In this context, new
technology is reinforcing the dominant social relations.
As it always has throughout history, technology reinforces but does not determine social development and spatial patterns.
Latin American cities are already centers for the latest communications technology.
A difference with North America is
that Latin America tends to consume the new technology more than
produce it, and control of this technology remains concentrated
in the North.
Another difference is that in Latin America the new
technology is more confined to elite enclaves.
At the personal level, Latin America's urban elites now have easy access to the Internet. They can easily acquire a fully integrated home communications system, with CD Rom, satellite dish and fax. They carry cellular phones everywhere.
They are as digitized and wired as the urban elite in the U.S. Elite residential enclaves in Latin American cities are integrated in global networks as much as they are physically isolated from the metropolises in which they reside.
Transnational corporations based in Latin America are also
globally wired.
They bypass the first-generation technology of
local phone systems and buy the latest in second-generation
technology for their own use.
This may change with the
forthcoming upgrading of phone systems in many Latin American
countries, but the inequalities in access appear to be quite
durable.
The technological disparity between North and South, therefore, is not as substantial as the technological disparity within the South.
The vast majority of Latin America's population
hasn't the slightest possibility of access to new communications
technology. And because of it their lives are much more
difficult.
Elites encircle their own residential enclaves with
sophisticated electronic surveillance systems, but do little to
stop crime in public places.
Elites use cellular phones to call for help when in danger and use police as their private gendarmes.
The average worker living in a barrio or favela often lacks even the simplest technology, like a plain phone line.
The challenge ahead is to democratize the hierarchical social structure that makes for these disparities.
Existence of the technology will not, by itself, make for democratization. What is needed are public policies and actions that make new technology more accessible to all.
