Herrera Chávez, Abril; (2023) Digital Inequality in a Rural Cornish Village: an Integrative Analysis. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Over the last three decades, the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has transformed human societies. This digitisation is commonly believed to make all residents’ lives easier, healthier, and more productive by reducing spatiotemporal constraints for accessing information or services. However, this optimistic view neglects the situation of disadvantaged populations who may not be able to access or use ICTs in the same way and are, therefore at risk of being left behind and excluded from an increasingly digitised society. Such inequalities in the access and use of digital technologies are referred to as the digital divide and have been studied extensively. Research on the digital divide is typically based on ‘Big Data’ from national surveys that are useful for revealing general trends and usage patterns but neglect the situation of small rural areas that are underrepresented in surveys. These areas are often structurally disadvantaged for several reasons, such as spatial isolation, poor infrastructure, low population density, or the out-migration of businesses and young people. Digitisation has the potential to mitigate some of those challenges, but despite recent efforts to investigate technology use in rural communities, very little is known about the role of ICTs in the everyday life of rural residents and about the practical barriers that may hinder their adoption. This thesis aimed to fill this data gap by developing an integrative bottom-up research approach that examined technology use in a rural Cornish area at multiple levels, with convergent methods and minimal preconceptions about normative forms of ICT use. This approach enabled the collection of ‘Small Data’ that portrays the use of technology in the inhabitants’ life context and delineates how personal characteristics of individuals, socio-cultural characteristics of the local community, and structural characteristics of the area collectively shape digital divides in the rural environment.

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