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Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. First-Time Users of the Mobile Internet in the Global South -- Chapter 3. The Gender Digital Divide in Mobile Internet Use: Evidence, Explanations and Policy for the Global-South -- Chapter 4. Gender, Mobile Internet and COVID-19 in the Global South: Multiple Causalities -- Chapter 5. The Digital Use Divide Between Males and Females at Different Levels of Aggregation.

This book analyzes the use of the mobile Internet against the background of gender bias and Covid-19, currently two of the most important and pressing problems of the Global South. The book argues that the degree of benefits from this new technology depends heavily on the way it is actually used and that most new technologies are developed for the conditions prevailing in rich countries, where they tend to be quite easily adopted and used. In the Global South, by contrast, a paucity of digital skills and other factors make the potentially valuable benefits from the Internet much more difficult to derive. Using empirical data recently provided by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), the book examines the existence and extent of the digital divide between males and females in mobile Internet use, which constitutes a new form of divide. It sheds light on the acute difficulty for first-time mobile Internet users in the Global South, and especially Sub-Saharan Africa, to learn the digital skills that are needed to use the said technology effectively, with a special focus on how these users acquire the required knowledge, without having undergone the process of learning by doing. The book further discusses the determinants of digital skills in the Global South, as well as major factors underlying the extent to which different users actually benefit from the mobile Internet, such as gender, location, age, and education. Finally, it investigates how womens' use of the Internet has been altered by the pandemic in the Global South. This book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of development economics and development studies, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the impact of gender bias and Covid-19 on mobile internet use in the Global South.

Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Policy Towards the Corona Epidemic in Developing Countries -- Chapter 3. Digital Divide Reversal: Evidence, Explanations and Implications -- Chapter 4. Why is India so Dominant in the Demand for New Smart Feature Phones that are Internet Connected? -- Chapter 5. Interregional and Intercountry Analysis of Mobile Internet Connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa -- Chapter 6. Mobile Use of the Internet Among the Poor in the Global South: Preferences, Theories and Policies.

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Smart Feature Phones -- 1.2 Literacy, the Second Divide and User Choices -- Appendix: A Word on Method -- References -- Part ISmart Feature Phones and Development -- 2 The Smart Feature Phone Revolution in Developing Countries: Bringing the Internet to the Bottom of the Pyramid -- 2.1 The Genesis of the Smart Feature Phone -- 2.2 The Diffusion of Smart Feature Phones -- 2.3 The Impact of Smart Feature Phones -- 2.4 Conclusions -- References -- 3 Smart Feature Phones and Welfare in Poor Developing Countries -- 3.1 Economic Mechanisms -- 3.2 Smart Feature Phones and Other Dimensions of Poverty -- 3.3 Localisation and Relevance of Internet Content -- 3.4 The Linguistic Divide, Smart Feature Phones and the Poor -- 3.5 The Lack of Digital Skills, Countervailing Policies and the Poor in Developing Countries -- 3.6 Conclusions -- References -- 4 Extending the Experience to Sub-Saharan Africa -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Affordability -- 4.2.1 Device Price -- 4.2.2 Data Affordability -- 4.2.3 Income Affordability -- 4.3 Local Content -- 4.4 Digital Skills -- 4.5 Conclusions -- References -- Part IIDigital Skills and Digital Paradoxes -- 5 Measuring the Second Digital Divide: Education and Skills -- 5.1 Measuring the Original Conception of the Digital Divide -- 5.2 Recognition and Measurement of the Second Digital Divide -- 5.3 The Crisis in Learning -- 5.4 Measuring the Digital Skills Component of the Second Digital Divide -- 5.5 The Second Digital Divide and the Sustainable Development Goals -- 5.6 Conclusions -- References -- 6 Anti-development Bias in the Use of the Internet in Developing Countries. What Underlies It? -- 6.1 The Evidence -- 6.2 Discussion -- 6.3 Information Imperfections and Patterns of Internet Use -- 6.4 Causes of Scarce Digital Knowledge in Developing Countries.

The current growth path in sub-Saharan Africa is not following the Lewis model where labour moves from low-productivity agriculture to higher productivity manufacturing. Instead, it is moving directly to inappropriate (import and labour-saving) methods. This book seeks to show how this distorted growth process leaves out the major resource of these countries - labour - and ends up creating unstable employment and underemployment, leading to inequality and poverty. In this way it demonstrates how the entire growth process may be rendered unstable and unsustainable. Sustainable Growth in the African Economy considers whether the relatively rapid growth of recent years can be maintained or improved upon, with a focus on the process of industrialisation. Basing itself on a well-known dual-economy model, the proposed book focuses on several major problems of industrialisation, which has long been seen as the means of structural change in an economy which begins from a low income level. The book considers how the future trajectory of sub-Saharan Africa compares to recent success stories on other continents, and explains how factors such as rapid population growth and capital and import-intensive technology in manufacturing could foreshadow future social and political problems. This book will be essential reading to students and policymakers who are concerned with the existing pattern of African growth.

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- Abstract -- 1.1 The Diffusion of Mobile Phones to the Poor -- 1.2 The Impact of Mobile Phones -- Reference -- 2 The Diffusion of Mobile Phones in the Historical Context of Innovations from Developed Countries -- Abstract -- 2.1 The Rogers Diffusion Curve: Developed Versus Developing Countries -- 2.2 An Explanation -- 2.3 The Case of IT and Mobile Phones -- 2.3.1 Exceptions: Yet Another Curve -- 2.3.2 Leapfrogging -- 2.4 Conclusions -- References -- 3 To What Extent Are the Poor Engaged with Mobile Telephony? -- Abstract -- 3.1 Connections Versus Unique Subscribers -- 3.2 Direct Evidence -- 3.2.1 Asian Evidence -- 3.3 Affordability -- 3.3.1 The Price of Mobile Services -- 3.3.2 The Cost of Mobile Handsets -- 3.4 The Impact on Inequality -- 3.5 Conclusions -- References -- 4 A Pro-poor Bias: Leapfrogging and the Context -- Abstract -- 4.1 The Technology -- 4.1.1 Leapfrogging Characteristics of Mobile Phones -- 4.1.2 Mobile Phones as an Appropriate Technology -- 4.2 The Context -- 4.2.1 Network Effects -- 4.2.2 Sharing Mobile Phones -- 4.2.3 Prepayment -- 4.2.4 Rental Markets -- 4.2.5 Beeping -- 4.2.6 Mobile Banking -- 4.3 Conclusions -- References -- 5 Micro, Macro and Scaling-Up Effects -- Abstract -- 5.1 Micro-economic Effects -- 5.1.1 Macro-economic Effects -- 5.2 Scaling-Up Effects -- 5.2.1 Three Cases of Scaling-Up: Community Phone Shops, Grameen Telecom and M-PESA -- 5.3 Conclusions -- References -- 6 Patterns of Mobile Phone Use in Africa -- Abstract -- 6.1 Survey Method and Characteristics of Respondents -- 6.2 Results for Four Mechanisms of Mobile Phone Use -- 6.2.1 Economics-Related Mechanisms -- 6.2.2 Health-Related Mechanisms -- 6.2.3 Social Capital Mechanisms of Use -- 6.2.4 Safety-Related Mechanisms of Use -- 6.3 Cross-Tabular Analysis -- 6.4 Conclusions -- References.

Jeffrey James is one of the relatively few academics to have systematically taken on the topic of IT and development. In this timely book he undertakes a methodological critique of prominent topics in the debate.Challenging the existing literature by international and governmental institutions, the book looks not only at the digital divide but also at issues such as digital preparedness, leapfrogging and low-cost computers. James also raises important issues which have been largely neglected in the literature, such as the implications for poverty in developing countries and the macroeconomics

In this timely book, Jeffrey James undertakes a methodological critique of prominent topics in the debate surrounding IT and development. Challenging the existing literature by international and governmental institutions, the book looks not only at the digital divide but also at issues such as digital preparedness, leapfrogging and low-cost computers.