Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the digital vulnerability of many citizens of the rural world. This article identifies and analyzes the proposals made by academic literature to overcome the digital divide in the European rural world for the five-year period 2016–2020. A scoping review has been carried out according to the PRISMA methodology in the two dimensions of the digital divide: access and connectivity, and use and exploitation. Online databases were used to identify scientific articles from which, after screening, 28 key documents were selected. The results update Salemink systematic review of articles published between 1991 and 2014 on digital and rural development in Western countries and it also intends to go beyond by extracting recommendations. A variety of political, social, educational, technical and economic issues has been exposed, with a common emphasis on the empowerment of rural populations. The findings provide actionable evidence and proposals to facilitate decision-making in current policy information to overcome rural digital divide. From them, seven recommendations that could have a wide and rapid impact to minimize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic linked to the rural digital divide are synthesized. Three lines of action in the medium term are also proposed: the evaluation of national and regional public policies; the consideration of digital inclusion as a potential instrument to reduce rural depopulation; and the training in advanced digital skills to improve the social communication processes, considered key to promote empowerment and entrepreneurship.
Highlights
The European Council stated in the Lisbon Strategy (23 and 24 March 2000) that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) were the basis of a competitive, dynamic, and knowledge-based economy
Digital divide is currently understood as the difference between individuals, companies, regions, and countries in the access and use of ICT [9]
Actions to bridge the digital divide must be directed towards diverse aspects, depending on the differences arising from the available resources to access ICT or from geographic, demographic, educational, socioeconomic and cultural disparities that condition the ability and skills to use these technologies
Summary
Digital divide is currently understood as the difference between individuals, companies, regions, and countries in the access and use of ICT [9] It consists of a difference of approach to technological tools and services such as mobile telephony, computers and the internet that generates an inequality of opportunities to satisfy needs and improve living conditions, which is intolerable in a democratic society. This concept has been popular since 1995 when it was used in the Falling through the Net report of the U.S Department of Commerce to express unequal access to emerging ICT between and within countries [10]. Actions to bridge the digital divide must be directed towards diverse aspects, depending on the differences arising from the available resources to access ICT or from geographic, demographic, educational, socioeconomic and cultural disparities that condition the ability and skills to use these technologies
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