“Inclusion We Stand, Divide We Fall”: Digital Inclusion from Different Disciplines for Scientific Collaborations

Digital inclusion research requires interdisciplinary collaboration to achieve a comprehensive understanding and develop effective strategies. This paper highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in digital inclusion research and provides a framework for understanding the contributions of different disciplines, using Library and Information Science, Computer Science, and Economics as examples. Specifically, it analyzes the relationship between these disciplines and digital inclusion, research topics related to digital inclusion, and research paradigms for studying digital inclusion. To address the three levels of the digital divide, the paper proposes an “Access - Capability - Outcome” three-layer relationship model to explain the functions of different disciplines in digital inclusion research. Additionally, two paths are proposed to promote integration and collaboration across different disciplines: the “inclusion technology for human” (technology-centered) path and the “inclusion of human in technology” (human-centered) path.