Digital Poverty: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives

This book examines the problem of inadequate access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the need to develop appropriate pro-poor ICT policies within the Latin American and Caribbean context. The authors show how market reforms have failed to ensure that the benefits of the Information Society have spread across the many social and economic divides that characterize the region.

The authors explain and support the formulation of a new perspective on ICT access and develop an analytical framework with which to assess the critical variables involved in effective ICT adoption in developing regions. The research supports policy reform that builds upon the achievements of market liberalization efforts in the region but which must also address the realities of ‘digital poverty’ – a concept that grasps the multiple dimensions of inadequate levels of access to ICT services by people and organizations, as well as the barriers to their productive use.

This is the first publication of the Regional Dialogue on the Information Society (DIRSI), a regional network of leading researchers concerned with disseminating knowledge that supports the participation of marginalized communities using ICTs in Latin America and the Caribbean. The book will be of interest to anyone interested in ICTs and international development policy and practice.

The editors

Hernan Galperin is Assistant Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (USA) and Research Associate at the Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina). Dr Galperin is also affiliated with the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research (UK) and the Edelstein Center for Social Research (Brazil). His research and teaching focus on the international governance and impact of new information and communication technologies.

Judith Mariscal has extensive research experience in Information and Communications Technologies focusing on public policy and regulatory issues. She is currently a professor of the Public Administration Department at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), an independent research and educational institution based in Mexico City. She has authored numerous articles on telecommunications policy and regulation, and the book Unfinished Business: Telecommunications Reform in Mexico (Praeger Press, 2002).