Theme: Communications

Communication and knowledge transfer are key elements of the new economy. They are also critical to rural capacity since they reduce the relatively high transaction costs that disadvantage rural economies and provide the infrastructure that structures social cohesion and exclusion. In order to function effectively in the new economy, communication capacity must be developed, both with respect to physical infrastructure as well as the skills and social organization it requires (James, 1994). Access to the Internet, for example, has emerged as an important tool for expanding markets, accessing bureaucratic resources, building common-interest networks, and even maintaining family relations (Phipps, 2000). The federal government’s commitment to the CAP and broadband access programs acknowledges this point (Halseth and Arnold, 1997).

The promise of communication technology is highly conditioned by local circumstances, however (Einsiedel and Innes, 2000). Our NRE research shows how access to national and regional communication tools is only weakly related to the leading or lagging status of rural sites. On the other hand, access to (and sometimes control of) local communication tools is related to both capacity and the leading status of the field sites (Bruce et al., 1999). While Internet usage in rural locations continues to climb, there is still a rural/non-rural gap in its adoption and some evidence that the majority of uses are social rather than economic (Bruce and Gadsden, 1999; Birdsall, 2000; Reddick et al., 2000; Halseth, 2001). Policy objectives favoring economic growth, therefore, might be better served by programs that transform social uses to market-based ones rather than focus on business uses alone.

This theme team built on these insights in two general ways. First, using available data, they tested several hypotheses regarding the characteristics of Internet users (at individual and site levels), the role of traditional media for individual and local capacity, and the types of uses made of all communication tools. By using the NRE sampling frame, this team was also able to examine how both new and old forms of communication are related to more global changes in the new economy. The primary objectives of this work was to identify the extent to which various communications tools were integrated into types of capacity, analyze how they have changed under the new economy, and assess their relative value for different types of capacity.

Second, the theme team explored the nature and extent of communication innovation in rural areas (Nair and White, 1994). This involved working with selected field sites to initiate and develop various communication projects. These involved the introduction or building of skills or facilities related to community radio, virtual town hall meetings, newsletters, local cable TV, CD-ROMs, or web sites. Using Industry Canada’s Special Events radio license, for example, a community-based group could broadcast on FM for about a month. The team monitored the processes by which this occured, the challenges and strategies entailed, and the impacts on local governance, services, economic, and social relations. Sites were selected to ensure strategic comparisons by economic, social, and policy contexts.