Understanding digital divide in municipal services

Cities are adopting a “smart” paradigm in their urban development; technology is integrated into every part of daily life functions. While municipal services are a civic service, a means to suppress social inequalities, the digital transformation of services is nevertheless making these inequalities exacerbate. The rapid digitalization pace in our world is eluding larger groups, those digitally disadvantaged by technology (Robinson et al., 2015). The extent to which municipal services are accessed through the internet tends to increase the divide between citizens who can access these services and those who are without access. Research has established those at the high-end of the digital divide: middle-aged and higher-educated, tend to have better chances to appropriate technology much more than those at the lower end of digital divide: elderly, poor, lower-educated, and migrants (van Dijk et al., 2015). In Digital Municipal Services as well, there is a divide among users, some are advantaging from new technological innovations in municipal services while others are being pushed behind. Our research investigates the level of inclusion in digital municipal services ‘DMS’, and undercovers the main user characteristics that determine the level of access to appropriate DMS. Socio-demographic characteristics are established in literature to inhibit access to ICT, such as age, gender, education, income, as well as ethnicity. However, our research concluded, that in Digital municipal services, age, education, and ethnicity are the main determining characteristics to access. We discovered through quantitative research methods, the characteristics that determine access to DMS, moreover, we explained through qualitative methods the perception of citizens, and how digital divide is experienced by groups with lower levels of access to DMS. The re-innovation of services inhibits users with lower digital skills to use DMS. New innovations are creating new uncertainties and need to learn ever-changing technology. Groups with lower education attainment, income, older, and migration backgrounds experience digital divide in municipal services the most. These groups have lower access due to different disparities in motivation, material, skill, and use access. Older groups have a lower attitude towards technology and prefer in-person interaction, they also, have a lower complex digital skills level to handle activities online as municipal services. Education and income determine users’ perceived usefulness of digital services, and thus their attitudes to appropriate it. Groups with migration backgrounds tend to have a lower attitude towards digital services due to language barrier however acquired digital skills do not suffice, without the local language, is the main barrier to access and use the services, yet, these groups have a higher attitude to improve their skills than native groups, they have higher interest to integrate into society and to better their living conditions.