The Geography of the Internet and Digital

Divides

Martin Dodge(m.dodge@ucl.ac.uk)

Lecture 2, Monday 11th October 2004

http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/cyberspace

3011: Geographies of Cyberspace

Today’s lecture• theories - technology and society

• what is the Internet and how it works?

• the geographies of the Internet and the nature of ‘digital divides’

Theories of cyberspace• what is cyberspace?• where is cyberspace?• who owns it? who controls it?• Is it ‘good’? or is cyberspace root of ‘evil’ in society today• how you answer these questions depends on the theory

you apply• the key is the way you conceptualise the relationship of

technology to ‘the social’

Following Graham (1998)

• three broad classes of theory identified

– 1. substitution and transcendence

– 2. co-evolution

– 3. recombination

Tech. Social

‘independent’ ‘dependent’

‘impact’

Tech. Social

Tech. Social

‘joined’

‘recursive’

Substitution & transcendence

• the belief that embedded, grounded, human lives can somehow be replaced by technology

• deterministic. reductionist (cause-effect) • technological utopianist or dystopian • technology is neutral, independent factor which

simply ‘impacts’ on society • often seen that technology will lead to social

change; this social change is usually presented as inevitable and beneficial

• technical fixes. universal solutions

• often this style of reporting in media, presented as ‘theory free’, but espouses a very definite modernist agenda

• cyberspace is the new (economic) frontier• cyberspace will bring economic wealth, reinvigorate

democracy, bring world peace, etc. etc• flip side is the simplistic dystopian views that

cyberspace is causing the moral decay of society, it is root of evils

• transcendence of material bounds of human body. Immersed in cyberspace, leaving behind ‘meat-space’& ‘tyranny of geography’

Co-evolution• parallel social production of geographical space and

electronic space• recursive relations, technosocial reproductions• social shaping of technology and the technological

building of the social• virtual space represents and reproduced real spaces• social depth in communications, not capacity of data

exchange• cyberspace supports and often generates physical

mobility (e.g. setting up meetings via email)

• “New information technologies, in short, actually resonate with, and are bound up in, the active construction of space and place, rather than making it somehow redundant.” (Graham 1998, p. 174)

• cities are not dissolving, they are being remade, in complex ways. cities also make cyberspace. recursive interaction

• can not ignore the political economy of infrastructure deployment and access. Cyberspace as new spatial fix for global capitalism. Cyberspace enables exploitation of local characteristics, for even more fine-grained international division of labour

Recombination• actor-network theory. Latour and Callon• technology and the social cannot

meaningfully be separated. they are joined and meshed in complex ways

• technical objects have agency• “… the hundreds of other actor-networks, are

always contingent, always constructed, never spatially universal, and always embedded in the microsocial worlds of individuals, groups and institutions.” (Graham, 1998, p 179)

• relational view of power and action• space is continually being constructed, places are in a

state of becoming• individual performance of space with a contingent,

local actor-network enrolling technologies to solve problems as they occur

• “Technologies only have contingent, and diverse, effects through the ways they become linked into specific social contexts” (Graham, 1998, 178)

• your cyberspace is very different from mine. You cyberspace is always being remade in the moment

What is the Internet?

The Internet isn’t cyberspace

cyberspace

bankingdata spaces

militarynets

Internetfax

telephone

sms

wwwemail

p2p ftp

Corporateintranets

Telematicnets

radio

nope, the Web is just a nice window. Its not the Internet

So, what is the Internet then?

Internet….?

• Is where my friends are?• email• IM, chat• news

• I can get free stuff• MP3s • essays

lots of computers

‘Inside the network’edges of the network

lots of wire

Internet “plumbing”• various types of pipes and wires connecting

routers• all have different capacity to carry data

(known as bandwidth)• transparent to end-users

cables

satellites

fibre-optic

and a lot of electricityand back-up equipment

tons and tons of AC

(photos courtesy of Kazys Varnelis)

Software to keep it running

and people of courseengineers, designers, planners, programmers...

So, what is the Internet then?

• It is a global communications network built from– physical things– human things – software things– money– regulations and institutions

• a social-technical system• differences / parallels with the telegraph,

telephone, tv?

“ Nevertheless, the Net cannot float free of conventional geography. Not a single bit could pass through it without miles of copper wire and glass fiber, as well as tons of computing hardware – all of which is very much situated in the physical world. The cables and routing centers of the Internet have specific coordinates on the earth’s surface, even if users of the network seldom give much thought to where their bits are going.”

(Source: Brian Hayes, “The infrastructure of the information infrastructure”, American Scientist, May-June 1997, Vol. 85, No. 3, pages 214)

Why geography matters?• technical and infrastructure geographies• Internet has a material existence

The ‘invisibility’ problem

where are the wires? where are the servers? data is served from somewhere and delivered to to

somewhere

Why is the Internet interesting?

