The divided views of the information and digital divides: A call for integrative theories of information inequality

Abstract

This article defines information inequality as multifaceted disparity between individuals, communities or nations in mobilizing society’s information resources for the benefit of their lives and development. It then examines related research from a wide range of disciplines that focuses either on information inequality in general or on its specific forms, e.g. information poverty, information divide, knowledge gap and digital divide. It shows that it is possible to identify a number of clusters of information inequality research according to their theoretical perspectives, and that these perspectives have inherited to a great extent the traditional divisions of social sciences between structure vs agency, society vs individuals and objectivism vs subjectivism. Following earlier calls for greater dialogue between divisions of related research, this article goes further to call for integrative theorizing of information inequality in the way exemplified by Bourdieu’s research on social inequality.