The Internet at the Global Economic Margins

As access to the Internet spreads to corners of the world previously defined by their lack of connectivity, there has been much talk about the potential for digital media to have transformative and revolutionary effects of access to information, services, and markets. The chapter begins by focusing on some key hopes about what the Internet can effect at the world?s economic margins. Anchored in an extensive case study of how new connectivity was, and was not, used in the remote nodes of the Thai silk industry, the chapter argues that many of our expectations about digital change may never be realized. One reason is that hope about what the Internet can do in some of the world?s economic margins often rests on unrealistic assumptions about what the Internet is. By reframing the Internet itself, Graham sees an opportunity to build more effective strategies for shaping desirable and achievable outcomes.