Rural Development in the Digital Age
Rural Development in the Digital Age

Author: Martin Pělucha

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-10-24

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1000672786

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Rural Development in the Digital Age explores current theoretical and policy developments in EU rural policy during the 4.0 period. The book offers an analysis of the contradictory and complex drivers and multiple impacts of Period 4.0 policy within the specific territorial context of its implementation. It is commonly agreed within academic and policy circles that the contexts, trends, drivers and impacts which are currently morphing have the potential to determine the nature and boundaries of rural areas in the longer-term. The authors examine inconsistencies in the design and implementation of EU rural development policy driven largely by intensifying neo-productivist pressures. The importance and novelty of the book lie in defining and critically examining the territorial impacts of neo-productivism as an ideology, a practice and a set of policy imperatives during the EU’s 2014-2020 programming period. The authors argue that such a paradigm shift in EU rural policy may reduce its effectiveness and ability to meet its goals of balanced territorial development and cohesion. This book will be of interest to advanced students, researchers and policymakers in rural policy, regional studies, economic geography and EU policy.

How's Life in the Digital Age? Opportunities and Risks of the Digital Transformation for People's Well-being
How's Life in the Digital Age? Opportunities and Risks of the Digital Transformation for People's Well-being

Author: OECD

Publisher: OECD Publishing

Published: 2019-02-26

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9264311807

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This report documents how the ongoing digital transformation is affecting people’s lives across the 11 key dimensions that make up the How’s Life? Well-being Framework (Income and wealth, Jobs and earnings, Housing, Health status, Education and skills, Work-life balance, Civic engagement and ...

Educational Research and Innovation Education in the Digital Age Healthy and Happy Children
Educational Research and Innovation Education in the Digital Age Healthy and Happy Children

Author: OECD

Publisher: OECD Publishing

Published: 2020-10-15

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9264706496

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The COVID-19 pandemic was a forceful reminder that education plays an important role in delivering not just academic learning, but also in supporting physical and emotional well-being. Balancing traditional “book learning” with broader social and personal development means new roles for schools and education more generally.

Farm Fresh Broadband
Farm Fresh Broadband

Author: Christopher Ali

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2021-09-21

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 0262367084

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An analysis of the failure of U.S. broadband policy to solve the rural–urban digital divide, with a proposal for a new national rural broadband plan. As much of daily life migrates online, broadband—high-speed internet connectivity—has become a necessity. The widespread lack of broadband in rural America has created a stark urban–rural digital divide. In Farm Fresh Broadband, Christopher Ali analyzes the promise and the failure of national rural broadband policy in the United States and proposes a new national broadband plan. He examines how broadband policies are enacted and implemented, explores business models for broadband providers, surveys the technologies of rural broadband, and offers case studies of broadband use in the rural Midwest. Ali argues that rural broadband policy is both broken and incomplete: broken because it lacks coordinated federal leadership and incomplete because it fails to recognize the important roles of communities, cooperatives, and local providers in broadband access. For example, existing policies favor large telecommunication companies, crowding out smaller, nimbler providers. Lack of competition drives prices up—rural broadband can cost 37 percent more than urban broadband. The federal government subsidizes rural broadband by approximately $6 billion. Where does the money go? Ali proposes democratizing policy architecture for rural broadband, modeling it after the wiring of rural America for electricity and telephony. Subsidies should be equalized, not just going to big companies. The result would be a multistakeholder system, guided by thoughtful public policy and funded by public and private support.

Going Digital: Shaping Policies, Improving Lives
Going Digital: Shaping Policies, Improving Lives

Author: OECD

Publisher: OECD Publishing

Published: 2019-03-11

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 9264312013

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This report identifies seven policy dimensions that allow governments – together with citizens, firms and stakeholders – to shape digital transformation to improve lives. It also highlights key opportunities, challenges and policies related to each dimension, offers new insights, evidence and analysis, and provides recommendations for better policies in the digital age.

Villages in the Future
Villages in the Future

Author: Detlef Virchow

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-02-02

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 3642565751

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Life in rural communities is bound to change with historically unprecedented speed in the coming decades. How will this change be guided by local, national and global policies in order to enhance the livelihoods of rural inhabitants and to overcome the growing division of rural and urban areas? The contributions in this publication, ranging from scientific papers to short reports from practitioners, are grouped around 4 major themes: political and institutional frameworks to foster rural development; natural resources management; broadening the technological base of rural economies; and improved linkages between urban and rural areas. The overall message is unanimous: there is a promising future for the rural areas worldwide if adequate policies can be enforced and more efficient and fair institutions can be created.

From Rural Village to Global Village
From Rural Village to Global Village

Author: Heather E. Hudson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-05

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 113559970X

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From Rural Village to Global Village: Telecommunications for Development in the Information Age examines the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on both the macro level--societal, socio-economic, and governmental--and sector level--education, health, agriculture, entrepreneurship--emphasizing rural and developing regions. Author Heather E. Hudson examines the potential impact of ICTs by reviewing the existing research and adding her own findings from extensive fieldwork in ICT planning and evaluation. The volume includes case studies demonstrating innovative applications of ICTs plus chapters on evaluation strategies and appropriate technologies. She also analyzes the policy issues that must be addressed to facilitate affordable ICT access in rural and developing regions. This discussion relates to the larger “digital divide” issue, and the impact that access to communication technology--or the lack of it--has on communities and societies. This comprehensive volume is a valuable resource for scholars, professionals, researchers, and students in telecommunications law and policy, media economics, international communication, and communication and development fields. It is also suitable for use as an advanced-level text in these areas.

Technologies of Choice?
Technologies of Choice?

Author: Dorothea Kleine

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0262018209

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A new framework for assessing the role of information and communication technologies in development that draws on Amartya Sen's capabilities approach. Information and communication technologies (ICTs)--especially the Internet and the mobile phone--have changed the lives of people all over the world. These changes affect not just the affluent populations of income-rich countries but also disadvantaged people in both global North and South, who may use free Internet access in telecenters and public libraries, chat in cybercafes with distant family members, and receive information by text message or email on their mobile phones. Drawing on Amartya Sen's capabilities approach to development--which shifts the focus from economic growth to a more holistic, freedom-based idea of human development--Dorothea Kleine in Technologies of Choice? examines the relationship between ICTs, choice, and development. Kleine proposes a conceptual framework, the Choice Framework, that can be used to analyze the role of technologies in development processes. She applies the Choice Framework to a case study of microentrepreneurs in a rural community in Chile. Kleine combines ethnographic research at the local level with interviews with national policy makers, to contrast the high ambitions of Chile's pioneering ICT policies with the country's complex social and economic realities. She examines three key policies of Chile's groundbreaking Agenda Digital: public access, digital literacy, and an online procurement system. The policy lesson we can learn from Chile's experience, Kleine concludes, is the necessity of measuring ICT policies against a people-centered understanding of development that has individual and collective choice at its heart.