ABSTRACT
Alongside the increasingly widespread use of digital technologies, new forms of digital divides and inequalities have also emerged. The digital divide designates the division between those who are able to access, use, and take advantage of digital technologies and those who are not. This chapter introduces a framework for understanding and analyzing the historical relations between states and citizens with an emphasis on how these enter into different socio-technical constellations over time. It proposes to frame the digital divide and digital inequalities in terms of classification theory and socio-technical infrastructures. The chapter shows how various classifications, mediating the state-citizen relation in different ways, have carefully allocated resources, responsibilities, and power in distinct and contingent ways over time. Recasting the digital divides in terms of classifications within the state-citizenship relation can help shed light on how norms and expectations are inscribed and hidden within the very core of our public institutions.
