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DigitalisationofRuralAreasandAgricultureintheEUDebate:HowFarfromWhatResearchSays?
Inthisway,itwasalsopossibletoconnecttheacademicconsiderationsabout
digitalisationofruralareasandapractitioners’perspective.Inordertoidentifyother
initiativestakentofosterdigitalisationofruralareasandagriculture,Iconducted
aqueryonthewebsitesoftheEuropeanCommissionandtheEIP-AGRI.2
3.TheRoleofDigitalisationandInformationandCommunication
TechnologiesinRuralDevelopment–TheMostImportantIssues
Theruralworldisnoteasytogeneraliseandgeneralisationsarenotuseful
inmostcasesintheformulationofsolutionsforspecificgeographicareas(Wolski,
Wójcik2019).Thereisnoexceptioninthecaseofruraldevelopment,aprocessthatis
nowsignificantlydifferentthanitwasinthepast.Itismorecomplexandmayfollow
variouspaths(Terluin2003).Notonlyhavethefunctionsofruralareaschanged
(e.g.Baldocketal.2001;Marsden1999;Lowe,Murdoch,Ward1995),butalso
theprimaryfunctionoftheseareas-agriculture-hasevolved(e.g.vanHuylenbroek,
Durand2003).Therearevariousruralactors(e.g.Baldocketal.2001;OECD
2006;vanderPloegetal.2000)andinstitutionsthatplayavitalroleintheprocess.
Theseinstitutionsfunctionatdifferentlevelsinrelationtoeachother(e.g.Ward,
Brown2009;vanderPloegetal.2000;Terluin2003;Ray2001).Moreover,actors
andinstitutionsbothworkindifferentcontexts-the“differentiatedcountryside”
(Murdochetal.2005)-whichresultfromthespacebeingunderstoodinaspecific
waydependingonwhereandbywhomitisinterpreted.
Digitalisationandinformationandcommunicationtechnologiescanbeapplied
bothinagriculture,afunctiontypicallyassociatedwithruralareas,andinnew
functionsmorerecentlyidentifiedintheseareas.Theycanalsobeappliedtohelp
improvethevitalityofruralareasingeneral.HencedigitalisationandICTsare
usedtofosterruralfunctionsortoincreasethequalityoflifeinruralareas.Given
thatruralareasarecharacterisedbysignificantdiversity,startingatthelocallevel
leadinguptothecontinentallevelorhigher,theyshowagreatdiversityinterms
ofaccessibilitytoICTs,adoptionofICTsandalsothewaythesetechnologiesare
used(Salemnik,Strijker,Bosworth2017;Philipetal.2015).
Academicshavediscussedtwomainstrandsthatinvolvetheaboveissues.
K.Salemnik,D.Strijker,andG.Bosworth(2017)distinguishconnectivityresearch
andinclusionresearch.Theformerinvolvestheissuesoftheprovisionofdigital
infrastructureanditsquality.Thespecialfocusisontheurban-ruraldivide,i.e.
thedifferencesintheaccessibilityofICTsbetweenurbanandruralareas(cf.Vicente,
López2011)andtheevaluationofpoliciesaimedatincreasingaccessibility.The
2https:llec.europa.euandhttps:llec.europa.euleiplagriculturerespectively(accessedJune2019).
WieśiRolnictwo2(183)/2019
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