ABSTRACT

This chapter engages the Internet infrastructures from a critical geography perspective to situate the digital divide, theoretically, as the uneven development of two critical infrastructures of the Internet: one physical and fixed in absolute space and the other coded and digital, rendering entirely new digital space(s). It explores a Marxist-postcolonial analysis to explain how the uneven development of the fixed infrastructure constitutes structures of empire that funnel information into a palatable hegemonic culture via digital infrastructure. The chapter, therefore, situates the digital divide as complex social relations as opposed to its previous introduction as the technological differentiation of those with access to computing technology and those without (US Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 1998). It then illustrates the spatial dimensions of inequality, transforming the digital divide from a singular conception where space is a passive agent, to a hybrid arrangement of relationally defined and constantly emerging spaces online.