Education in place
Rural schools between local realities and Global horizons
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21577903 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Erlandson (0000-0003-0428-0233, Linnaeus University, corresponding author), Ninni Wahlström (0000-0001-5554-6041, Linnaeus University), Anne Kjellsdotter (0000-0003-1229-1987, Linnaeus University), Ulrika Bossér (0000-0003-4452-0617, Linnaeus University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 136 |
| Pages | 102893 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Educational Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0883-0355 • E-ISSN: 1873-538X |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102893 |
| OpenAlex | W4417409928 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 29 |
The aim of this article is to synthesise and advance current knowledge on the conditions and challenges of rural education in contemporary Sweden, with particular attention to how processes of digitalisation and globalisation shape educational practices and possibilities in rural communities. Drawing on qualitative data material, the study shows how place functions as an active force shaping educational opportunities: organisational closeness creates cohesion but also dependence, social embeddedness provides continuity yet limits aspirations, and geographical distance both constrains and stimulates innovation. Digitalisation appears as a pragmatic tool, a generational condition, and a structural response to isolation, offering new opportunities but also reinforcing inequalities when infrastructures fail. Culture is revealed as contested, oscillating between municipal strategies of high culture and families’ everyday practices that shape children’s belonging and place-based forms of belonging and recognition (Massey, 1994, 2017). Structural inequalities – of resources, geography, and technology – emerge as decisive conditions rather than temporary barriers. Using Massey’s relational notion of place, including her concepts of power-geometry and spatial divisions of labour (Massey, 1994), the study concludes that rural schools must be understood as situated arenas where local and global processes intersect
Closeness · Corporate governance · Embeddedness · Futures contract · Global city · Globalization · Inequality · Education in Rural Contexts · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Rural development and sustainability
Constructing and Reconstructing the “Rural School Problem”
Critical Ethnographies of Education and for Social and Educational Transformation
Definitions, measures, and uses of rurality
Educational endeavors in a rural society –an example from a small community in Sweden
Generation alpha in a Rural Swedish community
Teaching in the present for the future – addressing local and global challenges in a rural school
Family involvement in creative teaching practices for all in small rural schools
Popular education, youth and peasant agroecology in Brazil
Nuancing the commercial counterurbanisation debate
Community and the education market
Village schools as a hub in the community - A time-geographical analysis of the closing of two rural schools in southern Sweden
The political effects of rural school closures – Evidence from Sweden
Young people's career choices in Swedish rural contexts
The role of social capital in adoption of risky versus less risky subsidized input supplies
The Determinants of Nonfarm Activities and Incomes of Rural Households in Mexico, with Emphasis on Education
Understanding the complexity of Chinese rural parents’ roles in their children’s access to elite universities
Tracing variations within ‘rural habitus’
Time for ethnography
Rural schools, social capital and the Big Society
The Influences of Family and Place on Rural Adolescents’ Educational Aspirations and Post-secondary Enrollment
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |