The Digital Divide in Asia: Cases from Yemen, Bangladesh, Pakistan and China

This article explores the digital divide in four Asian countries: Yemen, Bangladesh, Pakistan and China. The research the article reports on is done by researchers who come from these countries making it possible to ground the results of this study within the context of those studied. To allow the reader the opportunity to see the results of this research from multiple sources, the researchers selected four different groups of people to study. The groups of people studied come from interesting backgrounds, yet not typically paid attention to in the literature. The groups of people that will be discussed here are Women in political online forums in Yemen, Rural Students in Bangladesh, Cyber Activists and Virtual Protesters in Pakistan, and Farmers in China. This research will show that the reasons these groups of people are standing on the 'have not' side is not just because of, as often thought, economic reasons but could also be due to cultural, technological or political reasons, providing fuel for further research on the digital divide. A discussion about any digital divide is not complete if it did not include a philosophical analysis which is what this article does towards the end when it addresses the moral significance of the digital divide in these countries.