Combining the Ecological and Digital Transitions: Smart Villages for New Scenarios in the EU Rural Areas

This paper proposes a reflection on ongoing research activities focused on the concept of smart village and its possible operational declinations in helping to implement ecological and digital transitions in a balanced logic of attention to the local dimension, oriented towards the quality and maintenance of territories, the regeneration of minor centres in the rural areas affected by abandonment and depopulation, the creation of new economies based on the enhancement of territorial resources, adequate provision of infrastructures and services for a significant improvement in the quality of life.