Abstract

Across rural Europe, broadband infrastructure, opportunities for digital services and skill development are limited, creating spatial digital divides. The CORA project, COnnecting Remote Areas with digital infrastructure and skills, seeks to minimise these by working with local authorities and policymakers to identify training opportunities, develop tools and pilot innovative solutions to enhance digital awareness among different target groups. As part of this project, we are exploring fixed and mobile ‘digital hubs’ as sources for digital engagement.

Existing literature on hubs focuses on their impact across a range of settings, i.e. as coworking or networking spaces; as innovation spaces in specific economic development contexts; as spaces for emergent technology demonstration; or as public access points to broadband. However, there has not yet been a holistic and systematic review of digital hubs to create a complete understanding of what role they may play in digital technology diffusion. In this paper, we seek to bring these related, yet currently disparate, strands together to define and create a typology of ‘digital hubs’, analysing their role and purpose. Our findings will help inform regional policies about digital hubs as tools for digitalisation.