The Digital Divide at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Early Definition and Analysis

Athanasia Lagoudi

Abstract: This paper, part of my MPhil research, introduces, defines and presents the theoretical background to the term digital divide drawing on literature and sources available at the early years of 2000. It draws on 3 analytical tools for relevant policy-making that addresses the digital divide: e-economy, e-education and e-government. The paper concludes with a brief synopsis of EU's early 2000 political response to the challenge presented by the digital divide that follows exactly this three-fold approach.

Keywords: digital divide, information society, ICTs, EU