It’s Not a Fad: Smart Cities and Smart Villages Research in European and Global Contexts

Research on smart cities matures, and new interdisciplinary approaches to the study of smart cities, is increasing. At the same time, problems pertinent to communities inhabiting rural areas are also addressed, as a part of discussions in neighboring fields of research, such as environmental studies...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2018-08, Vol.10 (8), p.2727
Main Authors: Visvizi, Anna, Lytras, Miltiadis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural policy
Cities
Common Agricultural Policy
Environmental studies
Information technology
Rural areas
Sociology
Sustainability
Villages
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Research on smart cities matures, and new interdisciplinary approaches to the study of smart cities, is increasing. At the same time, problems pertinent to communities inhabiting rural areas are also addressed, as a part of discussions in neighboring fields of research, such as environmental studies, sociology, and agriculture. Arguably, the concept of ‘the village’ has been largely absent in the academic debate, even if rural areas and countryside communities have been a subject of concern for robust policy frameworks, such as the European Union’s Cohesion Policy and Common Agricultural Policy. As a result, when advances in sophisticated information and communication technology (ICT) led to the emergence of a rich body of research on smart cities, the application and usability of ICT in the context of a village remained underdiscussed in the literature. Through this Special Issue, and the Editors’ earlier research on this topic, the Editors hope that the idea of the ‘smart village’ will be introduced into the debate. Against this backdrop, the objective of this opening review is three-fold: (i) to outline the conceptual boundaries of the term smart village, (ii) to highlight the thrust of the challenge inherent in smart villages research, and (iii) to shed light on the smart village research agenda as it unfolds. The relevance and validity of these claims are supported by references to research submitted to the Special Issue titled “Sustainable Smart Cities and Smart Villages Research”.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su10082727