The Geography of the Internet and Digital Divides Martin Dodge ([email protected]) Lecture 2, Monday...
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Transcript of The Geography of the Internet and Digital Divides Martin Dodge ([email protected]) Lecture 2, Monday...
The Geography of the Internet and Digital
Divides
Martin Dodge([email protected])
Lecture 2, Monday 11th October 2004
http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/cyberspace
3011: Geographies of Cyberspace
Today’s lecture• theories - technology and society
• what is the Internet and how it works?
• the geographies of the Internet and the nature of ‘digital divides’
Theories of cyberspace• what is cyberspace?• where is cyberspace?• who owns it? who controls it?• Is it ‘good’? or is cyberspace root of ‘evil’ in society today• how you answer these questions depends on the theory
you apply• the key is the way you conceptualise the relationship of
technology to ‘the social’
Following Graham (1998)
• three broad classes of theory identified
– 1. substitution and transcendence
– 2. co-evolution
– 3. recombination
Tech. Social
‘independent’ ‘dependent’
‘impact’
Tech. Social
Tech. Social
‘joined’
‘recursive’
Substitution & transcendence
• the belief that embedded, grounded, human lives can somehow be replaced by technology
• deterministic. reductionist (cause-effect) • technological utopianist or dystopian • technology is neutral, independent factor which
simply ‘impacts’ on society • often seen that technology will lead to social
change; this social change is usually presented as inevitable and beneficial
• technical fixes. universal solutions
• often this style of reporting in media, presented as ‘theory free’, but espouses a very definite modernist agenda
• cyberspace is the new (economic) frontier• cyberspace will bring economic wealth, reinvigorate
democracy, bring world peace, etc. etc• flip side is the simplistic dystopian views that
cyberspace is causing the moral decay of society, it is root of evils
• transcendence of material bounds of human body. Immersed in cyberspace, leaving behind ‘meat-space’& ‘tyranny of geography’
Co-evolution• parallel social production of geographical space and
electronic space• recursive relations, technosocial reproductions• social shaping of technology and the technological
building of the social• virtual space represents and reproduced real spaces• social depth in communications, not capacity of data
exchange• cyberspace supports and often generates physical
mobility (e.g. setting up meetings via email)
• “New information technologies, in short, actually resonate with, and are bound up in, the active construction of space and place, rather than making it somehow redundant.” (Graham 1998, p. 174)
• cities are not dissolving, they are being remade, in complex ways. cities also make cyberspace. recursive interaction
• can not ignore the political economy of infrastructure deployment and access. Cyberspace as new spatial fix for global capitalism. Cyberspace enables exploitation of local characteristics, for even more fine-grained international division of labour
Recombination• actor-network theory. Latour and Callon• technology and the social cannot
meaningfully be separated. they are joined and meshed in complex ways
• technical objects have agency• “… the hundreds of other actor-networks, are
always contingent, always constructed, never spatially universal, and always embedded in the microsocial worlds of individuals, groups and institutions.” (Graham, 1998, p 179)
• relational view of power and action• space is continually being constructed, places are in a
state of becoming• individual performance of space with a contingent,
local actor-network enrolling technologies to solve problems as they occur
• “Technologies only have contingent, and diverse, effects through the ways they become linked into specific social contexts” (Graham, 1998, 178)
• your cyberspace is very different from mine. You cyberspace is always being remade in the moment
The Internet isn’t cyberspace
cyberspace
bankingdata spaces
militarynets
Internetfax
telephone
sms
wwwemail
p2p ftp
Corporateintranets
Telematicnets
radio
Internet “plumbing”• various types of pipes and wires connecting
routers• all have different capacity to carry data
(known as bandwidth)• transparent to end-users
cables
satellites
fibre-optic
and a lot of electricityand back-up equipment
tons and tons of AC
(photos courtesy of Kazys Varnelis)
So, what is the Internet then?
• It is a global communications network built from– physical things– human things – software things– money– regulations and institutions
• a social-technical system• differences / parallels with the telegraph,
telephone, tv?
“ Nevertheless, the Net cannot float free of conventional geography. Not a single bit could pass through it without miles of copper wire and glass fiber, as well as tons of computing hardware – all of which is very much situated in the physical world. The cables and routing centers of the Internet have specific coordinates on the earth’s surface, even if users of the network seldom give much thought to where their bits are going.”
