Draft:Digital Capital
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Submission declined on 4 June 2026 by Helpful Raccoon (talk).
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Comment: Please rewrite from scratch without the use of LLMs. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 05:56, 4 June 2026 (UTC)
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Digital Capital is a term in sociology and media studies that describes how digital resources and skills can be turned into social, cultural, economic, or political advantages.[1] Massimo Ragnedda and Maria Laura Ruiu mainly developed this idea, building on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital.[1]
Definition and Framework
[edit]Digital capital includes the digital resources individuals can gather and use. These resources consist of material elements, like devices and internet access, and skills, like digital know-how.[2] Digital capital goes beyond just using the internet and it concerns how well people can benefit from digital tools.[2] This idea connects to the third-level digital divide, which looks at the uneven results of digital engagement.[2] However, the framework is more than a simple input-output model. It shows how offline resources impact digital chances, while digital activities can strengthen or improve a person's position in other social areas.[2] Using a Bourdieusian approach, digital capital can be accumulated and transformed into other types of capital.[1] It stands as a unique form of capital but is closely related to economic, cultural, and social capital.[3] Researchers have shown how digital inequalities fit into larger social inequality patterns.[3] Later work also introduced "e-capital", highlighting how digital resources fit into broader systems of capital accumulation and inequality.[4]
Relationship to Bourdieu
[edit]The concept of digital capital draws on Bourdieu’s ideas of habitus and field.[2] It assumes that people do not enter digital environments on equal terms, since their dispositions, resources, and opportunities are shaped by their social position.[2]
This perspective has been used to examine how traditional forms of capital can be converted into digital advantages, and how digital advantages can then be translated back into offline benefits such as educational success, labour market gains, or stronger social participation.[5] In this way, digital capital has been described as one of the mechanisms through which social inequalities are reproduced under digital conditions.[6]
Measurement and Application
[edit]The Digital Capital Scale (DCS) was created to measure digital capital as a mix of "internalized abilities" and "externalized resources".[3] It was first tested in a 2019 study using data from the UK. This study also introduced a Digital Capital Index (DCI) to show how digital resources are shared and turned into advantages.[3] Studies using this framework found that digital capital is influenced by education, income, and age.[3] This supports the idea that digital inequalities are not just about access or skills, but also about how well people can turn digital engagement into positive results.[3] The framework improved through cross-cultural testing, including a 2023 study in Italy called the "DigiCapItaly" project.[7] This study confirmed the scale's usefulness in another socio-cultural context. It showed that digital capital connects online actions to offline results.[7] Further research has expanded the concept's use in various fields. One study on parental engagement found that digital capital linked directly to parents' involvement in their children's education. It also mediated the impact of socio-economic background on educational engagement.[8] Other studies examined how digital capital affects social status, highlighting its significance in today’s society and identifying the factors that influence its growth.[9] Recent research also looked into how digital capital fits into data-driven economies, suggesting that individual data can act as digital capital. This data can be unevenly shared across social classes, leading to new inequalities and elite formations.[6] The connection between digital capital and cultural capital in education has also been explored. Researchers aim to differentiate between the two while tracing their connections. [10]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c Ragnedda, Massimo (2018). "Conceptualizing digital capital". Telematics and Informatics. 35 (8): 2366–2375. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2018.10.006.
- ^ a b c d e f Ragnedda, Massimo; Ruiu, Maria Laura (2020). Digital Capital: A Bourdieusian Perspective on the Digital Divide. Emerald Publishing. doi:10.1108/9781839095504. ISBN 978-1-83909-550-4.
- ^ a b c d e f Ragnedda, M.; Ruiu, M. L.; Addeo, F. (2019). "Measuring Digital Capital: An empirical investigation". New Media & Society. 22 (5): 793–816. doi:10.1177/1461444819869604.
- ^ Merisalo, M.; Makkonen, T. (2022). "Bourdieusian e-capital perspective enhancing digital capital discussion in the context of the third level digital divide". Information Technology & People. 35 (8): 231–252. doi:10.1108/ITP-08-2021-0594.
- ^ Calderón Gómez, D. (2021). "The third digital divide and Bourdieu: Bidirectional conversion of economic, cultural, and social capital to (and from) digital capital among young people in Madrid". New Media & Society. 23 (9): 2534–2553. doi:10.1177/1461444820933252.
- ^ a b Verwiebe, R.; Hagemann, S. (2025). "Bourdieu revisited: new forms of digital capital – emergence, reproduction, inequality of distribution". Information, Communication & Society. 28 (11): 1861–1883. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2024.2358170.
- ^ a b Addeo, F.; D'Auria, V.; Delli Paoli, A.; Punziano, G.; Ragnedda, M.; Ruiu, M. L. (2023). "Measuring digital capital in Italy". Frontiers in Sociology. 8 1144657. doi:10.3389/fsoc.2023.1144657. PMC 10235697. PMID 37274604.
- ^ Addi-Raccah, A. (2024). "The role of digital capital in parental engagement". Education and Information Technologies. 29: 16901–16928. doi:10.1007/s10639-024-12455-y.
- ^ Rodríguez-Camacho, J. A.; Linder, M.; Jütte, D.; Hennig-Thurau, T. (2024). "Digital capital: Importance for social status in contemporary society and antecedents of its accumulation". Computers in Human Behavior. 159: 108316. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2024.108316.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link) - ^ Pitzalis, M.; Porcu, M. (2024). "Digital Capital and Cultural Capital in education: Unravelling intersections and distinctions that shape social differentiation". British Educational Research Journal. 50 (6): 2753–2776. doi:10.1002/berj.4050.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]
LLM-generated pages with certain obvious signs of being machine generated may be deleted without notice.
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See the advice page on large language models for more information.