Open AccessTowards a multiscalar perspective on the prospects of ‘the actually existing smart village’ – a view from Hungary
Author(s) -
Ádám Szalai,
Krisztina Varró,
Szabolcs Fabula
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
hungarian geographical bulletin
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.48
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 2064-5147
pISSN - 2064-5031
DOI - 10.15201/hungeobull.70.2.1
Subject(s) - scholarship , scope (computer science) , perspective (graphical) , political science , smart city , scale (ratio) , sociology , regional science , economic geography , geography , computer science , computer security , law , artificial intelligence , programming language , internet of things , cartography
This paper aims at expanding the scope of the dominantly pragmatic, local scale-oriented smart village scholarship towards a perspective that recognizes that smart village development is a multiscalar political process. To show the necessity of this move, the shaping of smart village policies and practices in Hungary is examined through a qualitative lens. As the authors argue, path-dependent structural obstacles and interscalar relations undermine the prospects of smart village building in the sense of bottom-up integrated rural development, and there is a risk of a bias towards technological innovation. This exploratory article, using Hungary as a case study, argues that smart village scholarship should draw on the results of critical smart city scholarship to acquire in-depth understanding of current debates regarding potential smart village developments.