Digital Technologies as a Driver of Intellectual Stratification of Human Resources: Socio-Economic Inequality. Олег Федорович Шахов

      ISSN: 2277–3878 (Online), Volume-8 Issue-2, July 2019

      Abstract: The goal of the research is to cover the problem of digital inequality considering its negative consequences for society, to conduct a geospatial analysis of the distribution of informational resources among the countries around the world and to determine the main trends of their technological development. Methods. This article uses the following methods: empirical, systematic, analytical, economic and other methods for the research of digital technologies as a driver of intellectual stratification of human resources. Results. The author has studied digital technologies as a driver of intellectual stratification of human resources. The article analyzes the phenomenon of digital inequality as one of the key problems of microsystem development, as well as the geospatial characteristics of this problem.

      Index Terms: digital inequality, digital technologies, geospatial features, intellectual stratification, microsystem.

      In the modern era of the emergence of information society and globalization, there is an urgent need to access information resources both at the national and international levels. The features of modern times include the important role of information and information technology (IT) in the socio-economic relations of humanity, the growing share of information products and services in GDP of the world’s economies and an increase in the number of people employed in the sphere of information and communications technology (ICT). This explains the relevance of the search for ways to eliminate digital inequality as a phenomenon that poses a challenge for society at this stage of its development.

      In view of the above, the goal of the research is to cover the problem of digital inequality considering its negative consequences for society, to conduct a geospatial analysis of the distribution of information resources among countries and to determine the main trends of their technological development.

      The study of digital inequality is carried out by scientists all over the world: this issue is addressed not by just one organization. Well-known researchers, such as A.N. Semyonova, V.A. Stupkina [1], M. Rozin [2], T. Aleshkina, Yu. Yarosh [3], N. Albrekht [4], A. Balashova, R. Rozhkov [5], A. Belaichuk [6], D. Bulin [7] and many others, dedicate their work to this issue. Each of them considers IT as a driving force of the present, but at the same time, each one sees in this force a threat of increasing gap between technologically rich and technologically poor countries. Thus, according to the majority of researchers, the modern world is divided not ideologically but technologically. The higher the technological capacities of some countries, the more other countries lag behind them. To address the issue of digital inequality, a number of indicators were developed for an in-depth study of the problem. Such indicators differ depending on the researcher’s individual approach.