Russia in the electronic world: Multilevel pattern analysis of information technology presence, distribution, access, and development

The dissertation critically assesses the mainstream assumptions concerning information and communication technologies (ICT), the digital divide, and national development. It re-conceptualizes a framework for ICT development strategies that go beyond the dominant North-South model. The paper offers an alternative for locating Russia and other non-third-world nations within the emerging electronic world. Russia's unique sociocultural, political, and economic landscape does not lend it to the same analysis techniques as in the western or underdeveloped countries. The paper examines the spatial digital divide by looking at the ICT development patterns in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and major urban and scientific centers as opposed to the periphery, including saturation and spillover effects and the traditional disproportions of infrastructure distribution. Other non-spatial inequality factors analyzed include class and economic, functional, cultural, and linguistic divides. The analysis indicates that, without policy intervention, the advancement of ICT does not result in societal convergence but continues existing disparities between regions and social groups. Consequently, national strategies and governmental policies are indispensable for balancing national development. The research offers a number of policy directions, which indicate the need to (1) leverage the comparative advantage of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, which are the hubs of national economic, political, and technological activity with effective international links; (2) concentrate on the scientific centers as nodes of intellectual activity to strengthen Russia's role as major ICT innovator and developer; and (3) address the infrastructure, educational, and community access aspects as a general overarching strategy for building electronic society in Russia. The study serves as a basis for making general conclusions about theorizing and assumptions dominating the discourse of the western conceptualization and analysis. The comprehensive and critical approach to the ICT analysis provides specific valuable insight into the potential ramifications of technological development in the Russian regions and social groups.