Information access, the digital divide, and knowledge-based economies: A comparative study

The conceptual understanding of the digital divide has been brought to the fore of scholarly research and practice for decades now. The contemporary understanding has been that there is a closer link between information access, the digital divide and knowledge economies. This chapter aims to unpack the 'digital divide' especially as espoused in the developing world context and provide a departure from looking at the digital divide only from the 'information access' perspective. A thorough review of the literature is employed to ascertain the common positions that have been and are being advanced by various renowned researchers in the field and present a comparative study on the effects of the digital divide on the socio-economic setting of South Korea and Zambia. The thesis of this chapter is that the digital divide has contributed to information asymmetry amongst different information-needy individuals and organizations. This is a profound disadvantage, especially in knowledge-based economies. The exponential penetration of technology in people's lives entails that we can no longer passively address the issue of the digital divide but rather must have robust and responsive strategies towards addressing the divide.