Poverty, Literacy, and Social Transformation: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Digital Divide
Abstract
Harnessing scholarship focused on literacy and poverty, in this article we aim to complicate the common understanding of the digital divide. First, we argue that the dominant literature on the digital divide misses broader connections between technological exclusion and broader forms of economic and social exclusion. Accordingly, and following recent qualitative research on the digital divide, we believe future scholarship must examine the complicated relationships between poverty, inequality, and the digital divide and we look to poverty scholarship to understand the complicated and shifting nature of poverty. Finally, we make the case that scholars and practitioners focused on digital literacy programs should pay attention to historical and critical scholarship on education and its role in mediating poverty and fostering social mobility, as it serves digital divide and broadband adoption scholars to understand the ways education processes can either reproduce or set the stage to alter entrenched social realities.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Bach, A. J., Wolfson, T., & Crowell, J. K. (2018). Poverty, Literacy, and Social Transformation: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Digital Divide. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 10(1), 22-41. https://doi.org/10.23860/JMLE-2018-10-1-2
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, History Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Other Education Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons
