What is ‘Smart’ About Smart Village? Emerging Discourses and Future Research Directions

This paper takes stock of how ‘smart’ is conceptualized in smart cities literature and how the concept is getting re-appropriated in different smart village initiatives across Europe and the Global South. Emerging discourses on smart village espouse the concept of ‘smart’ to strategically leverage ICTs to bring inclusive and sustainable rural development, however these visions are ambiguous about the nature of ICT artifacts and its interactions with rural community and people’s goals and abilities and how they can shape actions and outcomes of sustainable development. Finally, future research directions for ICT4D researchers are proposed to address the current shortcomings and to expand the knowledge and practice of smart village interventions.