Studying Personal Internet Access as an Infrastructure: A Qualitative Inquiry

Authors

  • Darja Grošelj University of Ljubljana Oxford Internet Institute, UK

Keywords:

digital divide, Internet access, digital inequalities, infrastructure studies, social shaping of technology, qualitative research, Internet use

Abstract

Internet access is often perceived and studied as a static phenomenon pertaining to a collection of connections and devices. To overcome some limitations of such an approach, this study examines Internet access as a dynamic phenomenon by conceptualizing it as an infrastructure. The study employs a theoretical framework of five attributes typical of infrastructures: invisibility, dependence on human practices, modularity, standardization, and momentum. Qualitative interview data were collected from British Internet users and analyzed to validate the infrastructural approach to studying Internet access. The results demonstrate that personal Internet access, studied as material artefacts and social practices surrounding them, is indeed characterized by five attributes of infrastructures. Conceptualizing Internet access as an infrastructure helps paint a more complete picture of complexities surrounding Internet access, encompassing its dynamics and the ways people experience, maintain, and develop it, and guides future research inquiry of its material dimensions and underlying social processes.

Author Biography

Darja Grošelj, University of Ljubljana Oxford Internet Institute, UK

Darja Grošelj is an assistant professor of Social Informatics and a research fellow at the Centre for Social Informatics in the Faculty of Social Sciences at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She holds a PhD in Information, Communication, and the Social Sciences from Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK. Her research interests focus around the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and social inequalities, with a special interest in how online engagement is shaped by various material and motivational factors.

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Published

2021-11-29

Issue

Vol. 15 (2021)

Section

Articles

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