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A Sociocultural Explanation of Internet-Enabled Work in Rural Regions

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Jenna BurrellAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Volume 28, Issue 3

Article No.: 17, Pages 1 - 22

https://doi.org/10.1145/3443705

Published: 03 July 2021 Publication History

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Abstract

This article draws on ethnographic research in three rural places in the Western United States to understand how rural workers incorporate the Internet into their work practices. We find two key, divergent types of work in rural areas that leverage the Internet: (1) telework and (2) work to market and sell goods and services online. We consider why these two forms of Internet-enabled work are pursued by different segments of the rural population, attending to the socio-demographic variation within and between these two broad categories. Some key differences include whether workers are urban transplants or rural-originating, in “white-collar” or “blue-collar” occupations, and whether they are men or women. We argue that deficit framings that focus on inadequate infrastructure or absent skills are insufficient to understand such patterns of differentiated use. Instead a sociocultural explanation is needed: one that draws connections between work cultures, occupational values, skills, and practices.

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Cited By

Nikolaev D(2024)SYSTEMATIC REVIEW: OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS TO ONLINE MARKETING CAUSED BY THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNET OF THINGSBusiness: Theory and Practice10.3846/btp.2024.1920325:1(36-50)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2024.19203
Johnson IVlachokyriakos V(2024)Socio-digital Rural Resilience: An Exploration of Information Infrastructures Within and Across Rural Villages During Covid-19Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36374008:CSCW1(1-30)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637400
Sayago SSayago S(2023)The Operationalization of Culture in HCICultures in Human-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-031-30243-5_5(53-69)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30243-5_5
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

A Sociocultural Explanation of Internet-Enabled Work in Rural Regions
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Empirical studies in HCI
    2. HCI theory, concepts and models
2. Social and professional topics
  1. User characteristics

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction Volume 28, Issue 3

June 2021

217 pages

ISSN:1073-0516

EISSN:1557-7325

DOI:10.1145/3468442

Editor:
Kristina Höök
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

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Copyright © 2021 Owner/Author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 03 July 2021

Accepted: 01 December 2020

Revised: 01 October 2020

Received: 01 May 2020

Published in TOCHI Volume 28, Issue 3

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Cited By

Nikolaev D(2024)SYSTEMATIC REVIEW: OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS TO ONLINE MARKETING CAUSED BY THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNET OF THINGSBusiness: Theory and Practice10.3846/btp.2024.1920325:1(36-50)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2024.19203
Johnson IVlachokyriakos V(2024)Socio-digital Rural Resilience: An Exploration of Information Infrastructures Within and Across Rural Villages During Covid-19Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36374008:CSCW1(1-30)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637400
Sayago SSayago S(2023)The Operationalization of Culture in HCICultures in Human-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-3-031-30243-5_5(53-69)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30243-5_5
Rubambiza GSengers PWeatherspoon H(2022)Seamless Visions, Seamful Realities: Anticipating Rural Infrastructural Fragility in Early Design of Digital AgricultureProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517579(1-15)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3517579
Hashim GBakar ASabar AMahiyuddin H(2021)Aligning the Strategies for the Public University Workforces WFH Performance during the Coronavirus CrisisAsian Journal of Environment-Behaviour Studies10.21834/ajebs.v6i20.3946:20(1-13)Online publication date: 31-Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.21834/ajebs.v6i20.394

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