| Summary: | Since inception in the mid 1990s, the Internet has become increasingly commonplace, engendering benefits for everyday life across multiple domains, including; information access, education, entertainment, retail and governance. Although such advantages are wide-reaching, access to, and engagement with the Internet is not evenly distributed across physical space or societal groups. Such disparities have been the focus of numerous academic and government studies within the contemporary period, attempting to isolate those physical and socio-economic factors that may impact Internet access and engagement. This thesis is comprised of five empirical chapters and two published papers. The empirical chapters broadly cover; a review of relevant literature, a study of broadband performance and access within the national context, a study of engagement patterns, the creation of a nested typology of Internet use and engagement and an example study demonstrating the application of the nested typology.
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