IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rajsxx/v15y2023i4p482-495.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

North–South digital divide: A comparative study of personal and positional inequalities in USA and India

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffin Thomas Mammen
  • M Rugmini Devi
  • R Girish Kumar

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created one of the biggest disruptions in human life. We were all confined within the walls of our homes or offices with day-to-day life worldwide seriously affected. In this context, access to and efficient use of technology determined the course of daily life for vast sections of the world’s population. However, there was (and still is) a severe pre-existing global divide between the Global North and Global South vis-à-vis digital access. This paper attempts to understand this digital divide and how it has widened during the pandemic in the Global North and Global South with reference to India and the United States (US). This is initiated by analyzing certain factors within each country, namely positional and personal categorical inequalities. Through the cases of the US and India, the authors conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the global digital divide between the two worlds, affecting core social sectors like education and health. The larger implication of this is a broadening inequality between the Global North and Global South in leading development indicators like the Human Development Index.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffin Thomas Mammen & M Rugmini Devi & R Girish Kumar, 2023. "North–South digital divide: A comparative study of personal and positional inequalities in USA and India," African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 482-495, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rajsxx:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:482-495
    DOI: 10.1080/20421338.2022.2129343
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20421338.2022.2129343
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/20421338.2022.2129343?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rajsxx:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:482-495. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rajs .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.