• it is a disruptive technology - 2 way interaction, not just a 1 way broadcast medium

• general purpose technology. vital plumbing for the ‘information society’

• transformative, not revolutionary• defining technological system of C21st• over hyped (dotcom mania, dotcom crash)

• the Internet is not everywhere, it is in specific places• rapid diffusion, but diffusion is uneven over time and space.

production and consumption of the Internet varies from place to place

Building a network

A network of networksform the Internet

• the Internet is not a single network, it's a collection of networks.

• thousands of separate networks - owned by businesses, universities, governments, and other organizations - linked up to share traffic and form the global Internet

• your Internet experience depends on the slowest link in the chain

the Internet is a network of networks

some of the Internet’s networks

‘rules’ that make the Internet work

• Its all about ‘inter networking’• linking together thousands of networks requires:

– common protocols (speaking the same language) called TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol)

– unique addresses (finding the right location)– algorithms to route data (moving stuff)

• each network is owned/managed by distinct organisation, with own goals and priorities. however, they can only interconnect successfully if they follow the ‘rules’

• many metrics to quantitatively describe the geographies of the Internet– people, language, by access type and cost,

(freedom of access?)– number of computers– network links and traffic flows– content production, economic geography– institutions and law– social practices

• considered at many scales - local -> global

The geography of the Internet

People - how many online?

(Source: OECD Communications 2003 Report)

People with fast access?

(Source: OECD Communications 2003 Report)

People - how many online by language ?

(Source: www.global-reach.biz/globstats)

Geographic density of Internet routers

Modeling the internet 's large-scale topology, http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/cond-mat/0107417

• narrowly defined as unequal access and use of IT and, in particular, the Internet

• (of course there have always been spatial and social inequalities in access to technology)

• hot political topic in the late 90s, but less so now• location is often a significant determining factor for

individuals and and business– can you get access?– how much will the access cost?– how reliable is access?– are you free to access any web sites? (monitoring, censorship)

• seeking to even out the inequalities

Digital divides

• cleavages of digital divide can be analysed by income, gender, race, age, education, geography (rural-urban), disability, etc, etc

• naïve belief in technology as a ‘quick fix’ to social problems. ‘just give the poor kids laptops’

• lack of understanding of complex relationships between ‘technology’ and the ‘social’

• it more than just basic access issue (‘haves’ and ‘have nots’)• issues of skills, content, and control• fundamental issues of distribution of power• digital divide is just the latest visible manifestation of deep

seated and persistent inequalities in wealth and power in society

• the diffusion of consumption of Internet has been rapid in last few years. significant disparities in material access are fast disappearing

• but the problem of the ‘rich get richer’, Castells’s says:

• “… it could well happen that while the huddled masses finally have access to the phone-line Internet, the global elites will have already escaped into a higher circle of cyberspace.” (Internet Galaxy, p. 256)

• power and control in Internet production remain highly concentrated in a few companies and a few places

• Internet reinforcing existing core - periphery inequalities

Internet’s unequal geography

• Lets look at geographical variation in Internet infrastructure and use

• range of scales– global– national– city– local– family (see work of Gill Valentine, ‘cyberkids’)

• OFTEL consumer use of the Internet report, July’03

• 47% UK homes have Internet access• 58% UK homes have a PC• 15% Internet homes use broadband (according to

subscriber figures)

How many online in UK?

(Source: http://www.oftel.gov.uk/)

(Source: http://www.oftel.gov.uk/)

July’03

(Source: http://www.oftel.gov.uk/)

July’03August’02

Significant regional variation in Internetaccess rates

(Source: http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk )

(Source: E-London and the London Plan)

Scale of digital divide• City versus Hackney• the City is one of most ‘wired’ places on the planet• yet virtually all connections and capacity bypass

geographically adjacent areas of Hackney• allows powerful elites to further disengage from

their local environment and at the same time deepen connection with elites half a world away

• Internet does not render place meaningless, it makes it easier to exploit difference between places

Reading for this lecture• Key article• Barney Warf (2001) “Segueways into cyberspace:

multiple geographies of the digital divide”

• Castells, Internet Galaxy, chapters 8, 9– The geography of the Internet– The digital divide in a global perspective

Readings for this lecture• Supplemental readings:• Ed Malecki, (2002) "The Economic Geography of the

Internet's Infrastructure”• Anthony Townsend (2001) "The Internet and the rise

of the new network cities, 1969-1999"• Brian Hayes, (1997) “The infrastructure of the

information infrastructure” • Greater London Authority (2002), The Digital Divide

in a World City, June 2002

• Janet Abbate, Inventing the Internet

Next steps• Friday’s practical gets you exploring Internet

geography– watch a short animated film on ‘how the Internet

works’– mapping the routes of data flows through the

Internet– putting the results on a new web page