The societal diffusion of information and communications technologies (ICTs) remains starkly uneven at all scales. It is in the contemporary city that this unevenness becomes most visible. In cities, clusters and enclaves of 'superconnected' people, firms and institutions often rest cheek-by-jowel with large numbers of people with non-existent or rudimentary access to communications technologies. In such a context, this paper has two objectives, reflected in its two parts. The first part of the paper seeks to demonstrate that dominant trends in ICT development are currently helping to support new extremes of social and geographical unevenness within and between human settlements and cities, in both the North and the South. The paper's second part aims to explore the prospect that such stark 'urban digital divides' might be ameliorated through progressive and innovative policy initiatives which treat cities and electronic technologies in parallel. It does this using a range of illustrative exemplars from a variety of contexts.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AL-Kodmany, K. (2000) Using web-based technologies and geographic information systems in community planning, Journal of Urban Technology , 7, pp. 1-30.
2.
Beamish, A. (1999) Approaches to community computing: bringing technology to low income groups, in: D. Schön, B. Sanyal and W. Mitchell (Eds) High Technology and Low Income Communities, pp. 349-370. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
3.
Borsook, P. (1999) How the Internet ruined San Francisco, news feature Salom.Com (available at: http://www.salon/com/nes/feature/1999/10/28/internet).
4.
BRACZYK, H.-J., FucHS G. and Wolf, H.-G. (Eds) (1999) Multimedia and Regional Economic Restructuring. London: Routledge.
5.
Calabrese, A. and Borchert, M. (1996) Prospects for electronic democracy in the United States: rethinking communication and social policy, Media, Culture and Society, 18, pp.249-268.
6.
Caldeira, T. (1996) Fortified enclaves: the new urban segregation, Public Culture, 8, pp. 303-328.
7.
Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell.
8.
Castells, M. (1998) The End of Millennium. Oxford : Blackwell.
9.
Castells, M. (1999a) Grassrooting the space of flows, Urban Geography, 20, pp. 294-302.
10.
Castells, M. (1999b) The Culture of Cities in the Information Age. Report to the USLibrary of Congress.
11.
Castells, M. and Hall, P. (1994) Technopoles of the World: The Making of 21st Century Industrial Complexes. London: Routledge .
12.
Chomsky, N. (1993) The new global economy, in: D. Barsamian (Ed.) The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many , pp. 6-16. Berkeley, CA: Odonian.
13.
Curwen, P. (1999) Survival of the fittest: formation and development of international alliances in telecommunications, Info, 1, pp. 141-160.
14.
Demos (1997) The Wealth and Poverty of Networks. Collection Issue 12. London: Demos.
15.
Doctor, S. and Dutton, W. (1998) The First Amendment online: Santa Monica's public electronic network, in: R. Tsagarousianou , D. Tambini and C. Bran (Eds) Cyberdemocracy: Technology, Cities and Civic Networks, pp. 125-152. London: Routledge .
16.
Everard, J. (1999) Virtual States: The Internet and the Boundaries of the Nation-State. London: Routledge .
17.
Fernandez-Maldonado, A. (1999) Telecommunications in Lima: networks for the networks . (available at: a.fernandez-moldonado@bk. tudelft.nl).
18.
Finnie, G. (1998) Wired cities, Communications Week International , 18 May, pp. 19-22.
19.
Goslee, S. (1998) Losing Ground Bit by Bit: Low Income Communities in the Information Age. Washington, DC: Benton Foundation and National Urban League.
20.
Graham, S. (1998) The end of geography or the explosion of space? Conceptualising space, place and information technology, Progress in Human Geography, 22, pp. 165-185.
21.
Graham, S. (1999) Global grids of glass: on telecommunications, global cities and planetary urban networks, UrbanStudies, 36, pp. 929-949.
22.
Graham, S. and Aurigi, A. (1997) Virtual cities, social polarisation and the crisis in urban public space, Journal of Urban Technology, 4, pp. 19-52.
23.
Graham, S. and Marvin, S. (1996) Telecommunications and the City: Electronic Spaces, Urban Places. London: Routledge .
24.
Graham, S. and Marvin, S. (2001) Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition. London : Routledge.
25.
Grundy-Warr, C., Peachey, K. and Perry, M. (1999) Fragmented integration in the Singapore-Indonesian border zone: southeast Asia's 'growth triangle' against the global economy , International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23, pp. 304-328.
26.
Hack, G. (1997) Infrastructure and regional form (mimeograph).
27.
Jones, S. (1995) Understanding community in the information age , in: S. Jones (Ed.) Cybersociety: Computer Mediated Communication and Community, pp. 10-35. London : Sage.
28.
Kalbermatten, J. (1999) Should we pay for water, and, if so, how?, Urban Age, Winter, pp. 14-16.
29.
Kaothien, U., Webster, D. and Lukens, J. (1997) Infrastructure investment in the Bangkok region (mimeograph).
30.
Lieberman, D. (1999) America's digital divide, USA Today Tech Report , 11 October.
31.
Lovink, G. and Riemens, P. (1998) The monkey's tail: the Amsterdam digital city three and a half years later, in: Inura (International Network For Urban Research And Action) (Eds) Possible Urban Worlds: Urban Strategies at the End of the 20th Century, pp. 180-185. Berlin : Birkhauser-Verlag.
32.
