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PURPOSE & SCOPE
Many dimensions of the new economy adversely affect the health and well-being of rural
Canadians. Traced over the past decade, physical and emotional stresses have followed from
the downsizing and/or collapse of primary industries, inadequate safety provisions for new
workplaces, a reduction in social services, increased under and un-employment, and a
consequent out-migration from traditional communities. Atlantic coastal communities have
suffered from the combined forces of environmental change (climate warming) and human
mismanagement (such as over-fishing), as well as from socio-economic policies imposed from
beyond their sphere of influence. The economic and social survival and sustainability of
these communities have become the goals of governments, non-governmental organizations,
and many private and public institutions.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a central role in the policy and
planning that accompany the new economy. While the viability of ICT is discussed widely,
experiments in implementation are in their infancy within rural communities.
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This research,
through dialogue with all participants involved in an existing ICT initiative,
investigates the impact of new technologies on economic development, education, and health
care within five coastal towns and villages of Newfoundland. The communities, devastated
since the closure of the cod fishery in 1992, struggle to diversify and develop new
businesses, provide adequate schooling and adult training for a shrinking population, and
accommodate stresses brought about by economic and cultural change.
This study builds upon previous research that identifies a) successful experiments in
economic diversity, school-community interactions, and the application of technologies in
inter-community communication b) differences in community planning along gendered lines,
and c) a "digital divide" between the genders in the use and accessibility of
technology. It also builds on partnerships and other linkages established by the committee
that planned, staffed, and funded the existing ICT project. The study takes its
theoretical bearings from the history of technology and its rationality which, while
embracing the benefits of control enabled by technological advances, warns of the tendency
to divide ends from means and - of most importance
- people from their own desires about
the future.
Research questions address values held by people in traditional communities, and their
ability to define, modify and apply these in the face of socio-economic and cultural
change. A major purpose is to assess, with the people involved, the overall impact of ICT
on the social services named above.
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