علی اکبر عنابستانی

Purpose- The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has an effect on development of Creative Villages as a new approach in using the existing rural capabilities and capacities to revive the rural areas. This study seeks to analyze the impact of RICT on the indicators of development of Creative Villages in suburban settlements in Mashhad County.Design/methodology/approach- A descriptive-analytical research method was employed in this fundamental study, and documentary and survey methods have been used for collecting the data. The study population included households in 8 villages around Mashhad (N = 20813). These villages had a rural ICT office and a population of over 1,000 households. The sample was estimated using Cochran's formula; accordingly, 194 households were selected by systematic random sampling.Finding- Spatial analysis of the main variables was performed using Combined Compromise Solution and fuzzy gray analysis. The result showed that the villages of Gorji Sofla, Hosseinabad Gharghi, Dostabad and Dehroud have the highest, and the villages of Kal Zarkash and Chahar Borj have the lowest level of use of RICT services and the indicator of the Creative Village. Using the partial least squares (PLS) technique, among the research indicators, "promoting and training" with the coefficient of 0.591 had the most direct effect on the dependent variable. Also, variable dimension of "awareness of RICT services", considering the direct and indirect effects, with a coefficient of 0.816, has had a greater impact on the indicators of development of Creative Villages in rural settlements. Given the value of R2 (0.998), we concluded that RICT has a high-level impact on the indicators of development of Creative Villages.

Purpose- The "Smart Village" approach includes long-term social, economic, and environmental activities of the rural community that involve widespread participation in local governance processes, promoting entrepreneurship, preserving the rural environment and, ultimately, sustainable development of rural areas. Therefore, the development of scenarios that facilitate the realization of the smart village approach in the peri-urban settlements of the metropolis of Tehran should be emphasized.Design/methodology/approach-This research is a descriptive-analytical study from the perspective of its objectives it is applied. Data and information were collected through library research, documentary studies, and survey methods (interviews). By reviewing scientific sources and conducting interviews with experts, 57 influencing factors of the smart village approach on the sustainability of peri-urban settlements were identified, categorized into 5 dimensions, and a total of 35 people, including managers of relevant organizations and university experts, were interviewed. The analysis of data was based on futures studies techniques, including structural analysis and mutual effects analysis (done using Micmac and Scenario Wizard software).Finding- The research findings show that there are a very large number of possible scenarios for the impact of the smart village on the sustainability of peri-urban settlements in the metropolis of Tehran within the range of Islamshahr County. Among them, 14 scenarios have weak compatibility and only 1 scenario is in a state of strong and sustainable compatibility (zero incompatibility). The first scenario, which is a positive one, has a mutual effect score of 733 and a compatibility value of 13, while the second scenario, which indicates unfavorable conditions for the future impact of the smart village on sustainable development, has a mutual effect score of -144 and a compatibility value of 5. The third scenario also has a compatibility value of -2 and with a mutual effect score of 63, it can be one of the impactful scenarios for the smart village on the sustainability of peri-urban settlements in the metropolis of Tehran. At the end of the research, operational suggestions are presented to enhance the indices of a smart village to achieve sustainable development in the rural settlements of the studied area.Originality/Value - For the first time in Iran, scenarios have been developed on the impact of smart villages on the sustainability of peri-urban settlements, and from this perspective, it is innovative and among the first research in the field.