Rural broadband

Posted on | February 16, 2009 | 8 Comments

At the end of last week I spent two days at the University of Wollongong listening to a range of stakeholders and researchers talk about broadband. The workshop was organised around the ideas of self, place and “making do” and was an effort to talk about the cultural reality of communications infrastructure in non-metro areas given the strength of government and business agendas promoting the benefits of the knowledge economy. Inspired by the long gestation of the proposed National Broadband Network, and the Labor Government’s promise to deliver “high-speed” broadband to 98% of the population, the meeting heard from a number of Australian and international researchers involved in policy debates and research projects about internet access in regional and rural areas, as well as evidence of the impact of connectivity on various marginalised groups in different countries.

The event also featured a number of speakers from the community (although admittedly not enough) including Ian Greenhalgh from the Country Public Libraries Association. His presentation was a passionate call for more assistance from the federal government and the general public in recognising the key role local libraries play as intermediaries for IT skills and training. He wondered whether librarians, many of whom remain committed to the public service ideals enshrined in the Library Act, were “too obliging to be effective” in generating support for better resources to cope with the changes to libraries’ role. He suggested this included a decline in the use of reference sections and book borrowing in the digital age and the increased need to provide multimedia items and IT access and support. This was a really sobering assessment of the strain on local libraries to remain viable in the wake of broadband’s impact precisely because they are such trusted institutions in the public’s imagination and are seen as the most obvious and safe place for public broadband access.

I’ve been really affected by this and hope that writing about it here can generate more interest in Ian’s concerns. What was so obvious in the workshop overall was the extent to which rural and regional communities’ use of broadband needs to be understood differently to the individualist and consumerist model that tends to prevail in big cities. This is not to suggest that country residents shouldn’t be entitled to the same access to broadband as city dwellers – my contribution to the workshop talked in detail about the feelings of melancholy and disappointment that develop in rural areas as a result of being so far from the celebrated norms of connectivity. Drawing on the work of Lauren Berlant and Katie Stewart, I argued that affect theory can help develop policy to better serve those who inhabit “the space on the side of the road” – those who live in the areas that city dwellers might enjoy as they drive past but only because they do not stop for very long.

As I have been arguing in work with Genevieve Bell (pdf), country areas already have strong investment in community and civic infrastructure. As Jerry Watkins’ presentation at the workshop also helped to show, someone doesn’t need an online social network if their social network is already constitutive of their daily life. Any plan to deliver better broadband must recognise that social and community spaces will be the terms of engagement for new technology in many cases. And this is an important example of resistance to the neoliberal imperative to atomise our experience to so many instances of consumer choice.

My research into the CWA and technology use has found schemes developing whereby state branches are applying for money from Telstra’s “Connected Seniors” program to train selected members in mobile and email use so that they can then train others in their local branch. This image from the NSW Country Woman Journal is a hopeful image for the future:

Another great example of regional and rural technology experiments happening right now is Genevieve Bell’s South Australian Thinker in Residence project. Genevieve is travelling around the state of South Australia this month collecting postcards, messages and blog posts from residents that give details of how they use new media. Watch her blog for some great insight into the way ordinary Australians are adapting to mobile and broadband technology beyond the city. And if you’re in SA, send in your story to help Genevieve’s typically ambitious goal.

Category: Gender, Politics, Research, Travel, Web studies
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Comments

8 Responses to “Rural broadband”

  1. didier grossemy
    February 16th, 2009 @ 11:05 pm

    Are we connected or socially disconnected…I personally believe that technology has reduced our social capital—the relationships that bind people together and create a sense of community. Consequences include decreased civility, loss of behavioural boundaries and increased crime. We must find ways to deal with our profound loss of social connectedness.Even though technological advances have contributed significantly to the problem of isolation, the emphasis on individualism in today’s society has compounded it.

  2. Michael McNally
    February 17th, 2009 @ 2:36 pm

    I understand what you are saying dider, but I fear you may be barking up the wrong tree and conflating a few issues. To what pre-technology social utopia would you take us back to? The victorian era when entertainment for the wealthy was formal parlour games, songs and dances (for the poor it was survival)? Or should we just go back to a time when we supposedly all sat around listening to the wireless as part of our social relationships? How has the fact that I am on facebook impacted on the fact that I chat to my neighbours every other day and know a lot of people in my local community through my children’s school/childcare/sport? Perhaps you feel a profound loss of social connectedness, but is technology to blame? Or is it (imagined) others who are socially disconnected?

    Particularly for marginalised groups in rural and remote communities (the example of same-sex-oriented people leaps to mind) this technology might connect them to people they might otherwise never have connected with. Pretty hard when you are the only gay in the village and you need someone to talk to and there is no internet.

    As for decreased civility, anything other than anecdotal evidence to work with? There have always been rude people. I am not even sure what loss of behavioural boudaries means but it sounds liberating!!

    My 2c

    Michael

  3. melgregg
    February 18th, 2009 @ 9:03 am

    With thanks to Jane, this story is timely, fitting, mobilising…

  4. kim satchell
    February 18th, 2009 @ 8:13 pm

    rural broadband or remote broadband pitched on the premise of “the space on the side of the road” – those who live in the areas that city dwellers might enjoy as they drive past but only because they do not stop for very long…is riven with such elitist shite – (apologies to lauren berlant) somewhere between self-flatulent cultural cringing and belligerent disregard, I am not sure the ‘folk’ are as convinced of the inexorable advantages of getting on board or being left behind- and I am not sure there is an argument so convincing that does not smack of elitist self-interest. great to see the blog kick’n ’09.

  5. kim satchell
    February 18th, 2009 @ 8:17 pm

    i guess i miss the point of technology- and what is that again?

  6. MC
    February 19th, 2009 @ 8:39 am

    Hi Kim, Thanks… I think I agree with what you’re saying at the end of this but somehow the argument I thought I was making got lost? It wasn’t Lauren Berlant’s reading but my use of a number of different ideas in the section you quote, but yeah, people can certainly make those choices themselves given the opportunity.

  7. MC
    February 19th, 2009 @ 8:48 am

    It would probably clarify things if I mentioned that my talk was framed around these kinds of images!

    Anyway, I will be writing a longer version of the paper for a forthcoming special issue of Cultural Studies Review on the ethics of rural cultural studies, so I will certainly clarify those details there.

  8. ks
    February 19th, 2009 @ 1:22 pm

    a bit of an overreaction, no disrespect intended and i certainly meant none for katie stewart and her work. just letting people talk goes towards some of the complexity that exists beyond the pale, i look forward to reading the piece in csr cheers

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