Digital technology and smart village development in Banyuwangi, Indonesia: an exploratory study

Abstract

Advances in digital technology have increasingly influenced many aspects of our everyday life at different geographical levels. In this paper, we focus on rural areas as key geographical loci of development by investigating the notion of the smart village (SV). Our main objective has been to improve the understanding of the adoption of the SV concept in different geographical contexts by zooming in on the case of Banyuwangi, Indonesia. In doing so, this paper investigates the adoption of SV in Banyuwangi by means of the Smart Kampung programme and reflects Banyuwangi’s situated experience against the broader SV discussions. Drawing on empirical material obtained through a series of semi-structured interviews conducted between 2020 and 2021, our analysis reveals that Banyuwangi has contextually translated SV into three main aspects of development, namely government service, economy and tourism. More broadly, our study exhibits that geographical situatedness of SV does matter, in the sense that some aspects of Banyuwangi’s experimentation with SV align with the trend in Global South countries, while some echo the trend in Global North countries.