Small-but-smart technology and social innovation in human–wildlife coexistence

Abstract

This study explores the intersection of smart rurality, social innovation and human–wildlife coexistence as a way to address socio-spatial inequalities in marginalized rural areas. Against a backdrop of rural decline and rising human–wildlife conflicts, it investigates participatory processes implemented in the LIFE ARCPROM project and traces how small technologies, namely electric fences, livestock guarding dogs and bear-proof garbage bins, were adapted and adopted to promote co-existence with brown bears in three Greek National Parks located in some of Europe’s most marginalized areas. Findings show that small technologies become effective through iterative refinement and contextual adaptation. Participatory processes fostered local ownership, enabling communities to optimize each tool through collective intelligence and experimentation: electric fences through soil-specific modifications, livestock guarding dogs through socially embedded trans-local breeding networks and bear-proof garbage containers/bins through integration into everyday waste management routines. Findings also highlight that rural innovation is often more-than-human, a relational achievement of hybrid socio-natures in which humans, non-humans and rural infrastructures co-evolve. Our study underscores that rural ‘smartness’ should extend beyond digital solutions, to align small technology with community-driven processes so that smart rurality can mitigate socio-spatial inequalities and deliver equitable, sustainable conservation outcomes. EU rural development policy should pivot from technology-push paradigms to relational, place-based innovation models in which ‘smartness’ is also co-produced through collective, hybrid intelligence and the adaptive (re)use of small-scale tools embedded in local socio-ecological contexts. By institutionalizing networks that link communities, human and non-human agency, this model can recast marginalized rural territories as catalytic nodes of Europe’s green and just transition.