Madon, S. (1998) Information-based global economy and socioeconomic development: the case of Bangalore, The Information Society , 13, pp.227-243.
33.
Mansell, R. and Wehn, U. (1998) Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
34.
Marshall, R. (1999) Kuala Lumpur: competition and the quest for world city status, Built Environment, 24, pp. 271-279.
35.
Mattelart, A. (1996) The Invention of Communication. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
36.
Monbiot, G. (2000) Devil take the hindmost, Guardian Weekly, 30 March-5 April, p. 13.
37.
Murdock, G. (1993) Communications and the constitution of modernity , Media, Culture and Society, 15, pp. 521-539.
38.
Neil, K. (1999) Bandwidth colonialism? The implications of Internet infrastructure on international e-commerce (mimeograph).
39.
Ntia (1999) Americans in the Information Age: Falling through the Net. Washington, CD : NTIA. (available at: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/digitaldivide/).
40.
Nunberg, G. (2000) The word wise web, Guardian Editor, 14 April, pp. 12-13.
41.
Nunn, S. and Rubleske, J. (1997) 'Webbed' cities and development of the National Information Highway: the creation of World Wide Web suites by U.S. city governments , Journal of Urban Technology, 4, pp. 53-80.
42.
Offner, J. (1996) 'Reseaux' et 'large technical system': concepts complementaires ou concurrent ?, Flux, 26, October-December, pp. 17-30.
43.
Petrella, R. (1993) Vers un 'techno-apartheid' global, Le Monde Diplomatique , May.
44.
Picon, A. (1998) La Ville Territoire de Cyborgs. Paris: L'Imprimeur.
45.
Ramos-Schiffer, S.R. (1997) São Paulo: the challenge of globalization in an exclusionary urban structure (mimeograph).
46.
Rapaport, R. (1996) Bangalore, Wired, February, pp. 56-107.
47.
Resnick, M., Rusk, N. and Cooke, S. (1999) The computer clubhouse: technological fluency in the inner city, in: D. Schön, B. Sanyal and W. Mitchell (Eds) High Technology and Low Income Communities, pp. 263-287. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
48.
Rockoff, M. (1996) Settlement houses and the urban information infrastructure , Journal of Urban Technology, 3, pp. 45-66.
49.
Rothstein, M., (1998) Offices plugged in and ready to go, New York Times, 4 February.
50.
Schiller, D. (1999) Digital Capitalism: Networking the Global Market System. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .
51.
Schön, D., Sanyal, B. and Mitchell, W. (Eds) High Technology and Low Income Communities. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
52.
Schuler, D. (1996) New Community Networks: Wired for Change. New York: Addison Wesley.
53.
Shanmugavelan, M. (2000) IT in developing nations, Intermedia , 28(1), pp. 29-31.
54.
Skeates, R. (1997) The infinite city, City, 8, pp. 6-20.
55.
Smith, C. (1999) Trek for African phones, Johannesburg Daily Mail and Guardian, 18 March.
56.
Souter, D. (1999) The role of information and communication technologies in democratic development, Info, 1, pp. 405-417.
57.
Speak, S. and Graham, S. (1999) Service not included: marginalised neighbourhoods, private service disinvestment, and compound social exclusion, Environment and Planning A, 31, pp.1985-2001.
58.
Steyaert, J. (2000) Local governments online and the role of the resident , Social Science Computer Review, 18, pp. 3-16.
59.
Strover, S. and Berquist, L. (1999) Telecommunications infrastructure development: The evolving state and city role in the United States (mimeograph) (available from: sstrover@ mail.utexas.edu).
60.
Sussman, G. and Lent, J. (1998) Global Productions: Labor in the Making of the 'Information Society'. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
61.
Swyngedouw, E. (1992) Communication, mobility and the struggle for power over space, in: G. Giannopoulos and A. GillespieTransport and Communications in the New Europe, pp. 305-325. London: Belhaven.
62.
Tambini, D. (1998) Civic networking and universal rights of connectivity: Bologna, in: R. Tsagarousianou, D. Tambini and C. Bran (Eds) Cyberdemocracy: Technology, Cities and Civic Networks , pp. 84-109. London: Routledge.
63.
Tsagarousianou, R., Tambini, D. and Bran C. (Eds) ( 1998) Cyberdemocracy: Technology, Cities and Civic Networks . London: Routledge.
64.
Teng, E. (2000) The geography of cyberspace (mimeograph).
65.
Twist, J. (1999) Virtuous communities? Constructing socially inclusive communities in the 'information age' (mimeograph).
66.
Undp (United Nations Development Programme) ( 1999) Human Development Report. New York : Oxford University Press.
67.
Wetzler, B. (2000) Boomgalore, Wired, March, pp.152-169.
68.
Wheeler, J., Aoyama, Y. and Warf, B. (Eds) (2000) Cities in the Telecommunications Age: The Fracturing of Geographies . London: Routledge.
69.
Wilson, M. (1998) Information networks: the global offshore labor force, in: G. Sussman and J. Lent (Eds) Global Productions: Labor in the Making of the Information Society, pp. 39-56. Cresskill, NJ : Hampton Press.
70.
Woodbury, B. and Thompson, T. (1999) The new digital divide (mimeograph).
71.
World Bank (1999) Harnessing Information for Development. Washington, DC: World Bank.
