Rural areas in the information society: diminishing distance or increasing learning capacity?

By Seamus Grimes. Journal of Rural Studies, 2000

202 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This paper examines the prospects for rural areas within the Information Society, referring particularly to the EU experience. Among these are the diminishing effects of distance from core markets and enhancing the learning capacities of rural areas by improving access to relevant information. EU policy to date has been influenced by a strong technology dimension with an emphasis on the installation of necessary infrastructure and equipment. There is an increasing awareness, however, of the need to focus on the social dimension, as scepticism grows about wasted resources, poorly thought out projects and false expectations. Teleworking, which was widely hyped as the best prospect for rural areas, continues to be predominantly an urban or suburban phenomenon. Although the new technologies are no substitute for entrepreneurship, the potential they present, within a more enlightened policy environment, should not be underestimated.

Subfields: Management of Technology and Innovation, Media Technology, Political Science and International Relations

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f470f9b1342feee9c8156a289d90630a71e520c3

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In Management of Technology and Innovation

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Citations in the corpus

Twenty Years of Rural Entrepreneurship: A Bibliometric Survey (2016, background): “…Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can gradually eliminate the boundaries of local markets, expose economic activity to greater competition from the outside (Grimes, 2003), and enhance the learning capacities of rural areas by improving access to relevant information (Grimes, 2000).”
Rural Entrepreneurship in Europe: A Research Framework and Agenda (2004, background): “) and will enhance the learning capacities of rural areas by improving access to relevant information ( Grimes, 2000”
Rural development in the digital age: A systematic literature review on unequal ICT availability, adoption, and use in rural areas (2017, background): “…patients (Miller and West, 2009), or people living in remote areas, such as employees and teleworkers in rural areas (Simpson et al., 2003; Laegran, 2008; Brownlee et al., 2010), as well as farmers (Briggeman and Whitacre, 2010; Jeffcoat et al., 2012) and entrepreneurs (Grimes, 2000, 2003; 2005).”
Digital development in rural areas: potentials and pitfalls $ (2003, background): “‘None of these translations can be relied upon to take place automatically’ (Grimes, 2000, p. 16).”
Developing entrepreneurship and enterprise in Europe's peripheral rural areas: Some issues facing policy-makers (2006, background): “However, a more critical perspective on the contribution of ICT to economic development within peripheral rural areas of Europe is provided by Grimes ( 2000 , 2003 ), who criticizes the technological deterministic assumptions which have underpinned many public funded projects, i.”