Prof. Hampton published in American Behavioral Scientist

Friday, February 19, 2010

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Keith N. Hampton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Communication, has published an article titled "Internet Use and the Concentration of Disadvantage: Glocalization and the Urban Underclass" in American Behavioral Scientist (February 18, 2010).

Abstract

This article argues that the literature on digital inequality - in its focus on individual characteristics, behaviors, and outcomes - has overlooked change within the context of where social and civic inequalities are reproduced. This omission is the result of a failure to explore the role of ecological context within the study of the digital divide and the role of communication media within the study of collective efficacy. Prof. Hampton argues that social cohesion, and an expectation for informal social control at the neighborhood level, is a function of both ecological context and media context. Based on the results of i-neighbors.org, a naturalistic experiment that examines the use of the Internet for communication at the neighborhood level, Prof. Hampton argues that those embedded within settings where prior media, including the telephone and face-to-face contact, could not overcome contextual barriers to collective action may now, as a result of local Internet use, experience reduced social and civic inequality. Findings suggest that as much as the Internet supports social and civic engagement in areas where it is already likely to be high, it also affords engagement within contexts of extreme, concentrated poverty, unemployment, and racial segregation.