engleski

Smart urban–smart rural: innovation in local and regional development

During the last several decades, new interrelated terms and concepts have emerged in public discussions and social sciences. Soon they entered policy programmes, international organisations’ rationales as well as social and political initiatives on multiple levels, from local to supranational. Prominent examples include ‘smart city’ and ‘social innovation’ which marked a turning point in thinking about modernisation and viability of the dominant development paradigm. ‘Smart city’ primarily mirrored the enthusiasm for technological and digital innovation at the turn of the century. It was conceived in a techno- centric manner and aimed at tackling the challenges of rapidly growing cities through comprehensive and methodical application of digital infrastructure to mitigate the consequences of a chaotic urban development. ‘Smart cities’ were intended to make transport, housing, waste, risks, etc. manageable as well as to ensure improvement in all domains of urban life in a technocratic, modernist, top-down manner. This caused a widespread questioning of the ‘smart cities’ from a humanist perspective. Digital innovation and top-down urban governance did not and could not address the declining social capital and ‘softer’ dimensions of quality of life and democratic participation in the cities which opened a way for discussing the need for a ‘social innovation’ in urban areas.

social innovation ; smart urban ; smart rural

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