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Digital Periphery? A Community Case Study of Digitalization Efforts in Swiss Mountain Regions

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Part of the book series: Modeling and Optimization in Science and Technologies ((MOST,volume 17))

Abstract

Rural economies have undergone major changes in recent years as traditional rural economic sectors declined and shifted. At the same time, digital technologies emerged and rural communities experience profound transformations. In this chapter, we analyze how technological change leads to changing rural economies in a Swiss mountain community. Although Switzerland has one of the highest national coverage of broadband in the world, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the transformation of its rural economy due to digitalization. The community case study’s 46 qualitative interviews show that digital connectivity in peripheral mountain communities is experienced differently by various actors. On the one hand, digitalization offers new economic opportunities to larger businesses, larger hotels, schools and health service providers. On the other hand, particularly smaller businesses struggle with the high cost of becoming digital and their owners tend to become more cautious and stressed as competition and price transparencies in the digital economy become intensified. In terms of spatial aspects, we argue that digitalization reduces cognitive distance between core and periphery while physical distance between the urban and the rural still exist.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We understand the term ‘digitalization’ as the conversion of analogue technologies (especially information and communication technologies) into digital formats and as a process that combines the rapid development of ICTs and, in particular, the spread and use of the Internet and its infrastructure (see [9]).

  2. 2.

    Peripheral regions can be understood as areas “outside the main metropolitan growth area” [51, 18]. This is a process-oriented perspective on the subdivision center-periphery (especially rural regions and mountain areas). Swiss mountain regions are part of the European Alps and here we consider them as peripheral regions [51]. Peripheries are also defined as outskirts and in geography, the term is applied to scarce populated rural regions, border regions or suburban fringes of cities [43, 368–369]. In this chapter, we understand Alpine mountain communities as part of the periphery.

  3. 3.

    The term ‘broadband’ is used in terms of a high speed Internet connection that differs from traditional telecommunication infrastructure (Czernich et al. 20: 505). Broadband allows high bandwidths for data transfer in very short time (e.g. see [65], 7). It makes part of telecommunication and combines data of multiple channels in a single medium of communication [60].

  4. 4.

    ‘ICT’ is a collective term for both information and communication technologies as fixed telephone networks, mobile telephony, Internet and broadband access and for devices such as mobile phones, notebooks, desktop PCs, servers and LAN infrastructure (see Böcker and Klein 13: 11–13).

  5. 5.

    A ‘third place’ is a social environment or public setting that combines the ‘first place’ (home) and the ‘second place’ (work) that is integrated into daily life (see [67, 270]). The term was introduced by the American sociologist Ray Oldenburg and describes informal public places for gathering [66, 6], where people enjoy the company of others and they can benefit from social participation in this arenas. Third places are forums of association for new experiences and relations that are unavailable otherwise [67, 267–270]. Active participation, conversation and the social exchange are key elements for third spaces, which become embodied in a “spirit of pure sociability” [67, 272]. Examples for third places are diners, coffee shops, public parks or today’s co-working spaces [89, 72].

  6. 6.

    New Highlanders are immigrants in mountainous areas that decide to move—mainly with their families—away from major centers and to work in a peripheral area. Due to modern telecommunication technologies, new highlanders are able to work from home and commute sporadic to appointments or meetings in core centers [49, 5]. New highlanders can also establish new firms or establish branch offices and become so-called ‘new highlander entrepreneurs’ [53].

  7. 7.

    We understand the term ‘actor groups’ as a collective term for actors and individuals that share similar characteristics in terms of interests and actions such as e.g. clubs, organizations, unions, businesses or social groups that are homogeneous [42, 18–19], [96].

  8. 8.

    Next to their primary home, second home owners possess a second accommodation (a house or an apartment) that is temporary used. 49.02% of accommodations in the case study region are second homes that are not inhabited permanently [29].

  9. 9.

    Number of interviews by actor group: firms and entrepreneurs (13), municipal administration (5), religion (1), health care (4), schools (7), service providers (3), second home owners (2), tourism (5), cultural institutions (4). Additional expert interviews (2) were conducted.

  10. 10.

    NGA (Next Generation Access) are fixed-line broadband access technologies that achieve download speeds with at least 30Mbps. It is a combination of technologies such as VDSL, DOCSIS 3.0 and FTTP [41, 4].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography and Center for Regional Economic Development, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Reto Bürgin & Heike Mayer

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  1. Reto Bürgin
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  2. Heike Mayer
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Correspondence to Reto Bürgin .

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  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, SOA University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

    Srikanta Patnaik

  2. School of Architecture and Planning, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Siddhartha Sen

  3. Systems Engineering Department, King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Magdi S. Mahmoud

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Bürgin, R., Mayer, H. (2020). Digital Periphery? A Community Case Study of Digitalization Efforts in Swiss Mountain Regions. In: Patnaik, S., Sen, S., Mahmoud, M. (eds) Smart Village Technology. Modeling and Optimization in Science and Technologies, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37794-6_4

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