Over the last three decades, the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has transformed human societies.
This digitisation is commonly believed to make all residents’ lives easier,
healthier, and more productive by reducing spatiotemporal constraints
for accessing information or services. However, this optimistic view
neglects the situation of disadvantaged populations who may not be able
to access or use ICTs in the same way and are, therefore at risk of being
left behind and excluded from an increasingly digitised society. Such
inequalities in the access and use of digital technologies are referred to
as the digital divide and have been studied extensively. Research on the
digital divide is typically based on ‘Big Data’ from national surveys that
are useful for revealing general trends and usage patterns but neglect
the situation of small rural areas that are underrepresented in surveys.
These areas are often structurally disadvantaged for several reasons, such
as spatial isolation, poor infrastructure, low population density, or the
out-migration of businesses and young people. Digitisation has the
potential to mitigate some of those challenges, but despite recent efforts
to investigate technology use in rural communities, very little is known
about the role of ICTs in the everyday life of rural residents and about the
practical barriers that may hinder their adoption. This thesis aimed to fill
this data gap by developing an integrative bottom-up research approach
that examined technology use in a rural Cornish area at multiple levels,
with convergent methods and minimal preconceptions about normative
forms of ICT use. This approach enabled the collection of ‘Small Data’
that portrays the use of technology in the inhabitants’ life context and
delineates how personal characteristics of individuals, socio-cultural
characteristics of the local community, and structural characteristics of the
area collectively shape digital divides in the rural environment.