Abstract
This paper utilises a community resilience framework to critically examine the digital-rural policy agenda. Rural areas are sometimes seen as passive and static, set in contrast to the mobility of urban, technological and globalisation processes (Bell et al., 2010). In response to notions of rural decline (McManus et al., 2012) rural resilience literature posits rural communities as ‘active,’ and ‘proactive’ about their future (Skerratt, 2013), developing processes for building capacity and resources. We bring together rural development and digital policy-related literature, using resilience motifs developed from recent academic literature, including community resilience, digital divides, digital inclusion, and rural information and communication technologies (ICTs). Whilst community broadband initiatives have been linked to resilience (Plunkett-Carnegie, 2012; Heesen et al., 2013) digital inclusion, and engagement with new digital technologies more broadly, have not. We explore this through three resilience motifs: resilience as multi-scalar; as entailing normative assumptions; and as integrated and place-sensitive. We point to normative claims about the capacity of digital technology to aid rural development, to offer solutions to rural service provision and the challenges of implementing localism. Taking the UK as a focus, we explore the various scales at which this is evident, from European to UK country-level.
Highlights
This paper will outline the policy imperatives in rural development and digital agenda contexts for the increased resilience of individuals and communities through Internet connectivity and eServices
The major contribution of this article lies in its fine-tuned analysis of resilience for rural communities and the policy contexts through which this is promoted
An integrated rural-digital policy approach with resilient communities at its core would ensure rural communities were supported to develop the necessary resources to enable them to fully use Internet-enabled technologies in the empowering way hoped for by governments. Bringing together these distinct but overlapping literature and policy areas has provided an original critique of the rural-digital agenda
Summary
This paper will outline the policy imperatives in rural development and digital agenda contexts for the increased resilience of individuals and communities through Internet connectivity and eServices. The paper reports on findings from a review of EU and UK policy-related documents from 2005 to 2015 (see Appendix 1), with a comprehensive analysis of how these play out at UK country level over the last five years.1 These cover the digital agenda, rural and community development. The review identifies where one policy field has referenced others (e.g. where digital agenda documents prioritise or mention rural areas and/or community-led approaches) and where community resilience is explicitly referenced or inferred through proxy terms (see Table 1). We examine the extent to which the policy context evidences 1) discourse embedded within multiple scales, 2) technology solutions for resilience as normative within digital and rural agendas and 3) as being integrated and place-appropriate. The paper will do this systematically in four sections: 1) Resilience frameworks introduces resilience as a framework for analysis of community change and development; 2) Ruralities addresses resilience within the rural context through relevant policy-related documents; 3) Divides examines the rural-digital policy agenda and its relevance to community resilience. 4) A final discussion section will reintroduce the three resilience motifs at the intersection of digital and rural (community) development, drawing out implications and recommendations as a conclusion
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