A “recognitional perspective” on the twenty-first century’s digital divide

Abstract

This chapter provides a framework of the digital divide in the twenty-first century. It then elaborates on the theoretical background of recognition theory and explains its basic assumptions. The chapter reviews recent digital divide studies and cluster them in accordance with the resulting social dimensions. In its initial definition, the term digital divide distinguishes between users and non-users of information and communication technologies (ICT). The concept of recognition inspired generations of social and philosophical thinkers since Hegel's Phenomenology of spirit. Axel Honneth's starting point is to trace how people come to an understanding of themselves that is both oriented by the norms, values, structures and goals of the social world and by individual needs, beliefs and ambitions. The chapter elaborates on the three basic spheres of recognition depicted in Honneth's structural model. They are love and care; intersubjective recognition; community of values.