Smartification and digitalization processes mark an ongoing societal change with important geographical implications. By ideally contributing to a more sustainable, innovative and healthier life, smartification is attributed many potentials for the future development of places. Mainly developed in urban context, we focus on the question if these promises hold true for rural areas?

The session critically engages with the prospects of smartification and digitalization in rural contexts. Moving beyond dominant readings of smartification as rather technology-, market- and urban-based, the session turns to interpretations of ‘smart’ in rural realities, paying particular attention to impacts on inequalities and processes of exclusion. Despite recently receiving more academic attention, smart rurality has often been under-recognized and subjected to an urban smartification blueprint that does not necessarily fit rural realities or undermines their agency in locally (re)interpreting smartification. Our session thus proposes to focus on the possible socio-spatial divides smartification strategies are embedded in and questions to what extend smartification strategies incl. “smart specialization”, “smart social innovations”, or “smart village/countryside” initiatives can overcome or are further perpetuating these.

We welcome both theoretical and inspiring empirical studies that contribute to a new conceptualization of smartification in non-urban contexts. The panel is meant as a discussion forum as well as a platform to bring together recent research in the field and open opportunities for future collaborations. In particular, we invite: