Rural places are often presented as “left behind”, especially when it comes to technology. But is that really the case?

The Intersection of Things podcast interviewed Ashleigh Weeden (PhD Candidate, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, University of Guelph) in a feature episode about the intersections of the rural and the digital. The interview covers questions about rural data, and what it might mean for national security, different innovations that cities are copying from rural places, insights into what robotics in agriculture can tell us about privacy and questions about whether people more ‘free’ outside urban places, plus some interesting observations about what Queer Eye and Taylor Swift tell us about rural representation, and when sunflowers need to hide from social media.

To listen to the podcast, click here – or find it on Spotify, SoudCloud, Stitcher, or other podcasting platforms.

The interview is part of a series being undertaken by Marianela Ramos Capelo and Ruth Coustick-Deal to profile recipients of the inaugural Digital Justice Lab Community Grants. Ashleigh received a grant from the Digital Justice Lab to investigate how the resistance to ‘smart city’ projects in major urban centres might translate in rural contexts. The work produced from this grant will be featured in a forthcoming collection on ‘The Right to be Rural’, edited by Dr. Karen Foster (Dalhousie University) and Dr. Jennifer Jarman (Lakehead University).