Stefano De Marco

Digital skills as a conditioning factor for digital political participation

Abstract While all forms of Internet activity have an impact on the lives of Internet users, some are particularly beneficial and allow people to improve their daily lives. One of such Internet use is Digital Political Participation (DDP). In this paper we seek to understand how the influence of digital skills on the adoption of Digital Political Participation practices may form the basis of a second level of digital divide and of a set of political inequalities. We operationalize the digital skills construct in terms of users’ Internet competence and level of appropriation. We hypothesize that digital skills have a significant influence on the adoption of beneficial uses of the Internet, such as DPP. At the same time, we examine whether digital skill levels are stratified by socio-demographic background, thereby generating political and social inequality. By looking at the Spanish case, we first tested the adequateness of the items chosen to measure these two dimensions. Second, we looked into sequences of multiple influences between socio-demographic variables and digital skills and between digital skills and DPP. The results show that socio demographic variables have an influence on digital skills. At the same time, digital skills have a strong influence on DPP.

The use of digital social networks from an analytical sociology perspective: The case of Spain

Digital social networks have attracted the attention of a growing number of specialists. The use of digital tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to express socio-political demands or to perform protest actions has become a central issue for social science today. However, few studies analyse the factors behind this phenomenon using explanatory models based on analytical sociology and rational action. In this article, we take steps in this direction and study the socio-political use of social networks based on a methodological individualism model. Through an analysis of structural equations, we analyse how the individual and social factors involved in the use of the social networks to ‘do’ politics relate to one another. We conclude that attitudes towards the political possibilities of the Internet constitute an essential factor for this kind of political action.

Assessing a Measurement Model for Digital Political Participation: A Multidisciplinary Point of View

The events of the past year have drawn the attention of public opinion to the importance that the Internet can have for political and social change. Both the so-called Arab Spring and the Icelandic and Spanish new social movements were born and developed on the Internet. These movements are raising questions and arousing interest in the new type of political participation that is emerging through this tool: digital political participation (DPP). Our starting point is that we do not consider DPP as part of the broader concept of traditional political participation, but we consider it as a form of participation in itself. So, it is necessary to create a tool that would allow its measurement in order to understand what the limits and potential of this new phenomenon are. Thus, the objective of this study is to build a statistical tool to measure DPP together with the constructs that influence its implementation.

Inequalities in the Information and Knowledge Society: From the Digital Divide to Digital Inequality

In this chapter, we analyse the development of two key concepts that have attracted the attention of a great number of Information and Knowledge Society specialists: the Digital Divide and Digital Inequality. Both concepts refer to the inequalities resulting from the development of the Internet in contemporary societies. However, the former focuses on the citizens that use and do not use this medium, whereas the latter studies the inequalities resulting from the different uses of the Internet. Taking Spain as a case study, this chapter examines to what extent the Digital Divide has reduced, by means of a time series analysis, and, on the other hand, looks at a type of advanced Internet use, e-shopping, to analyse whether digital inequalities have reduced or not from 2004 to 2011. We use the concepts of normalisation and stratification to order the information resulting from our analysis and to predict the development of inequality in the Information and Knowledge Society.

LA INFLUENCIA DE LAS HABILIDADES DIGITALES PARA LA BÚSQUEDA DE INFORMACIÓN COMERCIAL ON-LINE SOBRE EL E-SHOPPING: CUANDO LAS DESIGUALDADES DIGITALES AFECTAN A LOS NEGOCIOS

ABSTRACTFollowing Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), we study how abilities for searching and verifying commercial information online affect the adoption of e-shopping behaviors by internet users. Secondly, we study how these kinds of skills are positively influenced by the adoption of informative Internet uses. Finally, we reflect about the implications that digital inequality, i.e. the unequal distribution of beneficial uses of the Internet among the population, as informative ones are, can have on electronic commerce.