Information Society, Social Polarization And Digital Divide

With the development and penetration of information and communication technology (ICT) into social life, information society has become the dominant pattern for the current social organization. In consideration of this context, the proposed question"how will the information society structure the social stratification"is raising much attention. The information society means the ICT network embodied in people's living condition, which leads to the conclusion that the social stratification should be reshaped within the network-society transition. Contrary to the premise of technological determinist, we find"the social"persists attaching to the ICT network. Thus, this paper puts forward"digital divide"as a new perspective to enrich the social structure analysis, in which the"digital divide"concept has also been sociologicalization.As an elementary exploration, this paper endeavors to settle the question in both theoretical and empirical study. In theoretical discussion, by analyzing the evolution from super-industrial society to post-industrial society and to network society, the author discovers the rising of digital communism and network-structure framework, the combination of which brings about digital divide. In empirical discussion, the author describes the digital divide underlying social stratification at the following three levels: the socialization of lifestyle; the integration of relationship and the dual embedness of social inequality.