Moving towards a knowledge city? Brisbane's experience in knowledge-based urban development

: In the global knowledge economy, knowledge-intensive industries and knowledge workers are extensively seen as the primary factors to improve the welfare and competitiveness of cities. To attract and retain such industries and workers, cities produce knowledge-based urban development strategies, where such strategising is also an important development mechanism for cities and their economies. This paper investigates knowledge-based urban development strategies of Brisbane, Australia that support generation, attraction, and retention of investment and talent. The paper puts forward a clear understanding on the policy frameworks, and relevant applications of Brisbane’s knowledge-based urban development experience in becoming a prosperous knowledge city, and concludes by providing invaluable insights and directions for other cities seeking knowledge-based urban development

Unleashing the intelligence of cities by social innovation and civic crowdfunding

Public resources to address communities’ needs are increasingly scarce. The digitalization of economies has led to an increasingly distance between citizens and public entities. However, the use of ICT by citizens and public authorities must be able to unleash social innovation potential. These are interrelated concepts that could boost the involvement of people in the economic, social, cultural and political decision-making processes of a community. Based on two case studies described in this article, the authors aim to explore the potential of civic crowdfunding for increasing participation and the collaboration of citizens, firms and government. The analysis shows that civic crowdfunding platforms could be a useful tool for public administration enhance the engagement of communities in the solution of their problems. Civic crowdfunding platforms encourage the development of new ideas for common interest as well as the collection of the resources needed for implementing social innovations. Additionally, these civic platforms may be used to strengthen community ties and leverage the bonds among stakeholders and members of the community ecosystem.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Building smarter cities through social entrepreneurship

The objective of the present study is to examine the extent to which social ventures are able to increase the “smartness” of cities. To achieve this goal, we adopt a qualitative approach using a case study method to obtain valuable insights about different characteristics and strategies of Cais (a non-profit association dedicated to helping disadvantaged people in urban areas). Through our analysis of Cais’s activities, we assess whether its social interventions match the dimensions proposed by Giffinger et al. (2007) to rank smart cities’ performance; specifically, it has smart: economy, people, governance, mobility, environment, and living. The research shows that the action pursued comprises elements from all the above-mentioned dimensions. Further, the analysis reveals that Cais reinforces the smartness of the city in which it acts (in terms of attributes such as living, economy, people, and environment).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cultural Event Management and Urban e-Planning Through Bottom-Up User Participation

Cultural events are an important driver of socio-cultural-economic transformation. The growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has affected the ways in which people can play an active role in cultural event management and urban planning. This work proposes a methodological approach that identifies the key elements for building bottom-up urban e-planning strategies. After a brief theoretical analysis of the impact of cultural activities, tourism and ICTs on urban planning, this paper presents the results of an empirical study carried out in the Puglia region (south of Italy) during the cultural event known as “La Notte della Taranta”, in which the crowd created added-value information via comments posted on social media. Data were collected using a mobile application specifically created for this event as part of the Folkture project, as well as from Facebook and Twitter posts. Using network-analytic and sentiment/semantic algorithms, the work aims to support the event management decisional process and produce results valuable to the field of urban planning