Resources of digital pioneers in rural development

Keywords: Rural development, digital geographies, network analysis, regional planning, rural digitization, urban-rural cooperation
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 16

Abstract

Digital pioneers (DP) are individuals or institutions that use information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve life and work in rural regions in innovative ways. Hence, they may play a key role in future regional planning and rural development. Referring to leadership debates, the pioneers depend in their projects or initiatives on resources such as knowledge, creativity, technical-digital competence and, in particular, social contact networks. So far, there are few findings in this regard for the field of rural digitization. We therefore raise the question: What resources do digital pioneers need in order to strengthen rural development with their agency?

To fill this gap, our research design implies a multilevel process, a) to search for digital pioneers through key figures and web-based information, b) to identify two case regions in Germany and c) to analyze the cooperations through the methodological approach of qualitative interviews and network analysis.
Preliminary results indicate that DPs utilize their social networks to access different types of resources.

In this way, they specifically supplement the technical-digital, political-administrative, financial and scientific resources already available personally or in their own institution. DPs with biographical ties to their regions benefit from long-term personal relationships that now also help them in the projects. Pioneers who move in from outside or have an impact on the regions from an external location must first build up their local and regional networks, and deal with the local population’s skepticism.