Introduction
Despite almost a quarter of the world’s population living in rural areas, rural focused CSCW makes up a tiny fraction of published CSCW research and design. When CSCW work does focus on the rural there are issues with the way rurality is identified and understood and limitations in the approaches to research and design in rural contexts. Building on a recent increased interest in rural informatics, which has drawn on social science scholarship to take stock of previous rural research and set an agenda for rural computing, we aim to identify opportunities for CSCW research to engage with rural issues and foster a rural informatics community of practice. As the world relies ever more on rural areas and the importance of information technology to rural resilience is ever more apparent, the need to innovate and design from the rural must become more central to CSCW.
This workshop took place at the ECSCW 2025 conference in Newcastle upon Tyne on the 1st July.
The aim of this workshop was to provide researchers and practitioners interested in rural CSCW and rural computing an opportunity to discuss future directions and share insights, ideas, and issues from different rural contexts. It facilitated cross-disciplinary and cross-sector discussion, sharing, and understanding on current issues, research, and community development work. The workshop created an opportunity to collaboratively set pathways and approaches for a rural informatics research agenda. As a result of the workshop we began to put together an action plan to orient future activity around key rural challenges where CSCW researchers could have the biggest impact.
Workshop Themes
The overall aim of this workshop was to create a plan of action for future rural informatics research briding sociological considerations (i.e. that has a good understanding of the challenges) with computing (i.e. what are the technological potentials for sustainable and resilient rural communities). We explored: what approaches are required in rural contexts? What can we learn from prior CSCW work and its breakdowns? What additional complexities are there when designing technologies in, for, with, and from the rural?
We suggested five broad topics for discussion, that cover the ontological nature (how the rural came to be), epistemological questions (how we know and understand the rural) and methodological questions (how we intervene as researchers and designers) relevant to rural computing research:
- Approaching the rural: Why rural? Establishing motivations and inspirations.
- Defining the rural: Who is rural? Identities, characteristics, and positionality.
- Imagining the rural: Where is the rural? Contexts, boundaries, and discourses; there is no single vantage point from which to see the rural whole; so, we need to reflect upon the lenses (e.g. academic, media, lay), and frames that we privilege, bypass, draw from, start from or end with.
- Re-imagining the rural: When is the rural? How could different lenses and frames of rural identities be used to re-imagine the rural?
- Re-making the rural: How rural? Setting out approaches, methods, and priorities.
Materials
Participants were given partially pre-filled "workbooks" to provide some structure to the discussions and activities.
Participants
Eleven people participated in our hybrid workshop - three online and eight in person.
Participants were invited to give short "lightning" presentations of around 3-5 mins to introduce themselves and their experiences of working in rural settings.
 |
Thomas Ludwig | Broad-based Digital Transformation: A South Westphalian Perspective on Participatory Socio-Technical Change |
 |
Sharon Wagg | Digital Inclusion Network Development: A Case Study In Derbyshire |
 |
Philipp Rutz | Transformation of the Automotive Industry in German Rural Regions |
 |
Antti Knutas | Energy Interface Design Principle Prioritization Workshop (for Rural Finnish Households) |
 |
Sven Hoffmann | Convergence of Digitalisation and Circular Economy |
 |
Alan Dix | Tiree Tech Waves |
 |
Volker Wulf | |
 |
Claudia Müller |
From themes to (goals to) actions
Participants broke out into groups to identify goals for three key themes in rural CSCW research.
Energy
In response to skyrocketing energy prices, rural communities across Europe are forming renewable energy communities and energy production cooperatives, sometimes inspired by historic traditional models of collaboration. These efforts face practical challenges in the form of old and poorly insulated housing, energy grids unable to deal with additional capacity, and renewable generation technologies that do not meet energy demand patterns. However, the greatest challenges arise when dealing with the complex regulatory requirements, which can be very resource intensive. Participants discussed how future CSCW research on energy usage could shift away from its previous focus on individual behaviour change to instead focus on building community capacity for collective action on energy.
Culture
Cultural barriers between researchers and rural communities presents a signficant challenge to successful participatory research with rural communities beyond existing partner organisations. Participants identified methodoligical challenges to accessing rural field sites and the necessity of forming long term reciprocal relationships with rural partners. In particular, there is a need for "polyvocality" in rural research to represent the diversity of the rural. Participants set a goal for future researcher to bridge the cultural differences between researchers and rural collaborators, acknowledging that this would require more of a focus on digital inclusion opportunities and accessibility.
Fragility
Fragility was identified as a theme linking infrastructure, technology, human networks, policy and culture in the rural. Participants identified the need to appreciate the complex and multi-faceted nature of smaller groups and the emergent practices resulting from their internal power dynamics. Participants advocated a focus on the particular needs of the rural context by developing concerns from the people that are being worked with, rather than general understandings and assumptions about rurality as a whole.
Plan
After briefly feeding back as a group, further small group discussions then envisaged possible actions that could be taken by the rural CSCW community to further the previously identified goals.
This Miro board represents a first attempt by the organisers to group these actions into a plan and a resource for future research. As it stands the plan is a work in progress, intended to stimulate further discussions and collaborations around rural computing.
Next steps
The success of this workshop revealed the potential of the rural to bring together different researchers and approaches from CSCW and other fields to address practical issues and to tangibly improve the every day lives of marginalised and under-resourced communities. We look forward to further developing our action plan and the rural informatics community, not least through running successor workshops at future conferences.
Organisers
Ben is a first year PhD student exploring the design and use of digital technologies for rural communities. He is interested in how social and technological infrastructures support information sharing and civic participation, and in the potential for socio-technical innovations to support rural resilience.
Ian is a Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction and Community Technologies at Open Lab, Newcastle University. He has a background in the social sciences and his PhD in Digital Civics was interdisciplinary across the School of Politics and the School of Computing. Ian’s research, published in CHI and CSCW, has investigated the role of the researcher, and stakeholder power and influence during technology deployments related to local decision-making, explored the interplay between data, knowledge and evidence in local-level policymaking, on the creation of spaces for civic discourse, and on the way citizen-led organizations can create resources for democratic action through configuring participation during local consultation.
Nick is a Senior Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction in Open Lab at Newcastle University. His research attempts to understand the impact of emerging technologies and practices, and to imagine, prototype and explore possible preferable futures around those technologies. Much of this work has focused on the role of technology in communities, including longitudinal technology deployments in rural Lancashire.
Alan is a Principal Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham, in the Mixed Reality Lab, Computer Science. His research focuses upon interdisciplinary approaches to Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Design. He has published award-winning research in the leading conferences in the field, such as CHI and CSCW. He continues to work internationally and is a visiting Professor at Copenhagen Business School, and Aberystwyth University, where he is developing interdisciplinary research initiatives relating to Design, AI, Robotics and ‘Rural Informatics’.
Contact
For more information, please contact Ben (b.davies7@newcastle.ac.uk) or Ian (ian.johnson2@newcastle.ac.uk).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through the Turing AI World Leading Researcher Fellowship in Somabotics: Creatively Embodying Artificial Intelligence [grant number APP22478], AI UK: Creating an International Ecosystem for Responsible AI Research and Innovation [EP/Y009800/1] (RAI UK/RAKE) and the STAHR Collective
