16) , Susan B Kretchmer (22) , Timothy M Hale (17) , Tomasz Drabowicz (23) , Pu Yan (19) , Barry Wellman (24) , Molly-Gloria Harper (25) , Anabel Quan-Haase (26) , Aneka Khilnani (27)

1 Santa Clara University
2 Institute of Criminology [Cambridge]
3 UB - University of Botswana
4 SID - Sociologie Information-Communication Design
5 SES - Département Sciences Economiques et Sociales
6 I3 SES - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation de Telecom Paris
7 IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris
8 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
9 TAU - TAckling the Underspecified
10 LRI - Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique
11 IDHES - Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Économie et de la Société
12 Morgan State University
13 University of Texas at Austin [Austin]
14 WCUPA - West Chester University of Pennsylvania
15 University of Haifa [Haifa]
16 Michigan State University System
17 UIUC - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [Urbana]
18 Ball State University
19 University of Oxford
20 Northumbria University [Newcastle]
21 Hitotsubashi University
22 JHU - Johns Hopkins University
23 University of Social Science [Lodz]
24 University of Toronto
25 University of Windsor [Ca]
26 UWO - University of Western Ontario
27 GU - Georgetown University [Washington]

Marking the 25 th anniversary of the "digital divide," we continue our metaphor of the digital inequality stack by mapping out the rapidly evolving nature of digital inequality using a broad lens. We tackle complex, and often unseen, inequalities spawned by the platform economy, automation, big data, algorithms, cybercrime, cybersafety, gaming, emotional well-being, assistive technologies, civic engagement, and mobility. These inequalities are woven throughout the digital inequality stack in many ways including differentiated access, use, consumption, literacies, skills, and production. While many users are competent prosumers who nimbly work within different layers of the stack, very few individuals are "full stack engineers" able to create or recreate digital devices, networks, and software platforms as pure producers. This new frontier of digital inequalities further differentiates digitally skilled creators from mere users. Therefore, we document emergent forms of inequality that radically diminish individuals' agency and augment the power of technology creators, big tech, and other already powerful social actors whose dominance is increasing.

Domains: Sociology; Web

Laura Robinson, Jeremy Schulz, Hopeton S Dunn, Antonio A. Casilli, Paola Tubaro, et al.. Digital inequalities 3.0: Emergent inequalities in the information age. First Monday, 2020, 25 (7), ⟨10.5210/fm.v25i7.10844⟩. ⟨halshs-02889891⟩