ICT, JOB SEEKING AND THE ‘RURAL TECHNOLOGY GAP’
Introduction
Policy makers and service providers in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have
increasingly come to view information and communication technologies (ICT), and
particularly the Internet, as an important tool in providing disadvantaged groups and
areas with access to information, services and markets that would otherwise be
inaccessible (DTI, 2000; NTIA, 2000; ILO, 2001). Public and third sector agencies are
turning to ICT in an attempt to widen access to official information and services, and
provide new gateways to education and employment (Servon and Nelson, 2001). Beyond
the provision of basic services, it has also been argued that the Internet has the capacity
to supplement social capital and improve ‘connectivity’ and networking between and
within communities (Patterson and Wilson, 2000; Wellman, 2001).
This paper specifically examines the current and potential role of ICT as a tool for
providing job search services and social networking opportunities for unemployed people
in rural labour markets. Drawing on the results of a survey of 489 registered unemployed
people in two areas of Scotland (one a very remote rural labour market, the other peri-
urban) the paper discusses the job search methods deployed by individuals and their
attitudes towards, and experience of using ICT. The paper seeks to investigate the extent
to which ICT-based services for the unemployed offer a realistic alternative to the face-
to-face information and advice provided by the UK government’s employment service,
through its ‘Jobcentre Plus’ network. It also discusses the implications of the absence of
these formal services in more remote rural areas, and in particular the extensive use of
informal job search methods (especially social networks) which can further exclude the