Living lab on sharing and circular economy: The case of Turin

Cities with their innovative capacity are key places to address critical climate, environmental and health challenges. Urban experimentations, such as Living Labs, can represent a starting point to reintroduce resources into the production cycle and reduce environmental impacts, embracing the paradigm of the circular economy (CE). According to recent studies, Living Labs at a city scale could generate significant environmental benefits, improvements in quality of life and positive impacts on citizens' health.1 This paper aims at presenting the case of the Torino Living Lab on Sharing and Circular Economy (LLSC) to point out possible future scenarios of urban sustainable policies. The case study is analysed in five sections: (1) the description of the new permanent laboratory proposed by the City of Turin; (2) the past experiences of Living Labs in Turin; (3) the birth of LLSC and the involvement strategy; (4) the introduction of the eight admitted experimentations. In the light of the results collected, the last paragraph (5) came up with the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Treaths (SWOT) analysis in the LLSC. Eventually, it deals with the research question by offering a common ground for global and local policies focused on sustainability and CE

Mapping the circle: Systemic analysis of the experiences of circular economy in Italy through an app

The proposed analysis is conducted in the framework of the theory of complex systems (Telfner, Casadio, 2003): following the paradigm of complexity, suggested by the systemic approach, means in fact making interact and analyzing the relationships between open systems, in this case the biological systems, from which the idea of circular production processes has also been borrowed (Stahel, 1982; Braungart, Mc Donough, 2003), and the economic-social ones (Georgescu-Roegen, 2003), since «never as today the link between ecological sustainability and economic-social sustainability has became clear “(Bonaiuti, 2003, p.42). The first objective is therefore to create, starting from the data of the app Mercato Circolare, a photograph of the Italian economic-social system linked to the circular economy, highlighting its actors, roles and relationships. Photography becomes the basis of a comparison between the characteristics of this system and those of biological systems, verifying the plausibility of the anchoring of some principles of the economic-social system to the biological ones. To give just a few examples: presence of a plurality of ends and not maximization of a single variable; presence of a combination of competitive behaviors (in expansion contexts) and cooperative (in equilibrium contexts); impossibility of the part to control everything; endowment of a feedback system. The second objective is to investigate whether it is possible to activate and sustain territorial synergies aimed at defining districts (Becattini, 2000) and network systems capable of transforming a series of problems typical of the national productive system into economic, environmental and social opportunities. Assuming that the Italian circular economy system can have the characteristics of a complex system, since the complexity of a system is given by the architectural configuration that assumes the whole, it is inevitable to deal with the network category. In particular, the research intends to verify whether, as for complex systems, the Italian circular economy system also presents itself as a phenomenon endowed with a combination of multiplicity and autonomy (Telfner, Casadio, 2003). Autonomy is what makes such self-referential or autopoietic systems (Maturana, Varela, 1985) so that their primary functioning is moved towards self-renewal. In the same way, for the districts and circular socio-economic systems, one wonders whether it is possible, starting from what the territory offers, following a cascade model (Pauli, 2015) and exploiting the principles of physics, satisfying the primary needs locals. The model of autopoiesis also becomes useful to describe the dynamics between node and network. In fact, an autopoietic system is not independent from the external environment: it speaks, rather, of an operational closure understood as the ability to select the inputs that arrive externally and therefore to fully control its internal organization, ie the invariant part, to protect its own identity. Methodologically, the research develops through the elaboration of questionnaires, site visits, internet research and bibliography, identifying four sectors of analysis, starting from the app’s structure: businesses, products, civil society and cultural events. Mercato Circolare already records almost 400 activities (95% in Italy), of which 53% are businesses, 18% products, 14% cultural events and 15% institutions or experiences of active citizenship. For all the sectors of analysis, except for cultural events, the same fields are investigated: the start year, the legal nature of the entity, the flow of the supSystemic analysis of the experiences of circular economy in Italy through an app ply chain and traceability, the business model and the relative comparison with the reference markets, the value generated in environmental, social and cultural terms, and finally the motivation. As regards the supply chain flow, for each company we intend to create a visualization of flows and production processes: design (materials and production); supply; logistics; sale; use; and end of life. In this way we intend to visualize the traceability of the process / product. The purpose of traceability is to offer an identity to the goods / service by making known the history and the subjects who participated in its transformation and realization. The design of the flow of the supply chain allows, subsequently, to identify the reality being analyzed with one or more types of economic models of circular economy (Lacy, Rutqvust, Lamonica, 2016): circular supply chain from the beginning; recovery, reuse and recycling of resources; lengthening of the product life; sharing platforms, and produced as a service. For the evaluation of the value generated we intend to focus on environmental value, through the formulation of a multiple indicator of circularity, as suggested also by the Public Consultation Document prepared by the Ministry of the Environment in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development (July 2017). In this way it is possible to obtain a circularity balance related to an organization, a product, a service, or territory, which guarantees greater transparency, enhancing virtuous actions and unmasking “green washing” operations. With this in mind, it is important not only to highlight the real value generated in environmental terms, but also in social (inclusion) and cultural terms (promotion of the common good), thus deepening the theme of the motivation behind the start of an enterprise, product, service, or event inspired by the principles of circular economy. The category of cultural events, on the other hand, is analyzed, also through the time and nature variables of the organizing body, and then through an analysis of the cultural offer proposed in terms of audience development and capacity building in relation to the circular economy issues. In addition to the four sectors mentioned above, always taking advantage of the app data, it is considered interesting to explore a fifth category of analysis, consumers, made up of users of the app. Once a statistically significant number has been reached, it is intended to delve into three issues. The first two concern the way in which the app became known and the verification of previous knowledge of what the circular economy was. This is to verify the ability of the app to spread and expand in non-homologous contexts to its cultural reference domain. The third question is related to the effectiveness of the app: how much is actually perceived as useful by the user and how much it contributes to directing expenditure towards the circular economy

