@John, you are not very far away from my country.  The same issue of remoteness is often raised as a reason why students in rural areas do not achieve education objectives or perform as well as students in urban areas who have several advantages and are better connected.

"Title : Bridging the Gap in Academic Achievement of Rural-Urban Primary and Secondary Schools in Malaysia

Consultant : World Bank

Year : 2006

This study had suggested various policies and programmes that will help to bridge the gap in academic achievement of rural-urban primary and secondary schools in Malaysia. There is the review on factors determining academic achievement of rural-urban primary and secondary schools in Malaysia and international best-practice strategies.  The study had suggested various policies and programmes that may bridge the gap in academic achievement of rural-urban primary and secondary schools in Malaysia."

http://www.epu.gov.my/en/bridging-the-gap-in-academic-achievement-of-rural-urban-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-malaysia

This question is linked more to the social and cultural aspects of the target rural community. In certain part of the world such as middle east, Bedouins (pastoralists) prefer having a way of life away from cities (pollution, noise, traffic congestion, etc.). So this will depend rather on the culture than economic factor.

Here is a paper that may be useful to challenge that belief.  Let me paraphrase slightly: Remoteness may not be a disadvantage since a land-locked region may attract a larger share of firms.

Geographical remoteness is a disadvantage to the people living in rural or f the area isolates.Yes this was a fact in the earlier period but should not be considered for totality in our present time .

Roads are developed ,distance ,bus service are plying & education institute have also developed to the need of the area & as such rural & isolated people may certainly take advantage of such modern facility.

Besides for the purpose of education a deserving student can get quite good facility in the form scholarship  so that such student can also take advantage for their higher education .

Apart from education ,hospital facilities a near by place & service of the be to for doctors also may be available even though not near by but due to the transport facility. The same is true for marketing

 in this line with the inconvenient & the time factor ,the people can certainly make their requirements.

Geographical remoteness is a disadvantage to the people living in rural or f the area isolates.Yes this was a fact in the earlier period but should not be considered for totality in our present time .

Roads are developed ,distance ,bus service are plying & education institute have also developed to the need of the area & as such rural & isolated people may certainly take advantage of such modern facility.

Besides for the purpose of education a deserving student can get quite good facility in the form scholarship  so that such student can also take advantage for their higher education .

Apart from education ,hospital facilities a near by place & service of the be to for doctors also may be available even though not near by but due to the transport facility. The same is true for marketing

 in this line with the inconvenient & the time factor ,the people can certainly make their requirements.

Thanks for these responses especially the paper Miranda. That's interesting. Mounir, I take your point about preference and culture too. And the points about access are ones I tend to agree with Rohit. The argument I hear in Australia at least its that it is because people are remote that they die younger and have fewer opportunities for employment and it costs more to deliver services there, so they must be disadvantaged BECAUSE of the remoteness. I'm just not sure that is quite right.

Hi John - this might be a little off track but George Megalogenis's article entitled '10 Towns that Don't Work' in The Australian 22/4/2006 revealed many non-Indigenous communities classified as 'remote' and issues they had and hence that the discursive construction as remote towns= Indigenous = dysfunction was racialised and spurious. Not quite what you're asking but is a classic piece all the same on the negativity rather than evidence surrounding notions of 'remote'. Dillon and Westbury (Beyong Humbug) have a little in this vein also. Interesting discussion above!! 

Thanks Deidre, I'll see if I can track that article down! I'll take a look at the humbug one too! Much appreciated.

I seem to recall recent news articles that ranked rural/remote people as being happier, despite the many negatives. I did not keep any reference to it because it was more generalist in nature, lifestyle interest rather than academic interest.

Because I live in a rural/remote area I was interested, and it certainly would explain why we have hesitated, despite reason dictating otherwise, to move to a regional city (the big smoke of Townsville).

Not sure if that helps, but if there were better services and opportunities, remote areas would double in population I suspect.

Exactly, Lorraine! My contention is that there are lots of advantages of living in remote places but these often aren't considered. The disadvantage might be more about the lack of services than the place itself.

thanks for the link James. Will check it out.

There is a vast amount of literature in the regional studies and economic geography fields that pertains to regional differences between large urban dominated regional areas to that of peripheral regional-rural areas. If we are talking about economic disadvantage there is broad discussion about the institutional thinness of regional areas - refer to authors Todling and Trippl. I am working on innovation regional areas and economic development - the premise is that non-urban or city regional areas are more innovative than lagging or peripheral regions.

interesting premise that I'd be interested in following up Carl. I'm not so much concerned about economic disadvantage as I am about the proposition of locational disadvantage (if indeed there is such a thing) though, at least on the basis of remoteness from metropolitan areas. Conventional wisdom suggests that rural and remote locations are more disadvantaged than metropolitan locations. What I want to know is on what empirical basis this might or might not be the case. I suspect it is not on the basis of geography.

Geography is only one factor today, there are many other considerations - they are referred to a proximity dimensions in the economic geography field - often this is written in context of knowledge, innovation and learning capacity of regions to be innovative, competitive and productive....Human Capital or Cognitive proximity is often a good indicator or regional capacity to have strong economic growth...refer also to the Regional Australia Institute web site and also OECD and EU on regional wellbeing. Also ABS have a wide range of regional datasets.

I can see how that works well in regional contexts, but I wonder how it works in remote Indigenous communities. How might local understandings of knowledge, innovation and learning capacity, innovation, competition and productivity be interpreted through indicators created with metrocentric epistemology and ontology?

Ok, not sure - possible a completely different narrative.....good luck!

My colleagues' and my recent paper discusses the potential for people to have very moving experiences during prolonged occupation of the remote Antarctic landscape.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/area.12217/abstract

now that is remote! thanks Crystal. I'll take a look.

http://www.nistads.res.in/indiasnt2008/t6rural/t6rur3.htm

http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0615/ijsrp-p4294.pdf

just go through these papers these are based on case studies in india which will help to you 

http://www.islandstudies.ca/sites/islandstudies.ca/files/ISJ-9-2-Grydehoj-Intro.pdf

https://islanddynamics.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/relative-rurality/

in the context of european isolated island context, ideas of isolation adn rurality are challenged and examined

Eirini, thanks for your papers on islands. I like the idea of relative isolation. It does help explain different perceptions about remoteness, depending on the context. Meena, thanks too for your papers. I'm not sure that these papers challenge the notion of remoteness as disadvantage though, unless I have missed something?