ICTs and the Urban-Rural Divide: Can Online Labour Platforms Bridge the Gap?

Abstract

Information and communication technologies have long been predicted to make cities as hubs of economic organisation obsolete and spread economic opportunities to rural areas. However, the actual trend in the 21st century has been the opposite. Knowledge spillovers have fuelled urbanisation and pulled job-seekers into large cities, increasing the gap to deprived rural areas. We argue that new assemblages of technologies and social practices, so-called ’online labour platforms’, have recently started to counter this trend. By providing effective formal and informal mechanisms of enforcing cooperation, these platforms for project-based remote knowledge work enable users to hire and find work across distance. In analysing data from a leading online labour platform in more than 3,000 urban and rural counties in the United States, we find that rural workers made disproportionate use of the online labour market. Rural counties also supplied, on average, higher skilled online work than urban areas did. However, many of the most deprived regions of the country did not participate in the online labour market at all. Our findings highlight the potentials and limitations of such platforms for regional economic development.

The Evolution of Digital Technologies: A Network Perspective on Machine Learning

“…The described network dataset provides a unique perspective on the technology space as it evolves in real-time. This perspective might help to better understand the geographical distribution of digital knowledge [10,11], work [12], and innovations [13] in the digital sphere.…”

The Evolution of Digital Technologies: A Network Perspective on Machine Learning

“…The described network dataset provides a unique perspective on the technology space as it evolves in real-time. This perspective might help to better understand the geographical distribution of digital knowledge [10,11], work [12], and innovations [13] in the digital sphere.…”

The Link between Internet Activity and Community Experience in Rural Utah☆

“…In rural America, Internet use and access have historically lagged behind suburban and urban areas. In 2018, 22.3% of rural residents and 27.7% of tribal‐land residents lacked Internet access, compared to just 1.5% of urban residents (Eisenberg et al 2021). What is more, U.S. rural counties in the West, Mid‐West, and South have some of the lowest percentages of residential high‐speed Internet (Eisenberg et al 2021)—a relative lack of access often described as a “digital divide.” Internet access is particularly important in rural areas because it enables these communities to be included in the broader consumer economy, which “provides daily needs and a high quality of life” (Brown 1993:399).…”

“…Community experience is particularly salient for understanding rural communities, which have undergone various changes in recent decades. Among these changes are declining levels of community experience (Brown et al 1998; Erickson, Call, and Brown 2012; Quarnberg 2011) and increased access to high‐speed Internet (Eisenberg, Shoemaker, and Pruitt 2021).…”

“…While rural communities have typically experienced lower levels of Internet access as compared to their suburban and urban neighbors, constituting what has been called a “digital divide,” the presidential mandate of 2011 increased Internet access in rural areas (Eisenberg et al 2021). The Internet has quickly become an important amenity in rural areas, as it gives residents the ability to participate in the larger consumer economy, meet daily needs, access information, obtain education and healthcare, and work remotely (Brown 1993; Dutta‐Bergman 2005; Eisenberg et al 2021; Mesch and Talmud 2010).…”