A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Digital Inequality and Relatedness in India after Access (2023)
Tenhunen, S. (2023). Digital Inequality and Relatedness in India after Access. In E. Costa, P. G. Lange, N. Haynes, & J. Sinanan (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology (pp. 343-354). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003175605-34
JYU authors or editors
Publication details
All authors or editors: Tenhunen, Sirpa
Parent publication: The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology
Parent publication editors: Costa, Elisabetta; Lange, Patricia G.; Haynes, Nell; Sinanan, Jolynna
ISBN: 978-1-032-00776-2
eISBN: 978-1-003-17560-5
Publication year: 2023
Publication date: 30/09/2022
Pages range: 343-354
Number of pages in the book: 644
Publisher: Routledge
Place of Publication: Abingdon
Publication country: United Kingdom
Publication language: English
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003175605-34
Publication open access: Not open
Publication channel open access: Channel is not openly available
Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/85407
Abstract
The scholarship on digital inequality and divides has relied mainly on quantitative data and such general criteria for digital inequality as access, motivation, skills, and the autonomy of use to measure the empowering effects of internet access. This chapter develops a novel way to understand digital inequality based on ethnographic fieldwork on smartphone use in rural and urban India among low-income and little-educated people. It analyses digital inequality through the concept of digital relatedness exploring how people’s digital media use is embedded in social relationships and how media use serves to refashion relationships and hierarchies. The chapter argues that the focus on autonomous uses can leave unacknowledged a great variety of digital practices, which users can find valuable and even transformative. It also demonstrates how even seemingly autonomous media use is embedded in social relationships in the sense that people usually learn their uses from others.
Keywords: inequality; digitalisation; Internet; smartphones; social media; social relations
Free keywords: India
Contributing organizations
Ministry reporting: Yes
Reporting Year: 2023
Preliminary JUFO rating: 3
