An enduring concern in social science is the difference that environment makes in
shaping an individual’s opportunities. Scholars have long contended that place matters,
particularly the concurrent geography of racial segregation and concentrated poverty (Myrdal
1944; Clark 1965). More recent research shows that serious inequities persist in poor urban
communities, despite decades of civil rights and fair housing legislation, and that these restrict
opportunities for education, employment, health, and safety (Massey and Denton 1993; Kozol
1991; Kasarda 1990; Hill and Wolman 1997; Rosenbaum 1995; Wilson 1987 and 1996;
Jargowsky 1998; Galster, Mincy and Tobin 1997; Sampson et al. 2002). This study offers
evidence that the information age may have transformed these existing disparities in very poor
communities, particularly inner-city neighborhoods, into new barriers to technological access
and skill. The term “digital divide” has been used to describe patterns of unequal access to
information technology based on factors such as income, race, ethnicity, gender, age, and
geography (Norris 2001; U.S. Department of Commerce 1995). This study explores a new
dimension of digital inequality – the role of racial segregation and concentrated poverty.
The ability to use computers and the Internet requires both access and skill, and has
important implications for economic opportunity and political participation. Nearly half of
American workers with only a high school degree or less use computers on the job, and in
skilled, professional, and managerial occupations, computer use is even more pervasive (U.S.
Department of Commerce 2002; Mossberger, Stansbury and Tolbert 2003, 65). The diffusion of
information technology in the workplace is in an early stage, according to some observers, and
promises to increase throughout a range of occupations and industries (McGuckin and Van Ark
2001).
The growth of e-government and the explosion of political information on the web mean
that the Internet has already become an important resource for civic and political information.
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Convention