The digital divide in Europe

Abstract

Sociologist Theodor Geiger’s work on social inequalities argues that social strata and individual action and perception correlate, outlined as the concept of mentality. Mentality is a psychic predisposition, an immediate imprint on a person by their social world and the experiences made in and radiating from it (Geiger, 1932/1972, p. 77). That is, social position and mentality do not necessarily refer to each other, but there are status-typical mentalities. Accordingly, there is a cover ratio between external structures and individual psyche, which suggests that similar objective characteristics promote the development of similar subjective characteristics. Thus, Geiger thinks in categorical defined inequalities, without leaving aside questions of lifestyle and inner conditions. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1979/1982) follows a similar principle, when he defines classspecific cultural forms and from this develops his concept of habitus. Using correspondence analysis, Bourdieu verified the existence of classspecific patterns of taste by clustering preferences in music, cooking, art, literature, and so on. As the habitus incorporates both the impact of external conditions and individual practices, the concept represents a link between social structure and individual way of life. Geiger’s concept of mentality as well as Bourdieu’s concept of habitus can be useful to explain different practices in everyday life. Drawing on these concepts, this chapter suggests that people’s incorporation of digital media into their everyday lives does not happen independent of the constraints and advantages of their existing surroundings; rather, the Internet is just one component of people’s lives in which numerous social factors interact with each other.

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