University of Oxford

Graduate Student, Oxford Internet Institute

DPhil Student

Keble College

Thesis Title: Non-Adoption of the Internet: A Cross-National Comparison of Great Britain and Sweden

About

My research addresses two main topics: 1. Social exclusion and social inequalities, 2. the information society and its social structures. Using data from the World Internet Project, I want to find out in how far non-use of the Internet affects (middle-aged) people's lives in highly developed societies in Western and Northern Europe, where Internet penetration is very high. My focus lies on Great Britain and Sweden, which are not only information societies with user rates between 73% and 85%, but they also represent different types of welfare states with diverse political focuses.
Analysing various macro and micro factors of social exclusion in a mixed methods approach, I want to find out if Internet non-use is in fact a problem in highly developed countries from an objective and subjective point of view. The aim is moreover to formulate policy recommendations on basis of the comparison of the British and the Swedish case.

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