Digital rurality: Producing the countryside in online struggles for rural survival

Morality of Discontent: The Constitution of Political Establishment in the Swedish Rural Press

“…However, many texts seem to be written in frustration, and, as we have shown, were constituted by a quite tough and demeaning rhetoric. In other contexts, uses of discourses of frustration have been understood as strategies of the underprivileged in struggles for recognition, and also as a kind of resistance (Vallström ; Lundgren and Johansson ). Regardless, and despite the moral standards that were required by politicians, the reported discontent with politicians displayed in itself a moral order that legitimated both highly emotional and sometimes quite categorical and demeaning language.…”

“…What does the mediated morality of discontent mean for how the conditions of rural areas can be understood, and what does it mean for future politics? Discontent with contemporary rural politics is expressed by people in many different contexts, not least on social media (Lundgren and Johansson ). Whether this discontent reflects real and generalisable experiences outside the media context must be left unsaid, but it has a couple of notable characteristics.…”

Adolescents and the ‘Instagramability’ of Places – An Explorative Study on Spatial Practices in Social Media

“…She concluded that this lack of representation has a real-world implication, namely that people using the 'explore' feature will see predominantly venues in white areas, leaving others invisible and therefore inscribing digital inequalities. Lundgren and Johansson (2017) took another approach to the production of space in social media, analysing how rural space is presented on Facebook. Their analysis revealed that rural space is portrayed as dying while at the same time also being very much alive, and that online activities like debates often coincided with offline activities like protests.…”

“…Although these studies deal with different platforms and answer different questions, there seem to be common notions of digital space that the platforms' users produce: space is curated. Individuals preserve well-chosen moments and train themselves to spot moments that are worthy of preservation (Boy & Uitermark, 2017;Lundgren & Johansson, 2017). Social media enable a transformation of aesthetics: places are shown from certain angles or through filters provided by the platforms or other applications (Boy & Uitermark, 2017;Kelley, 2013).…”

“No Tyson in Tongie!”: The Battle to Protect a Rural Way of Life in Kansas*

“…Traditional institutions, such as schools and churches, help create connections between new and established residents, but they are often insufficient. In such contexts, social media can bridge the relational gap between different groups of residents outraged by a disturbance to their rural way of life (Bennett and Segerberg 2013; Stern and Adams 2010; Tufekçi 2017).Rural residents' use of social media is slightly lower compared with suburban or urban residents (58 % vs 64 % of urban residents and 68 % of suburban residents) (Perrin 2015:9), but rural residents, particularly the middle class and those participating in local events, use the Internet to learn and engage with local groups and political events(Stern and Adams 2010:1408).Social media technologies enhance, build, and maintain bridging and bonding social networks(Tiwari, Lane, and Alam 2019), facilitating the creation of collective movements(Lundgren and Johansson 2017). The sharing of cultural frames across social and spatial divides through social media platforms further enables the expansion of mobilizations(Bennett and Segerberg 2013).…”