Digital inclusion beyond access: The struggle for a sustainable and accountable digital equality

Speaker: Norbert Wildermuth (Roskilde University)

The ongoing growth in data connectivity and the rapid proliferation of basic mobile phones (lately of internet-enabled feature and smart phones) throughout the Global South, has questioned the concept of the digital divide. However, the online experiences of worldwide internet users differ greatly in quantity and quality. In his lecture, Dr. Norbert Wildermuth argues for the significance of a continued systematic exploration, that is data-based and qualitative attempts to determine the specific nature and extent of structural asymmetries within and between nation states subsumed under the concept of digital divide.

With the case of Kenya in sight, the lecture will facilitate an understanding of the digital divide and its social consequences beyond a conceptualization that primarily refers to the digital divide in terms of broadband penetration, or the technical quality of access measured in transmission speed, quality of service and latency. Dr. Wildermuth will share his understanding of how the next billion(s) of internet users, aptly referred to as The Other Half, can be provided with opportunities to digitally connect, and no less important what the continued barriers to this potentiality are.