The emergence of a "digital underclass" in Great Britain and Sweden: Changing reasons for digital exclusion

Research into reasons for internet non-use has been mostly based on one-off cohort studies and focused on single-country contexts. This paper shows that motivations for being offline changed between 2005 and 2013 amongst non-and ex-users in two high diffusion European countries. Analyses of Swedish and British data demonstrate that non-user populations have become more concentrated in vulnerable groups. While traditional digital divide reasons related to a lack of access and skills remain important, motivational reasons increased in importance over time. The ways in which these reasons gain importance for nonand exuser groups vary, as do explanations for digital exclusion in the different countries. Effective interventions aimed at tackling digital exclusion need to take into consideration national contexts, changing non-user characteristics, and individual experience with the internet. What worked a decade ago in a particular country might not work currently in a different or even the same country.