Dr Michelle Cowley-Cunningham – Exploring Digital Readiness and Sustainability in Small Towns and Marginalized Mountain Communities

1. What was the primary focus of your research?
We commenced two major digitalisation research projects over the summer, one domestic, and one international. Digital Towns. An implementation of Town Centre First Policy, the initiative aims to help communities and businesses reimagine their own towns for a more prosperous future placing an emphasis on digital technologies and tourism. EU Cost Action – MARGISTAR. The second project involved working with an international and Europe-wide network established by the EU Cost Action MARGISTAR. MARGISTAR is a forum for knowledge exchange and co-creation bringing together scientists, stakeholders and policymakers to collaborate on challenges facing those living in marginalised mountain regions. The aim of MARGISTAR is to foster transformation strategies and innovation processes to revitalise marginalised mountainous areas, specifically in terms of developing sustainable pathways for a progressive and digitally integrated future.

2. Can you summarise the main objectives or hypotheses of your study?
Digital Towns. Our summer project aimed to develop and apply a new measurement tool to evaluate participating towns across Ireland’s digital tourism readiness relevant to economic growth – the Digital Tourism Index (DTI). There are twenty-six rural towns, constituting a total population of 99, 689, across the Rep. of Ireland participating.
EU Cost Action – MARGISTAR. Working with an international network of collaborators established by the EU Cost Action MARGISTAR, our objective was to develop and roll out a Europe-wide Vision Workshop (MVW) to engage mountain region inhabitants, stakeholders and policymakers. To this end, we designed a workshop, consisting of a suite of activities, to assist those who live in marginalised mountainous areas to articulate a vision and design actionable pathways, for sustaining and developing their community via digitalisation.

3. What was or is your motivation for this research?
Both projects endeavour to promote strategies conducive to digital readiness and technology adoption. Importantly, digital readiness lessens the rural-urban digital divide, promoting balanced regional development and economic success, be it here in Ireland or abroad in Europe.

4. Did you collaborate with other researchers or institutions? If so, who were your key partners?
Led by Prof Theo Lynn and Prof Colm O’Gorman, the Digital Towns project represents a collaboration between the Department of Rural & Community Development, via the national register for domain names .IE, and the Irish Institute of Digital Business. The collaboration includes Dr Jennifer Kennedy from DCU Business School and assisted by Tim Kennedy, and Prof Pierangelo Rosati formerly of the IIDB and now based at the University of Galway. Dr Irene Christoforidi of Hellenic Mediterranean University in Greece is the MARGISTAR Vision Workshop grant lead, connecting us with a fertile research network across Europe. Our workshops are now underway collecting participant data in six countries, including: Croatia, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway and Italy.

5. How did the research process evolve over the summer? Were there any significant changes in your approach?
Digital Towns. Yes, we decided to test the hypothesis that Town Centre First Plans, produced as part of the Town Centre First Policy, would exhibit evidence of tourism development aspiration along digital readiness lines. Applying an extensive text analysis, and qualitative thematic analysis to the twenty-six town plans, we coded the breadth, depth and contextual nature of the tourism aspiration generated as a result of the policy initiative.

EU Cost Action – MARGISTAR. Working closely with Dr Irene Christoforidi, we commenced a conversation on adopting a twin transition approach to digitalisation, as recommended by the World Economic Forum. Recognising that there is an opportunity to conceive of digitalisation playing a role in supporting sustainable growth to counter climate change, we have commenced a line of research examining educational initiatives for children in ethno-botony and ecological awareness.

6. What were the key findings or outcomes of your research?
Digital Towns. The new DTI measured digital tourism readiness per town across four website use and sophistication dimensions: town destination; tourism destinations; tourism businesses; and digital tourism infrastructure. The findings thus far demonstrate that DTI scores returned low levels of digital tourism readiness across all towns pre- Town Centre First Policy intervention. But in-depth thematic analyses of the town plans generated in response to receipt of the policy initiative’s funding, demonstrated high aspiration for digitalisation and tourism on a whole.

EU Cost Action – MARGISTAR. Our workshop suite has been developed as a unique and prescient MARGISTAR EU Cost Action tool. Now implementations are underway collecting participant data in six countries across Europe, including: Croatia, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway and Italy. It is early days, but from informal feedback, tourism town development via digital readiness initiatives is thought important to bridging the rural and urban digital divide and respective economic development.

7. Are there any potential practical applications or implications of your research?
Digital Towns. Our research demonstrates that the new Digital Tourism Index (DTI) has the potential to afford a ubiquitous decision-making aid to inform town-planning and its digitalization objectives to enhance economic prospects via small and rural town tourism activity.

EU Cost Action – MARGISTAR. The workshop has been designed to help communities:
• Envision potential futures for their community, considering various scenarios and opportunities;
• Clearly articulate a shared vision for their community;
• Identify and agree on the current and future challenges that need to be addressed to realise their vision; and
• Determine key actionable steps and strategies to overcome these challenges and achieve the envisioned future.

8. What new insights or perspectives have you gained through this research?
Working collaboratively with international colleagues is vital to continuing important policy conversations, and developing new ones. For example, our new ethno-botany childhood education research has the potential for cross-fertilisation with developmental approaches to twin transition initiatives for schools in Ireland and across Europe, be they urban, rural, or marginalised mountain communities.

9. What’s next?
Tackling the digital divide on domestic and international fronts. Presently, we are in the preparation for publication stages for our draft working paper on the DTI tool and its application to small town tourism development. A policy analysis has also commenced to address both domestic and international legislative framework implementation and its satisficing, including rights-based approaches to tackling the digital divide. Finally, we are immensely looking forward to receiving the data from the Europe-wide envisioning workshops and sharing their evidenced-based and actionable insights with key stakeholders soon.

Author: Dr Michelle Cowley-Cunningham, Chartered Psychologist CPsychol AFPsSI, Postdoctoral Researcher, IIDB, DCU Business School