What really matters? Systemic Design, motivations and values of the Circular Economy companies in Italy.

Since 2014, the Circular Economy (CE) concept is gaining an important role in the European context thanks to the specific direction given by the EU policy. This research wants to frame Italian companies who are working on CE context to understand mainly which is their approach and awareness to CE and if the design is playing a role in this transition. At the beginning of 2019, an online questionnaire was sent to the actors present in the app database ‘Mercato Circolare’ who, since March 2017, is mapping the Italian situation collecting the actors related to the CE selecting companies, events and experiences of circular citizenship. Despite the response rate was 14%, the results are interesting: 100% are SMEs; 21% are not aware to work on CE; >52% identified difficulties with value appreciation; design competencies are present in the 66% of realities and in 29% the designers by formation are founders

Economia, cultura, città l’esperienza di Pop Economix dal teatro civile alle applicazioni multimediali

Questo short-paper ripercorre le grandi questioni economiche che toccano la città contemporanea: il paradosso della felicità, la tragedia dei beni comuni e le disuguaglianze socio-economiche per accendere i riflettori sul senso e sul ruolo dell’economia civile e delle relazioni. Per promuovere questa idea di economia nasce nel 2013 Pop Economix. Si tratta di un progetto culturale che fin dalle sue origini si struttura e definisce come progetto a vocazione interdisciplinare, sia per quanto riguarda i linguaggi utilizzati sia per quanto riguarda i contenuti. Pop Economix parte dal teatro e dalla sua funzione civile per collocare questo mezzo espressivo nel gioco sempre più espanso e partecipato della comunicazione multimediale e multimodale a servizio di un’informazione e divulgazione sui temi economici, ambientali e sociali. La nuova produzione teatrale, “Blue revolution. L’economia ai tempi dell’usa e getta”, ha visto la generazione di un così elevato numero di contenuti, dati e storie di qualità che, non potendo essere utilizzati tutti ai fini dello spettacolo, sono stati oggetto di una rielaborazione editoriale che ha avuto come esito la pubblicazione di un’applicazione per smartphone, “Mercato circolare”. Attraverso l’uso di questa app è possibile raccogliere dati ed ottenere un bilancio di circolarità relativo a una organizzazione, a un prodotto, un servizio, o territorio, che garantisca maggiore trasparenza, valorizzando le azioni virtuose e smascherando le operazioni di green washing. / This short-paper starts reminding such fundamental economic issues affecting the contemporary city as the happiness paradox, the tragedy of commons and the social and economic inequalities, in order to highlight the meaning and the role of the civil and relational economy. Pop economix was born in 2013 to promote this idea of economy and is a cultural project, which has been inter-disciplinary since the beginning both for the used language and for the presented contents. The Pop Economix action begins with performances and with the theatre civil mission: widespreading the use of theatre in the domain of the multi-media and multi-modal communication serving the information on economic, environmental and social issues. The most recent piece “Blue revolution. L’economia ai tempi dell’usa e getta” implied the generation of numerous contents, data and stories which could not be used for performances, but contributed to the realization of an app for smart devices, called “Mercato circolare”. Throughout the use of this app it was possible to collect data and compile a circularity balance related to an organization, a product, a service, a territory, which ensure more transparency, giving value to virtuous actions and unmasking green washing operations

What really matters? Systemic Design, motivations and values of the Circular Economy companies in Italy

Since 2014, the Circular Economy (CE) concept is gaining an important role in the European context thanks to the specific direction given by the EU policy. This research wants to frame Italian companies who are working on CE context to understand mainly which is their approach and awareness to CE and if the design is playing a role in this transition. At the beginning of 2019, an online questionnaire was sent to the actors present in the app database ‘Mercato Circolare’ who, since March 2017, is mapping the Italian situation collecting the actors related to the CE selecting companies, events and experiences of circular citizenship. Despite the response rate was 14%, the results are interesting: 100% are SMEs; 21% are not aware to work on CE; >52% identified difficulties with value appreciation; design competencies are present in the 66% of realities and in 29% the designers by formation are founders

Overall survival in the OlympiA phase III trial of adjuvant olaparib in patients with germline pathogenic variants in BRCA1/2 and high-risk, early breast cancer

International audienc