Digital Poverty
My current research develops digital poverty as a concept for understanding severe and multidimensional digital exclusion. I am interested in how digital poverty can be defined, measured, and used in policymaking.
GUIDO APPOLDT
SOCIAL SCIENTIST · SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIVERSITY
DIGITAL POVERTY
DIGITAL INCLUSION
AI AND SOCIETY
I am a social scientist at Shanghai Jiao Tong University working on digital poverty, digital inequality, inclusive digital governance, and the social impacts of artificial intelligence. My research examines how digital transformation reshapes everyday life, public services, and social participation, especially for groups that are easily overlooked in fast-moving digital systems.
[ID: GA · 2026]
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ABOUT
I study digital society from the perspective of people who are often treated as marginal to technological change: older adults, people with limited support, low-income groups, and communities facing unequal access to digital services.
Since 2019, my research has focused on older adults' digital lives in China. This work has examined digital skills, cultural needs, intergenerational support, platformized services, and the everyday consequences of digital exclusion.
My current work focuses on three threads: building a digital poverty index to make eliminable digital exclusion measurable; examining how digital literacy connects to empowerment outcomes, with empirical work on adolescent girls in Nigeria; and continuing research on the digital divide among older adults in China.
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RESEARCH
Older Adults and Digital Inequality
Since 2019, I have conducted research on older adults' digital lives in China. My work examines how older adults learn, use, avoid, and negotiate digital technologies in everyday life.
AI and Society
My work also engages with the social implications of artificial intelligence, especially in education, labor, care, and sustainable development.
Digital Skills and Empowerment
A separate research strand examines how digital skills profiles relate to empowerment outcomes and sexual and reproductive health knowledge among adolescent girls in Nigeria. Using latent profile analysis, the work identifies distinct digital skill patterns and their associations with development outcomes.
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PUBLICATIONS
Journal Articles and Policy Articles
Book Chapters, Reports, and Other Publications
Baumol's Cost Disease: Long-Term Economic Implications Where Machines Cannot Replace Humans
Forthcoming as a chapter in The Algorithm in the Room (UNESCO, tentative title).
温暖银发族：数字化产品适老化研究蓝皮书
现代服务业研究 [Modern Service Industry 22]
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TALKS & CONFERENCES
Beyond the Digital Divide: How Temporal Affordances and Daily Time Structures Shape Older Adults' Media Repertoires
With Zhen Gong. Accepted poster.
The Temporality of the Digital Divide: A Study on the Time Structure and Seniors' Digital Divides
With Zhen Gong. Accepted paper.
Discovery of Cultural Needs as a Key Intervention in Digital Inclusion: A Practice-Based Study on Urban Chinese Seniors
With Zhen Gong.
Socio-Cultural Capital and Digital Divide: A Qualitative Study of How Social and Cultural Capital Are Related to Digital Knowledge of Senior Chinese
With Zhen Gong.
新有闲群体：对城市老年人数字生活的文化研究
In Chinese.
Are Older Adults Able to Gain Digital Skills from Their (Grand)children? A Qualitative Study in Urban China
The Rise of Smart ICT-Devices among Urban Chinese Senior Generation: A Cultural Perspective
With Zhen Gong.
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EVENTS & SERVICE
Selected Events
Invited Speaker — "Pathways to International Organization Internships"
Communications Coordinator — "UNU Macau Global AI Conference 2024"
Webinar Coordinator — "Generative AI and Education"
Lecture Co-Chair — "Cyberpsychology in the Age of AI"
Panel Chair — "Digital Divide in China"
Academic Service
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Emerging Media: Technology, Industry and Society — 2024 to present
SPECIAL ISSUE COORDINATOR
"AI and Global Challenges", Emerging Media: Technology, Industry and Society
PEER REVIEWER
New Media & Society / Technological Forecasting and Social Change / First Monday
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NEWS
SJTU Graduate School — UNESCO IdeasLAB Think Piece
Coverage of UNESCO-related work on AI, education, and automation.
SJTU Graduate School — Pathways to International Organization Internships
Coverage of an invited lecture for international students at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
SJTU Graduate School — UNU Macau Global AI Conference
Coverage of participation in and support for the UNU Macau Global AI Conference.
Hong Kong Metropolitan University — HEResearch Global Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series
News item related to the "Cyberpsychology in the Age of AI" lecture.
SJTU International Students Office — Featured Article
Chinese-language coverage.