Some authors have recently suggested that the new features introduced in mobile phones, particularly the possibility to access the Internet, and the rapid expansion of these devices in Africa will help reduce the digital divide and social... more
Some authors have recently suggested that the new features introduced in mobile phones, particularly the possibility to access the Internet, and the rapid expansion of these devices in Africa will help reduce the digital divide and social inequality. This paper examines those assumptions and finds that the mere possession of a technical object does not eliminate the inequalities between those who possess it, including inequalities in access related to the Internet via mobile phone (the mobile divide). Multiple levels of access still exist that are closely linked to the position agents occupy in the social space and that do vary depending on the economic, social, and cultural resources they are endowed with. Using a webero-bourdieusian framework, this paper identifies the differences existing among Nigerien users and demonstrates how they are manifested in both intensity and opportunities of use. The data for the study is drawn from various sources such as statistics from internation...
The problem of labor division has been discussed actively previously in the philosophical literature. However, during the recent decades, this problem has been getting little attention from the researchers. It makes the understanding of... more
The problem of labor division has been discussed actively previously in the philosophical literature. However, during the recent decades, this problem has been getting little attention from the researchers. It makes the understanding of positive and negative trends in the development of modern society more difficult. The present research aims to reveal the perspective of the overcoming the division of society into the productive and unproductive labor. For this purpose the concept of "labor division" is analyzed, the main stages of evolution of labor division between the workers of productive and unproductive labor in class societies are analyzed, the premises to overcome this type of social labor division are revealed, and the experience of its negation in socialist society is discussed. A dialectal method as the one allowing to discover the contradictions of social, economic development are realized. The difference is shown between the division of labor as a differentiation of labor activity types and as a social-economic consolidation of large groups of people for economically heterogeneous labor types. The inevitability of the division of society into the workers of productive and unproductive labor in conditions of manual labor domination and undermining of such labor division in conditions of a large machine industry are depicted. The opportunity of mass unemployment prevailing in conditions of modern economics robotization alongside with the working day reducing is discovered. The compatibility of robotization with the reproduction of social labor division is found. The tendency to the negation of social and economic consolidation of workers for the productive labor after the establishment of Soviet power is characterized. The progress of this tendency through reducing of working day to 7 hours is shown. Labor division overcoming is shown as the result of two counter-processes - the inclusion of workers into the control and rationalization of production on the one hand and the participation of the workers of unproductive labor in fulfillment of productive activity on the other. The connection of the social labor division progress with the restoration of an 8-hours working day is found. The conclusion about the future perspective of social labor division overcoming has made.
