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This article uses adopts a revised version of the concept of techno-environmental habitus to investigate and make sense of the differentiation among digital technology users' attitudes towards the environment in England. Digital–environmental habitus refers to the combination of structural determinants (existing background) and the metabolised increased use of digital technologies in people's everyday life that also interacts with individual environmental attitudes. The results of a national survey among English parents between 20 and 55 years suggest that parents' education levels, gender, age and income play a role in increasing their awareness about the environmental-friendly use of digital technologies. This study shows that the digital–environmental habitus of parents in England is layered according to the combination of existing socioeconomic traits and individual capacity and willingness to adapt to a drastic increase in both the use of digital technologies (due to the social distancing imposed by the pandemic) and environmental degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite having high literacy rates and a robust digital infrastructure, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region still faces digital inequalities. This collection of articles explores the complexities of digital disparities within MENA, taking into account cultural, economic, and historical factors. Each article in this section examines the impact of digital inequality on society, the economy, and culture, emphasizing the need for context-specific approaches. The goal of this thematic issue is to encourage international study and address social challenges stemming from digital divides in MENA by critically discussing digital disparities and their effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the entanglement between socio-economic and technological factors in conditioning people's patterns of Internet use. We analysed the influence of sociodemographic and techno-social aspects in conditioning the distinctive digital practices developed by Internet users. By using a representative sample of UK users and different methods of analysis, such as factor analysis, K-means cluster analysis and logit analysis, this study shows how techno-social variables have a stronger effect than socio-economic variables in explaining the advanced use of the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital transformations in Africa Africa, with its (at least) 54 countries, evidently, is far from being a monolithic continent. She has lived, lectured and carried out research in various countries in Africa and Asia and published extensively in international journals and anthologies on topics such as media development, conflict reporting, digital journalism and gender and the media. Social media are often expected to facilitate more equal participation in civic engagement across genders and countries, and an interesting question here is whether technological transformations in Africa helped issues related to gender and patriarchy? Through a study of 10 countries across, Africa, Asia, America and Europe, Brandtzaeg ([10]) finds that the gender differences in civic engagement that exist offline to a large degree are replicated and reinforced on social media. [Extracted from the article]

This article develops a Digital Capital Index by adopting the definition provided by Ragnedda, who defines Digital Capital as the accumulation of digital competencies and digital technologies, and the model for measuring it developed by Ragnedda and Ruiu. It aims to develop a measure that can be replicated for comparison in different contexts. This article contributes both theoretically and empirically to the literature by (a) consolidating the concept of Digital Capital as a specific capital and (b) empirically measuring it. A Digital Capital Index is developed through an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and validated with a representative sample survey of 868 UK citizens. The validation procedure shows that the Digital Capital Index is associated with socioeconomic and sociodemographic patterns, such as age, income, educational level and place of residence, while it appears not to be related to gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This piece introduces the special issue of First Monday focused on the topic of Sustainability and Digital Transformation. This collection is a forum for that conversation to develop as a venue in which social scientists, STS scholars, and other digital scholars explore the concept of digital sustainability. This special issue emerges in the context of two notable social trends. First, there is a push for global sustainable development, and second, all sectors of human endeavor are migrating into the digital sphere. These two trends combine into a single, nascent theme of digital sustainability, which is the topic of this collection of articles in First Monday. The focus is upon the role(s) of digital technologies in establishing a sustainable world. The collection includes seven papers, which make a modest contribution to the growing discourse about the sociological aspects of all things digital in sustainability practices. The aim is to establish a research agenda focusing on digital technologies' current and potential role (but also limitations). The articles pay special attention to the intricate interplay of technology, social dynamics of media, sustainability practices, and information change. The contributors have provided individual works that contribute to the digital sustainability scholarship, some conceptual and others analytical. The collection invites the reader to consider sustainability and the ever-expanding integration of digital technologies in various aspects of social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]