Global perspectives on digital inequalities and solutions to them

In this special issue of First Monday, Global perspectives on digital inequalities and solutions to them we bring together scholars from five continents to offer a vista of the field of digital inequalities at the close of the 25th anniversary of the “digital divide.” We have chosen First Monday to publish our scholarship thanks to the foundational work in open access publishing by Edward J. Valauskas, Chief Editor and Founder. First Monday’s approach to sharing knowledge and information free of charge to authors and readers epitomizes the ideals of digital inclusion — a spirit of using technology for social benefit and good that is evermore important as digital technologies grow and spread into every facet of life.

Setting the stage for the rest of the special issue, we open with two articles that offer a panorama of digital inequalities past, present, and future. After offering this wide angle of vision, six additional studies train their analytic foci on several major themes with policy implications: inequalities in use, skills, education, and learning. The extended discussion of policy culminates in two further studies on public policy across the Americas. At the time of writing, we are several months into the COVID-19 pandemic; therefore we close this special issue with a timely inquiry of how digital inequalities are being magnified by the pandemic that is creating new forms of vulnerability.