Mechanisms of reproducing digital inequality in the conditions of global digital transformations: a stratification and multidimensional approach

Abstract

The article examines the mechanisms by which digital inequality is reproduced in the context of global digital transformations, drawing on an integrated framework that combines stratification economics with the Multidimensional Inequality Framework. It argues that digital inequality should not be reduced to separate "digital divides" in access, skills, or outcomes. The conceptual novelty of the article lies in developing a unified explanatory model of the reproduction of digital inequality that integrates stratification economics with the Multidimensional Inequality Framework and systematizes the mechanisms of digital stratification across interrelated structural levels. Instead, it is conceptualized as an empirical manifestation of digital stratification — a hierarchical organization of positions within the socio-economic space shaped by digital transformations, reproduced through the distribution of control over digital resources, the institutional rules that govern their use, and the channels through which benefits are appropriated. From a stratification-economics perspective, digital technologies are interpreted not as neutral instruments of modernization but as elements of an institutional configuration that both reflects existing socio-economic hierarchies and provides additional means for their consolidation. The article concludes that effective policies aimed at reducing digital inequality must go beyond technocratic expansions of access and address the institutional conditions that shape the distribution of control, opportunities, and benefits in the digitally mediated socio-economic space.