The coronavirus pandemic has reinforced the need for sustainable, smart tourism and local travel, with rural destinations gaining in their popularity and leading to increased potential of smart rural tourism. However, these processes need adjustments to the current trends, incorporating new transformative business concepts and marketing approaches. In this paper we provide real life examples of new marketing approaches, together with new business models within the context of the use of new digital technologies. Via hermeneutic research approach, consisting of the secondary analysis of the addressed subject of smart rural tourism in adversity of the COVID-19 and 6 semi-structured interviews, the importance of technology is underscored in transforming rural tourism to smart rural tourist destinations. The respondents in the interview section were chosen based on their direct involvement in the presented examples and geographical location, i.e. France, Slovenia and Spain, where presented research examples were developed, concretely within European programmes, i.e. Interreg, Horizon and Rural Development Programme (RDP). Interviews were taking place between 2022 and 2023 in person, email or via Zoom. This two-phased study demonstrates that technology is important in transforming rural tourism to smart tourist destinations and that it ushers new approaches that seem particularly useful in applying to rural areas, creating a rural digital innovation ecosystem, which acts as s heuristic rural tourist model that fosters new types of tourism, i.e. smart rural tourism.

This article analyses the case of Dubai’s smart city from a public policy perspective and demonstrates how critical it is to rely on the use of the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Effective use of this model can guarantee the building of a smart city that could potentially fulfill the vision of the political leadership in Dubai and serve as a catalyst and blueprint for other Gulf states that wish to follow Dubai’s example. This article argues that Dubai’s smart city project enjoys significant political support and has ambitious plans for sustainable growth, and that the government has invested heavily in developing the necessary institutional, legal/regulatory, and supervisory frameworks that are essential foundations for the success of any PPP project. The article also points to some important insights that the Dubai government can learn from the international experience with the delivery of smart cities through PPPs.

Previous studies support the direct relationship between outdoor physical activity and natural spaces in cities. The Active City and Nature concept explores the relationship between urban, green and active environments; it aims to demonstrate the scientific evidence for the need for action to be taken to increase participation in active living and sport, leading to healthier cities and communities. Our research seeks to analyse the city’s natural spaces as scenarios to encourage physical activity and sport, through a combined study of qualitative research techniques: the use of a digital webGIS platform, collaborative maps made by citizens, and surveys conducted with citizens and the local government. This methodology has been tested in the city of Malaga, the European City of Sport 2020. The study of the city’s main sport areas, the waterfront and natural green spaces provided data on the types of physical activity taking place in each of these areas and the physical activity needs of citizens. This research argues that it is important to know the criteria of local communities for physical activity and/or sport in natural environments, as well as the main demands expressed. This will provide valuable information to design and manage natural public spaces as a means of promoting physical activity and healthy habits.

A method for studying the resilience of energy and socio-ecological systems is considered; it integrates approaches developed at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis and the Melentyev Institute of Energy Systems (MESI) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article discusses in detail the methods of using intelligent information technologies, in particular semantic technologies and knowledge engineering (cognitive probabilistic modeling), which the authors propose to use in assessing the risks of natural and man-made threats to the resilience of the energy sector and social and ecological systems. More attention is paid to the study and adaptation of the integral indicator of quality of life, which makes it possible to combine these interdisciplinary studies.

The main objective of the study is to discuss the application of a participatory approach that involves the community of a small rural area in Italy to develop and maintain a sustainable local food system based on a very ancient and high-quality typical local bean. The efficacy of the approach in terms of the active involvement of local actors (farming communities, local administration, social associations, and civil society) and knowledge transfer for preserving the local food culture has been demonstrated. Possible improvements to the approach through digital technologies for stimulating the effective engagement of teenagers have also been discussed.

The article emphasizes the dynamism of social processes in the world aimed at humanizing modern society. Social work in the third millennium became one of the priority topics in Europe and acquired the status of an independent field of science and research in terms of science and education. The possibility of extrapolation of innovative foreign technologies into the practice of social work in Ukraine was investigated. It was found that the process of implementation of innovative foreign technologies into the practice of social work in Ukraine has already begun and is ongoing. In the improvement of the domestic system of professional training of social workers, the authors of the article see an appeal to the experience of applying European innovative technologies and practices of social work, in particular in the Republic of Poland. The leading determinants of social technologies, which determine their specificity, are singled out: multidisciplinarity, hierarchy, multidirectionality, flexibility, standardization. The need for effective and timely implementation of the integration of three groups of social support technologies in the conditions of the martial law in which Ukraine is today has been updated. The perspective of further scientific research is defined in the substantiation of the organizational and pedagogical conditions of their application in the process of informal and informal education.