The diffusion of ICT and the notion of the digital divide: contributions from francophone geographers

Abstract

The digital divide is often only understood as the gap between information and communication technologies (ICT) haves and have-nots, and points to the latest gap in the rate of development among regions. However, this view of the digital divide is simplistic and is not considered relevant to an insight into the disparities in the diffusion of ICT. On a larger scale, these issues have attracted the attention of policymakers and of many researchers in social sciences. The spatial diffusion of ICT has thus become an object of analysis in geography and other social sciences. Many recent studies on ICT have been undertaken to research social and policy issues with regard to unequal access to ICT infrastructures and the various capacities of local authorities to take initiatives to develop their use. A conference was held on this topic in Paris in November 2004 by Laboratory Analyse des Dynamiques Industrielles et Sociales (ADIS), gathering 65 communications. The selection of seven papers presented here testifies to the great interest from the geography community in these issues. From various angles, the seven contributions of the current themed issue of GeoJournal present a panorama of research in the field of geography with links to interdisciplinary inquiries with other social sciences (political sciences, anthropology, sociology, management sciences, and economy) that contribute to debates on the diffusion of the ICT, its infrastructures, its services and its use, methods for its representation, and the social signification of its diffusion. This series of papers attempts to focus on topics of concern to all those who work on the sociopolitical issue of unequal access to ICT infrastructures, including various case studies in France or across the world where different actors have tried to develop the use of ICT. Three outstanding directions emerge in this collection. The first axis enhances the assumption that the general structures of spatial organization partly account for the diffusion of ICT. But how do they do so? Sophie Houzet in her paper ‘The diffusion of ICT in France, infrastructures, services and uses’ tries to answer this question by proposing a cartography of the diffusion of ICT according to several indicators and by showing how, on the scale of France and of two large French areas, the spatial distribution of ICT implementation, the distribution of companies, and the urban hierarchy do not badly explain the overall distribution of certain aspects of ICT. On the urban scale, Blandine Ripert and Patrick Poncet add to this type of analysis the way in which L. Grasland Universite d’Avignon, 74, rue Pasteur, 84 029 Avignon Cedex 01, France e-mail: Loic.Grasland@univ-avignon.fr