Jeremy, I did my Ph.D. about the the German's telephone developent. And I was always surprised how especially American authors overestimate the "impact" of a communications technology. Technologies such as the telephone are socially constructed so there is no single way of "impact". Ithiel de Sola Poll in his retroactive technology assessment of the telephone listed all those assumptions about the effects of the introduction of the telephone. If I remember well there also is a paragraph on what contemporaries thought the telephone would do to rural communities. When you read Claude Fischer about the introduction of rural telephony when it really happened, Bell did not introduce it in rural areas as they deemed it too expensive. And rural telephone coperatives used it not only for demanding grain prices but for - chatting, singing together, a sort of self-produced wire radio. That is, the telephone through its strengthening of urban-rural hinterland exchanges better linked the farm areas to their market centers. And it INCREASED community life. It FACILITATED social contacts. But, you always have to set the introduction of a communications technology into its historical, geographical, political, economic, cultural context. That is, the real changes in rural America came before: with the arrival of the telegraph which linked the grain and cattle producing areas to the world market and made farmers feel the price changes of Russian wheat or Argentinian beef. (So far for globalisation as a product of the late 20th century, Internet etc. , greetings to Castell). So, my answer to your question is: broadband might change some aspects of farm life. However, if you see the time budgets of farmers I dont know where they can squeeze the time for sitting in front of the screen for hours. But most people living in rural areas are not farmers. And so we come to the different social and economic functions of the Internet. The possible effects of broadband should be differentiated along the Internet's functions. Communications: there is no strong difference between dial-up email and broadband email -> probably no broadband effect. Information retrieval: I guess the most important intervening variable is what sort of content is offered. Is there content locally produced so that you know better what happens around you? I so, this will reinforce local life, no matter if this on bradband or not. transactions: broadband makes quite a difference so this will make a region more attactive either to go to or not to leave - the main reason for inter-urban change of residence remaining, of course, a change of your workplace, not the quality of the Internet connection. entertainment: a strong difference. Maybe it's here that cultural changes will be the strongest. But for this to happen people must already be predisposed having changed their values so that a new technology can make a difference. It's not the technology that changes life it's us who use technology. We already have a specific mind set before its arrival and when the technology arrives, you realise that you can now do something that you already found attractive before its arrival. Social functions of a technology are not technically determined. Thus, a social scientist might look at the actors that create their strategies (if they have one) and see that in any given context it's the set of actors, their coalitions, the resulting strategies, that probably are the most important in determining the outcome of the introduction of broadband Internet in rural America. Sorry about the historical digression. Frank jeremy hunsinger a écrit:

yes, definitely have to be careful with certain assumptions. detraditionalization, traditionalization, and retraditionalization are sociological terms which do have certain things to do with tradition, but have alot more to do with the changing of practices that embody those traditions. so my comment on detraditionalization was not to assume that rural was more traditional, but to assume there was a process of detraditionalization and it would probably be quickened by broadband access. the processes operate across all late modern/late capitalism societies, i think.

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2. The major problem facing rural communities is trying to get their young people to stay--or to come back home after college. The permanent emigration of young people from rural communities is due almost entirely to economic pressure. As agriculture has gotten bigger, jobs have gotten fewer and most family farms have folded. The potential economic effects on rural communities of new information technologies--particularly any jobs they may create--are likely to outweigh anything else. (It's notable that in the 1990 census, for the first time *ever*, more people were living in rural areas than they were 10 years earlier. The 2000 census shows the rural/suburban ratio essentially holding steady.)

yes this is part of the process i noted above.

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3. Again, agricultural has become a high-tech, technology-driven enterprise. All of the farmers I know have wireless internet. These people *need* the web to manage the logistics of a modern ag operation--detailed weather reports; ordering and inventorying supplies, parts, seed/feed, etc.; arranging transportation and storage with distributors, local granaries, the railroad; tracking commodities futures; specialized subscription services which advise optimal times to plant and harvest--the list goes on and on.

well they need something in the way of information technology it may not be the web, but yes i agree.

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4. I think that the spectacle of people moving to rural communities to live "off the broadband" is pretty darn unlikely.

but that is a selling point in some areas, especially those areas that do have regular logistical access to a population center where they could possibly telecommute most times, and travel in as necessary, sort of a 200 -300 mile circle, a broadening of the megalopolis perhaps.

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First of all, if I can get broadband all across Garfield County, WA, (pop. 2,300) I can get it pretty much anywhere. ( http://www.firststepwireless.net/overview/ ) And second, though upper-class suburbanites may desire to escape from congestion, stress, and sprawl, they LOVE the web. Just ask them.

i was unclear i thought they would still have good access to the web due to their access to the broadband.

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my $.02,

Matt

******************************************** Matt Hindman, Ph.D Candidate Politics Department, Princeton University mhindman@princeton.edu http://www.princeton.edu/~mhindman/ ********************************************

----- Original Message ----- From: "jeremy hunsinger" <jhuns@vt.edu> To: <air-l@aoir.org> Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 7:10 PM Subject: [Air-l] hmm, last mile, imaginations, and historical projections

I'm sitting here looking at several fairly substantial proposals for programs taking rural last mile broadband into account and was thinking that taking the lastmile to the house in rural america may not have the effects that are projected. any opinions, theories, thoughts?

I'm thinking that there is corresponding detraditionalizations that may not have lasting positive effects on these communities, though immediate economic effects may occur. I'm thinking this will promote an overall migration and population transition toward more urbanization, etc. which of course is not supportive to small rural communities, which may in the end result in a new gentrification of those communities by displaces upper class urbanites looking to operate off of the broadband, thus possibly creating the same situation as occured with industrialization with the automobile in the south. again, thoughts, theories, opinions?

I mean what we have is a certain number of imaginations of the future, sometimes even supported by research and i could really use some more citations on this, that seem to assume a certain set of goods in development and goods in the expansion of technologies for the populace...

so in short, let me know.

jeremy hunsinger jhuns@vt.edu on the ibook www.cddc.vt.edu www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy www.dromocracy.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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RE: Last mile technologies and having an impact, following the Hirsch & Silverstone's _Consuming Technologies_ (1992) chapter on the Amish which was followed up in 1999 in WIRED magazine with the Amish and cell phone use. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.01/amish_pr.html While in the Wired article the cell phone was cast as quite subversive and was forbidden by the men, women in the community were using the phone to get the Doctor and to get important community news. While these things are always presented sensationally what I notice in my own country-based friends (in Wisconsin, where I grew up) is that the battle to get things done in rural life is endless. Which means my friends would use any technology that would save them time, and they used to do their yearly canning by sterilizing jars in the dishwasher, etc. The computer came into their home to do the accounting, which gets more and more complicated for small farmers each year. The internet meant that they get to talk to their remote relatives more - and in some cases, facilitate the farmer's wife outside job, which she can do some of it one the computer. I find this utilitarian approach to comm. very similar to the outback Australia, which has always focused on ways to improve the communication services, in the early days by radio to reach the Flying Doctor service in remote areas and also to offer remote education via 'School of the Air'. Innovative comm. services included the unfortunately doomed and now destroyed Iridium satellite phone system (sponsored in part by Microsoft). The serious nature of comm. in the outback was recently highlighted in a news story where a boy with asthma died because the phone was out of order, and the old radio network for calling Flying Dr's is of course, long gone . . . . Which relates to another interest of mine - the presence of technology 'orphans' when good working technology, like the Iridium sat. phone system is taken down, and the "NEW" technology, such as digital mobile remote areas services don't work well, or at all. This is a long way to say that last mile service is extremely important for anyone living more than 200k from the nearest town, it's the biggest issue in a place like Australia, a huge issue for anyone who needs it for doctors, schooling, or transportation, etc. . . Denise ===== "it's easier to use your mouse than your brain" Denise Rall, Sustainable Forestry Mentoring Coordinator & PhD student, School of Education, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW, 2480 Australia Phone +61-2-6624-8627 Fax +61-2-6624-8637 Office (Tuesdays) (02) 6620 3577 Mob 0438 233 344 http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/edu/research/deniserall/index.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com