The promises of “Going digital” for all: where technology meets social policy? A Statistical Analysis of European Union’s Digital Skills Inclusion Policies and Digital Skills Inequality

Thesis

Digital skills have never been more relevant to social policy. The European Union’s policy agenda has been increasingly linking digital skills to social matters such as employment, poverty, income or education. However, wide disparities in national levels of digital skills are observed across member states. This study investigates the associations between digital inclusion policies and national levels of digital skills across the European Union using Eurostat data from 2010 to 2019. Digital skills inequalities are also explored by gender and educational levels. Results suggest that public digital skills policies are associated with higher levels of digital skills, and lower levels of digital skills inequality. Conversely, private digital skills policies increase digital skills inequality. This paper explicitly links digital skills with social welfare, bridging human capital and labour market perspectives with nuanced understandings of digital skills and their reflection of preexisting socio-economic inequalities. The main theoretical contributions lie in thinking of digital skills policies within a social investment framework, inciting a broader reflection on the role of digitalisation for the future of social policy and the welfare state.

Authors: Fuller, AA

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-9rebrxdpz
• Type of award: MSc
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Digital Agenda for Europe; Digital inclusion; Digital skills policies; Skill inequality; Digital skills; Digital Welfare State; Digitalisation
• Subjects: Skills inequality; Labour market; Social policy; Economics; Digital divide; Public policy