‘Stuck Out Here’: The Critical Role of Broadband for Remote Rural Places

Leanne Townsend; Claire Wallace; Gorry Fairhurst

doi:10.1080/14702541.2014.978807

‘Stuck Out Here’: The Critical Role of Broadband for Remote Rural Places

Leanne Townsend, Claire Wallace, Gorry Fairhurst

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

16 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In a rapidly evolving digital society, broadband connectivity is increasingly critical. Everyday experiences are mediated by technology, be they related to work, education, leisure or health care; technology impacts at many levels. Access to broadband Internet is considered to be essential to contemporary society. Despite this growing recognition, broadband access is still not
ubiquitous across all of the UK, with access being particularly problematic in remote rural areas. This paper considers the role of broadband in the economic and social sustainability of remote rural places. During research which explored the use of broadband and its applications amongst small rural business owners located across rural Scotland, qualitative in-depth interviews explored how interviewees used the Internet in the development of and sustainability of their
business activities as well as exploring other forms of use such as those relating to education, leisure and social participation. The findings reveal how broadband access and use can impact on rural business owners, and subsequently contribute to the sustainability of life in remote rural Scotland.
KEY WORDS: broadband, remote, rural, Scotland, economic, social, sustainability
1.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	171-180
Number of pages	10
Journal	Scottish Geographical Journal
Volume	131
Issue number	3-4
Early online date	4 Feb 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2014.978807
Publication status	Published - 2015

Bibliographical note

Funding
This research is supported by the award made by the RCUK Digital Economy theme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub, award reference: EP/G066051/1.

Keywords

broadband
remote
rural
Scotland
economic
social sustainability

Access to Document

10.1080/14702541.2014.978807Licence: CC BY

‘Stuck Out Here’: The Critical Role of Broadband for Remote Rural Places
© 2015 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 354 KBLicence: CC BY

CornCCoB Interview files
Townsend, L. C. (Creator), Townsend, L. C. (Creator) & Bain, M. (Creator), University of Aberdeen, 2015
http://leannetownsend.com/2014/07/29/cornccob-reflections-first-published-1642013/#more-85
Dataset

Creating rural resilience through cultural heritage
John Hugh Farrington (Coordinator), Claire Wallace (Coordinator), Leanne Claire Townsend (Participant), Hai Nguyen (Participant), Gemma Webster (Participant), David Edward Beel (Participant) & Christopher Stuart Mellish (Participant)
Impact: Cultural

Cite this

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title = "{\textquoteleft}Stuck Out Here{\textquoteright}: The Critical Role of Broadband for Remote Rural Places",

abstract = "In a rapidly evolving digital society, broadband connectivity is increasingly critical. Everyday experiences are mediated by technology, be they related to work, education, leisure or health care; technology impacts at many levels. Access to broadband Internet is considered to be essential to contemporary society. Despite this growing recognition, broadband access is still notubiquitous across all of the UK, with access being particularly problematic in remote rural areas. This paper considers the role of broadband in the economic and social sustainability of remote rural places. During research which explored the use of broadband and its applications amongst small rural business owners located across rural Scotland, qualitative in-depth interviews explored how interviewees used the Internet in the development of and sustainability of theirbusiness activities as well as exploring other forms of use such as those relating to education, leisure and social participation. The findings reveal how broadband access and use can impact on rural business owners, and subsequently contribute to the sustainability of life in remote rural Scotland.KEY WORDS: broadband, remote, rural, Scotland, economic, social, sustainability1.",

keywords = "broadband, remote, rural, Scotland, economic, social sustainability",

author = "Leanne Townsend and Claire Wallace and Gorry Fairhurst",

note = "Funding This research is supported by the award made by the RCUK Digital Economy theme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub, award reference: EP/G066051/1.",

year = "2015",

doi = "10.1080/14702541.2014.978807",

language = "English",

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AU - Wallace, Claire

AU - Fairhurst, Gorry

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PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - In a rapidly evolving digital society, broadband connectivity is increasingly critical. Everyday experiences are mediated by technology, be they related to work, education, leisure or health care; technology impacts at many levels. Access to broadband Internet is considered to be essential to contemporary society. Despite this growing recognition, broadband access is still notubiquitous across all of the UK, with access being particularly problematic in remote rural areas. This paper considers the role of broadband in the economic and social sustainability of remote rural places. During research which explored the use of broadband and its applications amongst small rural business owners located across rural Scotland, qualitative in-depth interviews explored how interviewees used the Internet in the development of and sustainability of theirbusiness activities as well as exploring other forms of use such as those relating to education, leisure and social participation. The findings reveal how broadband access and use can impact on rural business owners, and subsequently contribute to the sustainability of life in remote rural Scotland.KEY WORDS: broadband, remote, rural, Scotland, economic, social, sustainability1.

AB - In a rapidly evolving digital society, broadband connectivity is increasingly critical. Everyday experiences are mediated by technology, be they related to work, education, leisure or health care; technology impacts at many levels. Access to broadband Internet is considered to be essential to contemporary society. Despite this growing recognition, broadband access is still notubiquitous across all of the UK, with access being particularly problematic in remote rural areas. This paper considers the role of broadband in the economic and social sustainability of remote rural places. During research which explored the use of broadband and its applications amongst small rural business owners located across rural Scotland, qualitative in-depth interviews explored how interviewees used the Internet in the development of and sustainability of theirbusiness activities as well as exploring other forms of use such as those relating to education, leisure and social participation. The findings reveal how broadband access and use can impact on rural business owners, and subsequently contribute to the sustainability of life in remote rural Scotland.KEY WORDS: broadband, remote, rural, Scotland, economic, social, sustainability1.

KW - broadband

KW - remote

KW - rural

KW - Scotland

KW - economic

KW - social sustainability

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DO - 10.1080/14702541.2014.978807

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ER -

‘Stuck Out Here’: The Critical Role of Broadband for Remote Rural Places

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Datasets

CornCCoB Interview files

Impacts

Creating rural resilience through cultural heritage

Cite this