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Sociotechnical infrastructuring for digital participation in rural development: A survey of public administrators in Germany

  • Veronika Stein , Christian Pentzold ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Sarah Peter und Simone Sterly
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 11. Juli 2023
Communications
Aus der Zeitschrift Communications Band 50 Heft 1

Abstract

The “smart village” flourishes – at least in policy papers that envision the revitalization of rural areas through the civic deployment of networked media and telecommunications. Yet, while such aspirations are widespread, little is known about the views of those tasked with supervising and supporting digitally driven public participation for rural progress. To address the lack of insight into what these intermediary administrators conceive as catalysts and challenges for the realization of smart village conceptions, we surveyed representatives of regions in Germany who oversee rural development schemes, most notably within the European LEADER framework. For these key actors, digital participation does not mainly hinge on broadband access and IT availability. Instead, they emphasize the importance of human and administrative resources as well as multi-actor collaboration, which we discuss in terms of digital readiness, digital willingness, and digital activity. Building the smart village, we conclude, seems not so much a matter of technological infrastructure, but rather of sociotechnical infrastructuring.

Keywords: participation; digitalization; rural development; neo-endogenous approach; survey; social innovation; sociotechnical infrastructuring; LEADER; smart village

Acknowledgements

The research was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (funding no: 2820FD011).

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Published Online: 2023-07-11
Published in Print: 2025-03-31

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Articles
  3. Editorial 2025: A jubilee year for Communications
  4. “It’s not us, it’s the government”: Perceptions of a national minority of their representations in the mainstream media during a global pandemic – the case of Israeli Arabs and COVID-19
  5. Mapping environment-focused social media, audiovisual media and art, in Sweden: How a diversity of voices and issues is combined with ideological homogeneity
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  7. From “screen time” to screen times: Measuring the temporality of media use in the messy reality of family life
  8. Bringing the campaign closer to the voters: Facebook in partisan-managed campaigning in France
  9. Sociotechnical infrastructuring for digital participation in rural development: A survey of public administrators in Germany
  10. The discursive construction of a news event: Access and legitimation in the media framing of an escalated anti-asylum protest in Belgium
  11. The contextual interplay between advertising and online disinformation: How brands suffer from and amplify deceptive content
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  14. Balbi, G. (2023). The digital revolution: A short history of an ideology (B. McClellan-Broussard, Trans.). Oxford University Press, 159 pp.
  15. Reif, M., & Polzenhagen, F. (Eds.) (2023). Cultural linguistics and critical discourse studies. John Benjamins, 212 pp.
https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2022-0107
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
participation; digitalization; rural development; neo-endogenous approach; survey; social innovation; sociotechnical infrastructuring; LEADER; smart village

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Articles
  3. Editorial 2025: A jubilee year for Communications
  4. “It’s not us, it’s the government”: Perceptions of a national minority of their representations in the mainstream media during a global pandemic – the case of Israeli Arabs and COVID-19
  5. Mapping environment-focused social media, audiovisual media and art, in Sweden: How a diversity of voices and issues is combined with ideological homogeneity
  6. A normative perspective on information avoidance behaviors: Separating various types of avoidance-related norms
  7. From “screen time” to screen times: Measuring the temporality of media use in the messy reality of family life
  8. Bringing the campaign closer to the voters: Facebook in partisan-managed campaigning in France
  9. Sociotechnical infrastructuring for digital participation in rural development: A survey of public administrators in Germany
  10. The discursive construction of a news event: Access and legitimation in the media framing of an escalated anti-asylum protest in Belgium
  11. The contextual interplay between advertising and online disinformation: How brands suffer from and amplify deceptive content
  12. Book reviews
  13. Klingelhöfer, J. (2023). The power of crisis communication: A qualitative study of the establishment of a scientific field. Springer, 235 pp.
  14. Balbi, G. (2023). The digital revolution: A short history of an ideology (B. McClellan-Broussard, Trans.). Oxford University Press, 159 pp.
  15. Reif, M., & Polzenhagen, F. (Eds.) (2023). Cultural linguistics and critical discourse studies. John Benjamins, 212 pp.
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