EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Tackling social inequality in development: beyond access to appropriation of ICTs for employability

Yvonne Ai-Chi Loh and Arul Chib

Information Technology for Development, 2019, vol. 25, issue 3, 532-551

Abstract: This study was motivated to investigate social inequality in developed nations, by studying the impact of ICTs upon the vulnerable unemployed and under-employed in Singapore. First, drawing upon Amartya Sen’s capability approach, we operationalize the dependent variable as self-perceived employability, conceptualized as both a measure of well-being and a livelihood capability. Secondly, we used Neil Selwyn’s digital divide hierarchical impact assessment framework, to define and measure the ICT assets of access, usage, and appropriation. Primary data was gathered from 302 under-employed and unemployed workers in Singapore, a developed Asian economy. Regression analyses revealed that higher-order hierarchies of ICT usage and appropriation were associated with the dependent variable of employability, while access was not. We discuss the implications for development discourse in regions with ubiquitous access, advocating for policymakers to focus on ICT training. Further, we offer nuanced findings on vulnerability in developed economies as an enhancement to mainstream ICT4D scholarship, focused exclusively on poverty in developing countries.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02681102.2018.1520190 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:titdxx:v:25:y:2019:i:3:p:532-551

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/titd20

DOI: 10.1080/02681102.2018.1520190

Access Statistics for this article

Information Technology for Development is currently edited by Sajda Qureshi

More articles in Information Technology for Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:taf:titdxx:v:25:y:2019:i:3:p:532-551