The development of digital technology across the globe has taken place at considerable speed; however, this has not been at an even pace within all places (Graham, 2011, Philip et al., 2015, Riddlesden and Singleton, 2014). There has been a fundamental unevenness to the delivery of digital technology in all its forms that has been shaped by existing geographic and social inequalities (Graham et al., 2012, Townsend et al., 2013) and has, in turn, shaped the characteristics of new inequalities. This special issue critically explores how, in different rural spaces, the delivery and use of digital technologies differs massively and how this can impact on the ability of rural communities to be resilient in an increasingly digital world. In following the multiple variations in availability, accessibility, quality and use of digital technologies in rural communities, this special issue highlights how different rural communities have, first, been significantly disadvantaged by slow delivery of post-dial up (‘narrow band’or ‘first generation’) Internet telecommunications infrastructure and, second, going beyond an infrastructure-based narrative we evidence how rural communities have utilised pre-existing resilience to help improve their ability to maintain and improve social and economic relations where telecommunications infrastructure development has failed to keep pace with national and international advances.

This special issue originates from a Working Group convened at the 25th Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology, 2013, organised by researchers from the RCUK dot. rural Digital Economy Hub at the University of Aberdeen. The Working Group brought together European-based scholars concerned with the level of broadband infrastructure available to rural communities in the context of the European Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE). This translated at that time, across many countries, as the market-led roll out of Superfast Broadband. Papers presented at the Congress explored the types and degrees of disadvantage associated with the lack of access to broadband infrastructure and technologies that rural–particularly remote–communities experience and the ways they seek to overcome the challenges arising from barriers to fit for purpose Internet access and associated relative disadvantage. In this special issue contributions from those who participated in the 2013 ESRS Congress are joined by contributions from other, non-European, scholars to lend a more international perspective, albeit one that focuses on the global North.