PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2009, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (5): 759-766.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2009.05.014

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress in Geographical Studies of Rural Informationalization

DING Jianghui1,2|LIU Weidong1   

  1. 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China;
    2. Faculty of Resources and Environment Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050016, China
  • Online:2009-09-25 Published:2009-09-25

Abstract:

New information and communication technologies (ICTs) have profoundly changed our social and economic life, which initiates a lot of debates among geographers on the implications of new ICTs application. It is now widely recognized that the development of new ICTs bears much on regional configuration. However, existing researches have concentrated on urban rather than rural areas. Compared to rapid changes in the rural areas caused by the application of new ICTs, geographers' studies on the subject have lagged far behind. Based on a review of existing literature on rural informationalization, this paper calls for more attention from geographers to rural spatial transformation under new ICTs. It first reviews existing research in the field from three aspects, i.e. theoretical debates on rural informationalization, economic implications and social implications of new ICTs application for the rural areas, and then proposes several topics to study in the future, such as the features of rural informationalization, enterprise-based case studies of the spatial implications of new ICTs application, etc.

Key words: new information and communication technologies, research progress, rural areas