Beyond the 'information rich and poor': futures understandings of inequality in globalising informational economies

Much of the debate about inequality in globalising informational economies has focused on the future role of information in social development processes. This paper argues that there are five key erroneous assumptions about the nature of inequality in globalising informational economies which underpin much of this debate-both on an academic and popularist level. The paper argues that it is of fundamental importance that these assumptions are critically examined if the futures of communications policy and planning are to adequately address questions of inequality in relation to information, knowledge and communications. Indeed, failure to examine these assumptions may lead futurists and social scientists (particularly in the West) to become complicit in distracting attention away from the very 'real' global economic, social and cultural inequalities, to 'virtual' inequalities which merely hide an unwillingness to address the core failings of the 'development' paradigm. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.