Contextualising digitalisation through ambidexterity and new territorial proximities

This paper deals with the role of digital solutions in (re)shaping farms’ relational architectures and new territorial proximities. More precisely, our study aims to explore the reconfiguration of social capital relations when digital solutions are adopted in rural contexts and, consequently, the emergence of new territorial proximities that combine geographical and organized proximities. A qualitative research design permitted us to uncover diversified paths of relational reconfiguration as the outcome of the uptake of a digital solution. As a further result, the analysis evidences how the unchanged and the new relational architectures differently affect the reconfiguration of territorial proximities, only partially redesigning rural development trajectories. We conclude by arguing that digital technologies either engender temporary territorial proximities or may act as “context enablers”. CONCLUSION. New and old relational architectures differently affect the reconfiguration of territorial proximities and redesign different trajectories of (smart) rural development. [Display omitted] •Digital transition in rural areas is meant as a sociotechnical process.•New relational architectures and territorial proximities are affected by digitalisation in remote rural areas.•Digital solutions influence relational architectures, by affecting (or not) different dimensions of social capital.•Diversified dynamics of relational configuration differently impact on processes of territorial rural development.