Exploring the interplay between urban governance and smart services codesign

The large spreading of e-democracy and e-participatory tools and environments showed, and is still showing, that technologies offer new direction for dealing with the challenge of scaling the deliberative democracy perspective up to the urban governance scale. The recent growth of Urban Living Labs and Human Smart City initiatives is disclosing a promising bridge between the micro-scale of decision and the mechanisms of urban governance. In coherence with these perspectives, the article reports on the interplay between urban governance and the co-design of smart services in urban transformation as it has been observed and analysed in the two European research projects Periphèria and MyNeinghbourhood. The article also discusses the value of service codesign as a strategic practice to experiment new participatory governance in smart cities

What makes a city 'smart'?

Taking advantage of information and communications technology tools and techniques for city administration, whether it is for urban planning activities, for transport solutions or many other purposes, is not a new concept. However, in order for a city to be classified as ‘smart’, a synthesis of intelligence that transcends mere utilisation is essential. This article analyses the increasing use of information and communications technology and sensing technologies in cities by examining this new way of city governing from a critical perspective. Existing projects and initiatives were investigated to find out how, and to what extent, these tools are being employed by cities. The advantages and the current shortcomings of smart city are also discussed in order to understand the viability of using these tools

Vygotsky en la sociedad digital: Análisis de literatura científica actual en acceso abierto

Se presenta un análisis descriptivo, multivariado y de contenido de publicaciones sobre Vygotsky y las TIC, explorando qué de su teoría subyace en las investigaciones actuales y qué usos se evidencian de sus ideas y planteamientos. Los resultados muestran referencias a Vygotsky en secciones introductorias a modo de marco general y referencias en secciones metodológicas desde estudios contextualizados con énfasis en los procesos. Asimismo, se identificaron usos heurísticos de conceptos aparentemente vygotskyanos, pero desde autores o publicaciones recientes. Resulta evidente la necesidad de recurrir a versiones fidedignas y lecturas críticas de la obra vygotskyana si se pretende continuar su legado.The article presents a descriptive, multivariate and content analysis of publications that deal with Vygotsky and ICT, seeking to explore what of his theory underlies current research and different uses of his ideas and approaches. The main results show references to Vygotsky in introductory sections as a general framework and in methodological sections from contextualized studies with emphasis on processes. Moreover, heuristic uses of apparently Vygotskyan concepts were identified, but from other authors or recent publications. It is evident the need to resort to reliable versions and critical readings of the Vygotskyan work if it is to continue its legacyFil: Borgobello, Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto Rosario de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Educación. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Instituto Rosario de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Educación; ArgentinaFil: Monjelat, Natalia Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto Rosario de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Educación. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Instituto Rosario de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Educación; Argentin

Vygotsky en la sociedad digital

The article presents a descriptive, multivariate and content analysis of publications that deal with Vygotsky and ICT, seeking to explore what of his theory underlies current research and different uses of his ideas and approaches. The main results show references to Vygotsky in introductory sections as a general framework and in methodological sections from contextualized studies with emphasis on processes. Moreover, heuristic uses of apparently Vygotskyan concepts were identified, but from other authors or recent publications. It is evident the need to resort to reliable versions and critical readings of the Vygotskyan work if it is to continue its legacy.Se presenta un análisis descriptivo, multivariado y de contenido de publicaciones sobre Vygotsky y las TIC, explorando qué de su teoría subyace en las investigaciones actuales y qué usos se evidencian de sus ideas y planteamientos. Los resultados muestran referencias a Vygotsky en secciones introductorias a modo de marco general y referencias en secciones metodológicas desde estudios contextualizados con énfasis en los procesos. Asimismo, se identificaron usos heurísticos de conceptos aparentemente vygotskyanos, pero desde autores o publicaciones recientes. Resulta evidente la necesidad de recurrir a versiones fidedignas y lecturas críticas de la obra vygotskyana si se pretende continuar su legado

Street Furniture and the Nation State: A Global Process

In the popular imagination, street furniture has traditionally been understood as evoking a sense of national or local identity. From Paris’ metro entrances, DDR lampposts in Berlin, and London’s york stone pavements, the designed environment has been able to contribute to the unique qualities of a place. In some instances this was deliberate. In postwar Britain for instance, the Council of Industrial Design – a state-funded design organization - often appeared to measure the quality of street furniture on the basis of its national characteristics. On other occasions, the relationship between such objects and identity emerged accidentally. In Britain during the 1980s, for example, the replacement of Gilbert Scott's red telephone box with an alternative BT model provoked considerable debate. For many people, this act was not just a Conservative attack on nationalization and state-ownership, but also on the very fabric of British identity. This understanding of street furniture has retained its currency for many years, and cities across the world have used street furniture to provide a sense of visual coherency for neighbourhoods in need of new identities, strengthening their character and improving the public's relationship to them. In this way, street furniture has been employed as a cipher for the narrative of regeneration, in which - as a means of altering the identity of a space - street furniture can project a new face upon the street. Increasingly however, advertising companies are able to lever themselves into the street furniture market by offering to provide the service to the local authorities for free in return for advertising space. In offering this service, global companies like JC Decaux, Wall and Clear Channel command a huge amount of commercial power within the city. The excessive homogenization of street furniture coupled with the overwhelming presence of advertising which is increasingly sanctioned by local authorities keen to reduce costs, has resulted in the perception of poorer quality streets. Thus, the irony of regeneration is that by seeking to promote the unique identity of a city, many places often end up looking more and more alike. This paper will examine recent developments in the process by which the street is furnished and the agents responsible. It will specifically look at how these changes have affected the relationship between street furniture and identity, and equally the effect this process has had on understandings of national design histories. Clearly, evaluating contemporary street furniture through the lens of the nation-state is of very little value, since the international differences between street furniture are considerably less marked than they used to be. This extraordinary aesthetic convergence is partly linked to economies of scale - after all, just how many different kinds of bus stop can Europe afford to have? Yet it also reflects some of the challenges posed by globalization and privatization of public space. This paper will reflect upon that process, and how these bigger narratives increasingly affect the landscape of the street

The Data Shake

This open access book represents one of the key milestones of PoliVisu, an H2020 research and innovation project funded by the European Commission under the call “Policy-development in the age of big data: data-driven policy-making, policy-modelling and policy-implementation”. It investigates the operative and organizational implications related to the use of the growing amount of available data on policy making processes, highlighting the experimental dimension of policy making that, thanks to data, proves to be more and more exploitable towards more effective and sustainable decisions. The first section of the book introduces the key questions highlighted by the PoliVisu project, which still represent operational and strategic challenges in the exploitation of data potentials in urban policy making. The second section explores how data and data visualisations can assume different roles in the different stages of a policy cycle and profoundly transform policy making

Sense of Community: an Investigation of the Semi-Private-Public Interface in a Residential Community

Based on a case study in Subiaco, Western Australia, this PhD by publication explores the relationship between the physical and social aspects of residential neighbourhoods. It re-conceptualises the importance of the house front yards as semi-private-public spaces which facilitate building sense of community. Using a mixed-method approach covering observation and perception, the thesis develops built form typologies of the front yards arguing that urban design for sustainability should no longer neglect these valuable interface places

Built environment auditing, active mobility and children’s wellbeing

This thesis explores how planners can facilitate children’s wellbeing through auditing the urban environment for active travel. The findings reveal that audits have the potential to address critical issues regarding the quality of the built environment around schools. Further, children were found to be effective evaluators of their school environment. Auditing can be improved by highlighting the sensory qualities of the built environment and using audits strategically to adapt to the policy context of school environments

Città Metropolitane e Smart Governance. Iniziative di successo e nodi critici verso la Smart City

