Social Transparency in Rural Areas in Norway: Promoting or Restraining the Desire to Stay?

Abstract “Everyone knows everyone” is a recurring characteristic in descriptions of rural communities, one that has been interpreted as both a benefit and a drawback in research on such localities. In response to that discrepancy, this paper investigates the overall statistical effect of social transparency on residents’ desire to continue living in their rural communities. As revealed by analyses of survey data representing a national sample of Norway’s rural population in 2016, social transparency did significantly increase respondents’ desire to maintain residency in their rural communities. In providing and explaining such results, the paper contributes to current understandings of social conditions that influence rural (non-)migration and rural resilience.