OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION on "Smart Villages Policies: Past, Present and Future"

The new open access publication "Smart Villages Policies: Past, Present and Future" is available
Highlighting the important role of rural development, this paper represents a review of rural policies. Data were generated, including a broad literature research and online survey on existing and future, post-2020 rural development policies. The survey was shared among project partners from six different EU Member States including eleven regions, all from the Alpine Space. The number of total policies covered in this review paper, together with policy projects, programs or actions, is 114. Based on these, key policy findings and future recommendations are provided, attributing to the future studies on this topic as well as for policymakers at the local, regional, national and EU levels.
PUBLICATION By by Simona Stojanova, Gianluca Lentini, Peter Niederer, Thomas Egger, Nina Cvar, Andrej Kos and Emilija Stojmenova Duh
E. Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1663.
INTERNATIONAL POLICY CONFERENCE on line "Smart villages: Policies needed for a smart transition of rural areas" - PRESENTATIONS AVAILABLE
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The SmartVillages Story: From Eusalp to SmartVillages and back by Thomas Egger, Director Center for mountain regions (SAB)
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EUSALP priorities, pillars and initiatives
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Official welcome by Maria Lezzi, Director of the Swiss Federal office for Spatial Development ARE
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Smart villages: keywords, visions and results
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The Interreg Alpine Space SMARTVillages Project, an overview by Peter Niederer (SAB)
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SMARTVillages project: aims, activities, pilot areas and tools
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Presentation of a SmartVillage, the Local Hero concept in Slovenia by Emilija Stojmenova, University of Ljublijana
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Pilot activities and good practices from Slovenia
Assessing and rating the level of smartness of mountain areas by the use of Electre Tri - The pilot case of the ongoing Alpine Space project SmartVillages

SmartVillages Project Partner Poliedra has submitted an abstract to the Euro Working Group on Multi Criteria decision Aiding 2019 meeting, entitled "Assessing and rating the level of smartness of mountain areas by the use of Electre Tri: the pilot case of the ongoing Alpine Space project SmartVillages" by Lentini, Polettini, Luè and Colorni Vitale. The abstract has been accepted as a 'discussion paper' and will be part of the proceedings of the EWG-MCDA 2019 meeting.
OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION on "Smart Villages: Comperhensive Review of Initiatives and Practices"

The new open access publication "Smart Villages: Comperhensive Review of Initiatives and Practices" is available
Over recent decades, people’s (rural and urban) communities are facing numerous social and economic changes and challenges. Some of those challenges have been increasingly addressed through the lenses of technological developments and digitalization. In this paper, we have made a review of already existing practices while focusing on the existing implementations of the Smart Village concept and the importance of digital transformation for rural areas. We give special attention to EU policies that we are using as an already existing framework for understanding our own forthcoming examples. We have shown the parallels between the findings and insights from different regions and made an evaluation of presented practices. Our main argument stems from our own previous experiences and experiences of other research approaches, and is grounded on the argument that rural areas are not uniform, and that smart rural development has to be applied in combination with place-based approach. We present the cases of Slovenian pilot practices and support our argument by proposing the FabVillage concept.
PUBLICATION By Veronika Zavratnik, V.; Kos, A.; Emilija Stojmenova Duh,. Sustainability 2018, 10, 2559.Zavratnik, V.; Kos, A.; Stojmenova Duh, E. Sustainability 2018, 10, 2559.