[English]:The volume contains the results of the research project "Governance Analysis Project (GAP) for the Smart Energy City. The actualization of Smart Cities in the Metropolitan Areas of Europe and Italy” conducted within the PON “Smart Energy Master for the energy management of the territory” at the University Federico II of Naples (TeMA Lab of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering). Smart Cities have gained increasing relevance in the scientific debate and in the national and international operational practice, emerging as one of the opportunities to rethink cities and, more generally, the life of urban communities. First reflections, researches and projects on the issue seem to converge towards the idea that a “smart” urban development should not only be a result of the yet necessary and unavoidable infrastructural endowment (physical capital) and of its continuing innovation, but also of the quality of human, social and environmental capital, conceived as strategic factors for development. A “smart” city is, primarily, a city able to effectively satisfy the needs of its citizens respecting the rules imposed by the environmental context. It is in such a debate that the project GAP fits with the aim to address Smart Cities in light of the administrative reorganization of Italian large cities as a consequence of the Law 56/2014. With a scientific approach, the volume provides a comprehensive and updated framework of how Italian and European Metropolitan cities are declining the Smart City issue and this thanks to the collection of a wide-ranging screening represented by more than 1.000 initiatives including researches, projects, interventions, technologies, etc. Furthermore, one original element of this research is that after an analysis conducted through indirect sources, a phase of dialogue with “stakeholders” was carried out (and of this there is a wide picture in the volume in which, by the way, are reported long excerpts of the interviews). This has enabled to give a clearer framework of what is now experimenting in Italian and European cities, avoiding being totally naïve for interventions and projects labelled as “smart”, but often lacking of innovative methods and contents. The volume is articulated in 16 chapters: two chapters present the comparison among 12 Italian metropolitan cities, instituted by Law 56/2014, with reference to the ongoing experimentations (chap.1) and indicators of smartness (chap.2); one chapter (chap.15) illustrates how 5 European cities (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bristol and Bruxelles) are interpreting the Smart City model; one chapter (chap.16) illustrates the ongoing experimentation in 3 Italian metropolitan cities (Milan, Venice and Bologna) directly explained by those who are carrying on the interventions (local technical bodies or associations); the remainder chapters are dedicated each to one of the 12 metropolitan cities analyzed (Milan, Turin, Genoa, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bari, Reggio Calabria, Palermo and Catania)./ [Italiano]: Il volume raccoglie i risultati del progetto di ricerca "Governance Analysis Project (GAP) per la Smart Energy City. L'attuazione delle Smart City nelle aree metropolitane in Europa e in Italia" svolto nell'ambito del PON "Smart Energy Master per il governo energetico del territorio" presso l'Università Federico II di Napoli (TeMa Lab del Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale). Il tema delle Smart Cities ha assunto negli ultimi anni una crescente rilevanza nel dibattito scientifico e nella prassi operativa nazionale ed internazionale configurandosi come una delle opportunità per ripensare le città e più in generale la vita delle comunità urbane. Le prime riflessioni, ricerche e progetti sul tema sembrano convergere verso l'idea che uno sviluppo urbano "intelligente" sia frutto non soltanto delle pur necessarie e imprescindibili dotazioni infrastrutturali (capitale fisico) e di una loro continua innovazione, ma anche della qualità del capitale umano, sociale e dell' ambiente naturale, intesi come fattori strategici per lo sviluppo. Una città «smart» è, prima di tutto, una città capace di soddisfare efficacemente i bisogni dei suoi cittadini nel rispetto delle regole imposte dal contesto ambientale. È in tale dibattito che si inquadra il progetto GAP la cui finalità è quella di affrontare il tema della Smart City alla luce della riorganizzazione amministrativa delle grandi città del nostro Paese promossa dalla L. 56/2014. Con un approccio di tipo scientifico, il volume restituisce un quadro completo ed aggiornato di come le città metropolitane italiane ed europee stanno declinando il tema della smart city e ciò grazie alla costruzione di un ampissimo screening rappresentato da oltre 1.000 iniziative tra ricerche, progetti, interventi, tecnologie, ecc .. Inoltre un elemento di originalità della ricerca è rappresentato dal fatto che ad un' analisi compiuta attraverso fonti indirette, è seguita una fase di confronto con gli "attori" (e di ciò si fornisce un'ampia illustrazione nel volume nel quale vengono, tra l' altro, riportati ampi stralci delle interviste effettuate). Ciò ha consentito di restituire un quadro più aderente al vero di quanto oggi si sta sperimentando nelle città italiane ed europee, al di là di facili entusiasmi per interventi e progetti etichettati come "smart", ma per i quali non sempre possono essere individuati contenuti e metodi innovativi. Il volume è articolato in 16 capitoli di cui: due capitoli presentano il confronto tra le 12 città metropolitane italiane, istituite dalla L.56/2014, con riferimento alle sperimentazioni in atto (cap. 1) e agli indicatori di smartness (cap. 14); un capitolo (cap.15) illustra come 5 città europee (Amsterdam, Barcellona, Berlino, Bristol e Bruxelles) stanno interpretando il modello Smart City; un capitolo (cap. 16) illustra le sperimentazioni in atto in 3 città metropolitane italiane (Milano, Venezia, Bologna) raccontate direttamente da coloro che stanno portando avanti gli interventi (tecnici di enti locali o associazioni); i restanti capitoli sono dedicati ognuno ad una delle 12 città metropolitane analizzate (Milano, Torino, Genova, Venezia, Bologna, Firenze, Roma, Napoli, Bari, Reggio Calabria, Palermo e Catania)