Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Using The Morphogenetic Model To Examine Broadband Adoption: A Critical Realist Argument, Paul Jackson, Philip Dobson, Denise Gengatharen

Denise E Gengatharen

In this paper we use Archer’s morphogenetic model (Archer, 1995) to help explain community attitudes and expectations of adoption of broadband in rural communities in Australia. Broadband infrastructure is currently being implemented throughout Australia as part of a government backed National Broadband Network (NBN). Attitudes to this “nation building project” are deeply divided along political, ideological and demographic lines: some see it as transformational, others as a white elephant. Some anticipate great benefits, others would not bother to subscribe. Given this situation and the ambivalent results in other countries with similar programs, we propose to use critical realism as a …