Understanding and Bridging the Smart Technology Infrastructure Divide in Rural America 

Funded by NSF

Existing gaps in information and communication technologies and social infrastructures, without intervention, theoretically evolve into a new form of social inequality — a smart divide. However, it is unclear what gaps exist in technological and social infrastructures in rural areas, what social infrastructure may be critical to support smart rural development, and how technological and social infrastructures can co-develop and co-balance to increase rural “smartness”. The goal of this project is to fully understand and characterize social-technical ontology, contexts, and implications of low availability and access to smart technologies and to develop strategies for strengthening information and communication technologies and social infrastructures in rural communities. The focus of this project is on the infrastructural and social support of telehealth and remote education using testbeds in two rural towns in southern Illinois with highly diverse populations and social inequalities. The project develops a theoretical social-technical foundation to understand the availability of and accessibility to telehealth and online education, and characterizes the gaps and interplay of information and communications technology and social infrastructures using interviews and mail surveys. It also seeks to identify and manage technological adoption niches for innovative solutions to increase rural accessibility to telehealth and online education. The approaches, based on interdisciplinary research efforts and community engagement, are meant to enhance rural communities’ smart development. The outcomes are expected to not only facilitate innovative strategies to bridge the smart divide but also theoretically inform the next-generation design of rural smart and connected communities.