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At the beginning of the 21st century, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) referred to Information and Communication Technologies as one of the main features of the emerging “New Economy” (OECD, n.d.). The OECD pointed out how ICTs were already one of the main drivers of growth, stressing the importance of bridging the gap between those that could access ICTs and those who could not (ibidem).
Twenty years later, when entering the third decade of the 21st century, gaps in the use of ICTs are far to be closed. The 2020 Network Readiness Index reports a significant divide between European countries and African ones when considering the development of ICTs, their use by individuals, businesses and the government (Portulans Institute, 2020). Nevertheless, digital inequalities exist within Europe as well. Data show that northern countries have significantly more digitized economies and societies if compared to eastern and southern ones (European Commission, 2020).
Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted significantly the digital world as well (De’ et al., 2020). Unfortunately, not a lot of data are available yet, but the impact of the pandemic needs to be taken into account in future analysis on digital inequalities.
Even though many reports and analysis on digital inequalities are available at the continental and global level (European Commission, 2020; ITU, 2020; Portulans Institute, 2020), through the years social science has been focusing more on digital inequalities within countries instead than on inequalities among countries (Cruz-Jesus et al., 2012; Kyriakidou et al., 2011). Therefore, the main theoretical contributions come from empirical researches that analyzed households and individual behaviors in national settings (Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008; van Deursen and Helsper, 2015; van Dijk, 2005, 2020).
Throughout the years, three main levels of analysis emerged in the literature. Initially, scholars considered digital inequalities as a matter of having or not having access to the Internet (DiMaggio et al., 2004). Such contributions resulted in defining the so-called first-level digital divide, namely the gap between those who possess and do not possess the instruments to access the Internet. Then, interests around the second-level digital divide started to emerge, bringing the researchers’ attention to inequalities in the use of the Internet and digital skills (Hargittai, 2002; van Deursen and van Dijk, 2014). More recently, the third-level digital divide has been defined, considering the positive and negative outcomes that could derive from certain online activities (e.g. a better job, more significant relations, better health, decreased productivity) (Helsper et al., 2015; van Dijk, 2020).
Building on the results of these three levels of analysis, scholars have been studying the patterns of evolutions of digital inequalities. It emerged that inequalities related to access to digital technologies have been reducing among individuals throughout the years. Conversely, inequalities related to the types of use, digital skills, and the outcomes of online activities have been quite stable, or even increasing (van Deursen and Helsper, 2015; van Deursen and van Dijk, 2014).
Within this scenario, social science lacks perspectives that try to verify whether significant evidence and patterns that emerged from the rich tradition of individual behaviors’ analyses within countries replicate when comparing nations’ performances (Cruz-Jesus et al., 2012; Kyriakidou et al., 2011). This work aims at considering this missing perspective, analyzing inequalities and their patterns of evolutions in motivation, access and types of use of digital technologies among European countries.