scholarly journals Towards a multiscalar perspective on the prospects of ‘the actually existing smart village’ – a view from Hungary

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-112
Author(s):  
Ádám Szalai ◽  
Krisztina Varró ◽  
Szabolcs Fabula
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Local Scale ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Integrated Rural Development ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Policies And Practices

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.

Conditionality and Homelessness Services; ‘Practice Realities’ in a Drop-in Centre

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael Dobson
Keyword(s):  
Study Analysis ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Support Practices ◽  
And Control ◽  
Policies And Practices

This article provides insights into the client−practitioner interaction, as understood through the eyes of those working at the front-line in a Drop-in Centre for homeless clients. Through a case-study analysis of ‘official’ techniques and informal approaches, it is argued that conditional practices are present in contemporary support practices. However, the picture is fragmented, with practitioners arguing for, but also deviating from, conditional strategies that aspire to shape client behaviour. Choices about appropriate responses are occasionally permeated by ‘top−down’ policy messages that aim to responsibilise and generate change in clients. However there is evidence of ‘bottom−up’ drivers informed by experiences of working with clients at the grassroots. These ‘practice realities’ shift an analysis of conditional tactics from just a moralising and disciplining approach, and suggest a more complex set of events at the front-line. Insights add to ongoing commentary about an apparent policy emphasis on rectifying the behaviour of citizens at the sharp end. Conclusions highlight the role of complexity for understanding therapeutic and disciplining elements in policies and practices. Such debates are especially relevant where they connect to the care and control of individuals understood by practitioners as both transgressive and vulnerable.

Towards a ‘transverse inter-sectoral debate’? A Case Study of the Rural Partnership Programme (RPP) in Post-Socialist Lithuania

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Áine Macken-Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Development Model ◽  
Rural Setting ◽  
Integrated Rural Development

Towards a ‘transverse inter-sectoral debate’? A Case Study of the Rural Partnership Programme (RPP) in Post-Socialist Lithuania By providing a forum for collaboration between diverse stakeholders, a main aim of the governance and rural development model is to ignite a representative and transverse inter-sectoral debate in relation to local development issues. This article identifies some of the determinants that arise in the transferability of the governance and rural development model from its conventional operational context of free-market liberal democracy to the post-socialist rural setting of the Ukmerge district in Lithuania, where a Rural Partnership Programme (RPP) was implemented (2003-2005). The analysis focuses specifically on how elements of the post-socialist context and other more case-specific aspects of the RPP's operation impacted on the inter-sectoral dynamics of the RPP partnership board's operation. The attitudes of the sectoral representatives towards the RPP as a model for representative and integrated rural development are explored.

Sociology of Decision-making: A Case Study of Integrated Rural Development Programme in Pakistan

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-114
Author(s):  
Ajmal Waheed ◽  
Rana Rashid Rehman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Rural Development ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Rural Development Programme ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Integrated Rural Development ◽  
Micro Level

This study deals with describing and analyzing the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) in Pakistan.1 Its main objective is to elucidate some of the subtle obstacles that hindered the project from reaching its full potential. In this regard, formulation, implementation and evaluation of different development programmes at gross-root level are discussed. Therein, certain managerial issues, such as participation at gross-root level, coordination, cooperation, motivation, commitment, self-help, delivery of services at rural areas, political intervention and bureaucratic hurdles, are brought at forefront by citing few examples in which challenges have been faced more prominently and which can be used for classroom discussion. One of the critical obstacles relevant to the understanding of this programme, as many others, involves a focus on the sociology of decision-making. It is hoped that the case study would facilitate the readers to have an understanding of the rural development process in Pakistan at a micro level.

Urban Technological Innovation: Developing and Testing a Sociotechnical Framework for Studying Smart City Projects

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Meijer ◽  
Marcel Thaens
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Instrumental Value ◽  
Living Lab ◽  
The Social ◽  
Symbolic Value ◽  
Urban Problems

Urban technological innovation—the innovative use of technologies to tackle urban problems—has become increasingly popular under the label smart city. Our understanding of this sociotechnical process is limited, and therefore, this article develops a framework on the basis of the literature on social and technological innovation. This framework identifies four perspectives—a technological, an instrumental, a collaborative, and a symbolic perspective—to generate a comprehensive account of urban technological innovation. The value of the framework is tested by using it to analyze the Living Lab Stratumseind in Eindhoven (the Netherlands). The case highlights the value of the framework and demonstrates the interactions between the social and technological dimensions. The case study suggests that, for successful urban technological innovation, it is crucial to link initial enthusiasm based on technological and symbolic value to the long-term dynamics of institutionalized collaboration and instrumental value.

scholarly journals Path dependency when prioritising disaster and humanitarian response under high levels of conflict: a qualitative case study in South Sudan

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Mena ◽  
Dorothea Hilhorst
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Humanitarian Response ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Priority Needs

AbstractIn high-conflict scenarios, humanitarian needs often surpass resources, and humanitarians are faced with ongoing challenges of whom to prioritise and where to work. This process is often referred to as ‘targeting’, but this article uses the concept of ‘triage’ to emphasise how prioritisation is a continuous and political process, rather than a one-off exercise to find the best match between needs and programme objectives. This study focused on South Sudan, exploring the formal and informal dynamics at the national, regional and local levels of humanitarian decisions. The article is based on semi-structured interviews and multiple meetings and observations of programmes over four months of fieldwork in 2017. This fieldwork was beset by many of the problems that humanitarians also encounter in their work, including complicated access, logistics difficulties and security challenges. Humanitarian action is meant to be flexibly deployed to respond to priority needs resulting from conflict or disasters, and agencies have multiple tools and policies to facilitate this. However, in reality, we find humanitarian action largely locked into path-dependent areas of intervention because agencies must rely on logistics, trust and local partners, all of which take years to develop, and because local actors’ commitment to see programmes continued.

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