Rural Work, Rural Workers or Working in the Rural?

Digitalisation combined with preferences for living in rural areas has created opportunities for people to work in rural areas. This chapter explores the different types of work carried out in rural areas and the implications for wider rural economies. Korsgaard et al.’s ( International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 21 (1), 5–26, 2015) research on rural entrepreneurship provides the conceptual foundation to explore three categories of “rural work”, “rural workers” and “working in the rural” where individuals are more or less embedded in their localities. This raised questions about the links between different groups of people who work in rural areas and the role of facilities like coworking spaces in creating new network connections. While coworking spaces have traditionally been associated with freelance workers and self-employed entrepreneurs, the growth of “working in the rural” among employees is diversifying the market for these ventures. These changes also indicate that coworking spaces are simultaneously part of the consumption economy, satisfying demands for a rural work-life balance, as well as the production economy, providing facilities and networks to boost business performance. Prima facie , this represents an opportunity for rural economic renaissance with more skilled workers spending more time in their localities, but these opportunities are unevenly spread across rural regions.