Max Weber and Digital Divide Studies: Introduction

Seminal sociologist Max Weber rarely wrote about media dynamics; however, the Weberian perspective offers rich potential for the analysis of various media issues, including the study of digital divides. In particular, the contribution of a Weberian school of thought to the field seems to be the addition of noneconomic and nontechnical concerns to the study of digital inequalities, most notably the importance of status and legitimacy and group affiliations and political relations as areas of focus. This piece introduces the Special Section on Max Weber and digital divide studies and clarifies the inspiration behind it. It briefly presents the article contributions, while summarizing their arguments, and offers a broad discussion of Weber’s relevance to digital divide studies as a way of understanding the individual articles as a shared intellectual effort.