Beyond the Pandemic: Towards a Digitally Enabled Society and Economy
Beyond the Pandemic? Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Telecommunications and the Internet
ISBN: 978-1-80262-050-4, eISBN: 978-1-80262-049-8
Publication date: 9 May 2023
Abstract
Besides the widespread harm and dreadful impact COVID-19 has caused, it brought about change. Interpreting the pandemic as a ‘change agent’, it is possible to observe how it accelerated the use of digital technologies, facilitating the migration of many activities to the virtual sphere and thus changing the interaction between the physical and virtual worlds. Although the pandemic accelerated the diffusion and adoption of digital technologies, allowing many to avoid or reduce the harms caused by the pandemic, not everyone benefitted to the same extent. The pandemic exacerbated existing digital divides while creating new ones, simultaneously elevating important policy debates regarding digital infrastructure and inclusion policies.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Volker Stocker gratefully acknowledges funding by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) under grants no. 16DII124 and 16DII131 (“Weizenbaum-Institut für die vernetzte Gesellschaft - Das Deutsche Internet-Institut”). William Lehr and Jason Whalley acknowledge the financial support they received during their time as Research Fellows at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society (Berlin, Germany).
Citation
Stocker, V., Whalley, J. and Lehr, W. (2023), "Beyond the Pandemic: Towards a Digitally Enabled Society and Economy", Whalley, J., Stocker, V. and Lehr, W. (Ed.) Beyond the Pandemic? Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Telecommunications and the Internet, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 245-265. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-049-820231012
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023 Volker Stocker, Jason Whalley and William Lehr