Internet Access in Brazil : social context and science and technology professionals

Access to the Internet is an evidence of connectivity and has been considered an indicator of participation in today’s knowledge society and in the globalization process, the latter also defined as

“complex connectivity” and empirical condition of the modern world. However, evidences of the growth of this resource around the world is confronted with several questions regarding the discrepancies

between developed and developing countries, regarding regional and social differences within countries and regarding the perspectives of its use by knowledge professionals. This subject - Internet access and use - has been included in the 2005 Annual Survey of the Brazilian Census Bureau. This paper is part of a more inclusive research project that focuses on the characteristics and perspectives of Brazilian society with regard to Internet access and use. Besides describing access to this resource, it tries to examine its several social, economic and work conditionings. In the data analyses presented

here, emphasis is given, at first, to the description of socio-demographic inequalities with regards to Internet access. A second emphasis is given to describing and comparing Internet access among Science and Technology professionals, particularly professionals in the field of Information and Communication, and between the public and private sectors