Bulk and interfacial stresses in suspensions of soft and hard colloids

We explore the influence of particle softness and internal structure on both the bulk and interfacial rheological properties of colloidal suspensions. We probe bulk stresses by conventional rheology, by measuring the flow curves, shear stress vs strain rate, for suspensions of soft, deformable microgel particles and suspensions of near hard-sphere-like silica particles. A similar behavior is seen for both kind of particles in suspensions at concentrations up to the random close packing volume fraction, in agreement with recent theoretical predictions for sub-micron colloids. Transient interfacial stresses are measured by analyzing the patterns formed by the interface between the suspensions and their own solvent, due to a generalized Saffman-Taylor hydrodynamic instability. At odd with the bulk behavior, we find that microgels and hard particle suspensions exhibit vastly different interfacial stress properties. We propose that this surprising behavior results mainly from the difference in particle internal structure (polymeric network for microgels vs compact solid for the silica particles), rather than softness alone.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure

Urban regeneration in the digital era: how to develop Smart City strategies in large european cities. La rigenerazione urbana nell’era digitale: come sviluppare strategie Smart City in città europee di grandi dimensioni.

La ricerca documentata in questo articolo è stata svolta allo scopo di approfondire la conoscenza relativa ai processi di sviluppo delle strategie che consentono alle città di diventare Smart. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo sono state analizzate le strategie proposte dalle amministrazioni comunali di Amsterdam e Barcellona. Due casi di successo che hanno permesso di delineare una step-by step roadmap in cui è stato descritto un possibile approccio per costruire strategie Smart City in città Europee di grandi dimensioni. Nonostante il suo stadio di sviluppo iniziale, questa procedura fornisce nuova conoscenza, prospettive di ricerca innovative, e un modello concettuale per sostenere lo svolgimento di ulteriori ricerche comparative. Un’attività indispensabile per garantire la sua continua crescita e il perfezionamento della sua struttura.The study documented in this paper has been carried out in order to acquire new knowledge concerning the development processes of smart city strategies. This aim has been achieved through the analysis of the initiatives proposed by the municipal administrations of Amsterdam and Barcelona. Two successful cases that have allowed to outline a step-by-step roadmap in which a possible approach for developing smart city strategies in large European cities is described. Despite its early stage of development, this procedure provides new knowledge, innovative research perspectives, and a conceptual framework for supporting future comparative research and theory-building. Activities that are fundamental to ensure its continuous growth and the refinement of its structure

Come costruire una Smart City. Esperienze a confronto e nuovi scenari di sviluppo

A FPA da anni seguiamo le politiche, i processi e i progetti di smart city. Alla smart city, ai suoi modelli e alle sue pratiche abbiamo negli anni dedicato un’intera manifestazione: Smart City Exhibition, trasformata quest’anno in ICity Lab, la due giorni di ottobre interamente focalizzata sui dati e sui processi di Data Driven Decision nelle città intelligenti. FPA cura, inoltre, il rapporto nazionale ICity Rate dedicato alle città capoluogo italiane, di cui misura e analizza su vari livelli il valore e il grado di innovatività. Da sempre attenti alle innovazioni territoriali, con un particolare interesse ai contesti urbani italiani, FPA contribuisce attraverso le sue attività e i suoi canali a far avanzare il dibattito sui tema dello sviluppo urbano, in chiave socio-tecnologica. Nel farlo interagisce con una community di contributor e collaboratori, attraverso laboratori, progetti sui territori e attività divulgative. La presente pubblicazione, raccoglie il lavoro di due collaboratori della testata www.forumpa.it proprio sul tema della Smart City: Luca Mora e Roberto Bolici, di cui trovate a seguire una breve bio. L’introduzione è di Chiara Buongiovanni, che per FPA segue i temi dell’innovazione sociale e dell’economia collaborativa in contesti urbani. In chiusura una nota di Gianni Dominici, direttore generale FPA e coordinatore ICity Rate e Valentina Piersanti, curatrice ICity Rate 2016

Urban regeneration in the digital era: how to develop smart city strategies in large European cities

The study documented in this paper has been carried out in order toacquire new knowledge concerning the development processes of smart city strategies. This aim has been achieved through the analysis of the initiatives proposed by the municipal administrations of Amsterdam and Barcelona. Two successful cases that have allowed to outline a step-by-step roadmap in which a possible approach for developing smart city strategies in large European cities is described. Despite its early stage of development, this procedure provides new knowledge, innovative research perspectives, and a conceptual framework for supporting future comparative research and theory building.Activities that are fundamental to ensure its continuous growth and the refinement of its structure

Developing Synergies Between Social Entrepreneurship and Urban Planning: Evidence from Six European Cities

For more than two decades, entrepreneurship has been promoted as an effective means to advance the aims of urban development. Social entrepreneurship, more specifically, is seen as a driver of urban innovation and experimentation at the local level. Nevertheless, in-depth research about the opportunities that arise from the coordination of urban planning with social entrepreneurship policy at the local level is lacking. Inspired by this realisation, the research presented in this paper investigates six European cities (Terrassa, Spain; Göteborg, Sweden; Torino, Italy; Lisbon, Portugal; Porto, Portugal; and Hengelo, the Netherlands) that have adopted a coordinated approach to promote social entrepreneurship in their territory. We identify the developmental benefits sought by these cities in promoting social entrepreneurship, the ways in which urban planning supports social entrepreneurship policy and vice versa, and the key challenges that cities face in pursing this. We conclude that the coordination of urban planning with social entrepreneurship policy is an emergent, interdisciplinary field with high growth potential given the current socio-economic challenges facing cities. However, the lack of awareness, expertise, actionable data and formal processes stand in the way of realising this potential

The development process of smart city strategies: the case of Barcelona

No abstract available

Exploring the Big Picture of Smart City Research

This paper analyses the big picture of the smart city research field by means of a bibliometric analysis of the literature on smart cities produced between 1992 and 2012. The findings show that this new field of scientific inquiry has started to grow significantly only in recent years, mainly thanks to European universities and US companies. Its intellectual structure is complex and lacks cohesion due to the infinite possible combinations among the building blocks and components characterising the smart city concept. However, despite this complexity, the bibliometric analysis made it possible to identify three structural axes that traverse the literature, capture the main research perspectives, and reveal some key aspects of this new city planning and development paradigm

The collaboration dilemma in smart city projects: Time to ask the right questions

This Connexions article links collaboration in smart city projects, a contemporary and undertheorised social challenge, with theories on assemblage thinking, organisation, and public value creation. Using this multidisciplinary lens, we critically analyse smart city theory and expose the inability of prevailing collaborative models to properly account for the complexities of real-world practices. Building on our observations, we formulate a new and more robust theoretical perspective on smart city collaboration, which helps us trigger new research questions that focus on procedural, relational and diversity factors previously ignored