Green: Rural Development in the Digital Age

Rural Development in the Digital Age: Exploring Information and Communication Technology through Social Inclusion is a reprint of the 2023 presidential address of John J. Green (Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University) before the Rural Sociological Society. In this address, Green encourages more research into how information and communication technologies (ICTs) might foster social inclusion at the local and regional level, especially for often-overlooked places.

To introduce the challenge he hopes to address, Green tells a story of his involvement in census data gathering in rural Mississippi, where census data would help provide funding for greater broadband access. Unfortunately, community members were asked to fill out the census online, a task admittedly challenging when broadband access is limited.

Green approaches the general issue of access to ICTs and the impact of this lack of access in rural spaces by introducing three primary topics: how ICTs might influence and inform communities, how the digital divide can be reconceptualized, and what role sociologists in rural-focused spaces might play.

In discussing these three topics, Green speaks of “livelihood journeys,” which refers to the actual direction people and communities choose to move in, as opposed to “development pathways,” which refers to how past and current circumstances influence people and the actions communities take to achieve goals. Green maintains that ICTs can improve individual and community planning and decision-making, especially in overlooked places. Two major challenges to fostering the use and accessibility of ICTs are limited access to devices and the lack of connectivity, including the oft-noted issue of lack of broadband connectivity in rural places. In addition to this lack of access to physical means of use, the “digital divide” is reconceptualized through the recognition that lack of access to certain content and the literacy to understand that content also poses a barrier. Finally, Green turns to the question of how sociologists might address the question of which groups are most impacted and what can be done to provide better access.

Consequently, Green urges sociologists to inquire into rural experiences with ICTs, engage with ICTs themselves in other areas of work to better understand their function, and to do these things with a particular focus on rural places and rural voices.