(Source: Brian Hayes, “The infrastructure of the information infrastructure”, American Scientist, May-June 1997, Vol. 85, No. 3, pages 214)
Why geography matters?• technical and infrastructure geographies• Internet has a material existence
The ‘invisibility’ problem
where are the wires? where are the servers? data is served from somewhere and delivered to to
somewhere
Why is the Internet interesting?
• it is a disruptive technology - 2 way interaction, not just a 1 way broadcast medium
• general purpose technology. vital plumbing for the ‘information society’
• transformative, not revolutionary• defining technological system of C21st• over hyped (dotcom mania, dotcom crash)
• the Internet is not everywhere, it is in specific places• rapid diffusion, but diffusion is uneven over time and space.
production and consumption of the Internet varies from place to place
• the Internet is not a single network, it's a collection of networks.
• thousands of separate networks - owned by businesses, universities, governments, and other organizations - linked up to share traffic and form the global Internet
• your Internet experience depends on the slowest link in the chain
the Internet is a network of networks
‘rules’ that make the Internet work
• Its all about ‘inter networking’• linking together thousands of networks requires:
– common protocols (speaking the same language) called TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol)
– unique addresses (finding the right location)– algorithms to route data (moving stuff)
• each network is owned/managed by distinct organisation, with own goals and priorities. however, they can only interconnect successfully if they follow the ‘rules’
• many metrics to quantitatively describe the geographies of the Internet– people, language, by access type and cost,
(freedom of access?)– number of computers– network links and traffic flows– content production, economic geography– institutions and law– social practices
• considered at many scales - local -> global
The geography of the Internet
Geographic density of Internet routers
Modeling the internet 's large-scale topology, http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/cond-mat/0107417
• narrowly defined as unequal access and use of IT and, in particular, the Internet
• (of course there have always been spatial and social inequalities in access to technology)
• hot political topic in the late 90s, but less so now• location is often a significant determining factor for
individuals and and business– can you get access?– how much will the access cost?– how reliable is access?– are you free to access any web sites? (monitoring, censorship)
• seeking to even out the inequalities
Digital divides
• cleavages of digital divide can be analysed by income, gender, race, age, education, geography (rural-urban), disability, etc, etc
• naïve belief in technology as a ‘quick fix’ to social problems. ‘just give the poor kids laptops’
• lack of understanding of complex relationships between ‘technology’ and the ‘social’
• it more than just basic access issue (‘haves’ and ‘have nots’)• issues of skills, content, and control• fundamental issues of distribution of power• digital divide is just the latest visible manifestation of deep
seated and persistent inequalities in wealth and power in society
• the diffusion of consumption of Internet has been rapid in last few years. significant disparities in material access are fast disappearing
• but the problem of the ‘rich get richer’, Castells’s says:
• “… it could well happen that while the huddled masses finally have access to the phone-line Internet, the global elites will have already escaped into a higher circle of cyberspace.” (Internet Galaxy, p. 256)
• power and control in Internet production remain highly concentrated in a few companies and a few places
• Internet reinforcing existing core - periphery inequalities
Internet’s unequal geography
• Lets look at geographical variation in Internet infrastructure and use
• range of scales– global– national– city– local– family (see work of Gill Valentine, ‘cyberkids’)
• OFTEL consumer use of the Internet report, July’03
• 47% UK homes have Internet access• 58% UK homes have a PC• 15% Internet homes use broadband (according to
subscriber figures)
How many online in UK?
(Source: http://www.oftel.gov.uk/)
Scale of digital divide• City versus Hackney• the City is one of most ‘wired’ places on the planet• yet virtually all connections and capacity bypass
geographically adjacent areas of Hackney• allows powerful elites to further disengage from
their local environment and at the same time deepen connection with elites half a world away
• Internet does not render place meaningless, it makes it easier to exploit difference between places
Reading for this lecture• Key article• Barney Warf (2001) “Segueways into cyberspace:
multiple geographies of the digital divide”
• Castells, Internet Galaxy, chapters 8, 9– The geography of the Internet– The digital divide in a global perspective
Readings for this lecture• Supplemental readings:• Ed Malecki, (2002) "The Economic Geography of the
Internet's Infrastructure”• Anthony Townsend (2001) "The Internet and the rise
of the new network cities, 1969-1999"• Brian Hayes, (1997) “The infrastructure of the
information infrastructure” • Greater London Authority (2002), The Digital Divide
in a World City, June 2002
• Janet Abbate, Inventing the Internet