Is access to Information structural?

I'm pondering how might access to information (and these days that means primarily suitable telecommunications infrastructure) be related to poverty? To uncover this, a couple of things need to be defined clearly. 1st Poverty -- what is it? what causes it? 2nd what is suitable telecommunication infrastructure, and where does it rank as a symptom or determinant of poverty. Does it weigh in as heavily as clean air, drinking water, suitable shelter? Education.

Can education be provided, in a sustainable manner, without suitable high speed internet access? Is there still room in development models, for keeping the solutions local and sustainable?

My first thoughts about this, was that indeed there was something structural about poverty, and hence about suitable and sustainable infrastructure. At the simplest level, perhaps, but it is just that, too simple. The structure does not exist in a vacuum, it is not superorganic, in the sense that it somehow floats above all the other attributes of any given culture, and to get a deeper understanding of the problems, at a theoretical level, we need to identify who the stakeholders are, and in which context they operate. But this is not a theoretical problem alone and needs some imaginative solutions in the present. So in short, probably not a structural problem, or if it is, let's stop playing the blame game.


Now you can blame the social system
But I still say it was his necktie (From "Necktie" by Michelle Shocked, Texas Campfire Tapes (Cooking Vinyl 1987).