smart city: inquietudini e narrazioni

The article summarizes a process of reflections and research at the PhD course in Urban and Territorial Planning, PDTA Department at Sapienza University of Rome, on the theme of smart cities. Undertaken since 2011, the research activities have been articulated in two doctoral theses and a seminar entitled "Smart Cities: the near future or just another myth?" in 2012. These researches aim to investigate the issue of smart cities by two different aspects: on the one hand trying to understand how smart city defines a new paradigm for urban development; on the other investigate practices related to that concept to highlight possible operational tools or any unexpected consequences. The article is then developed in two parts. The first part introduces some elements for an interpretation of the phenomenon mainly related to the spread of the concept into Italian experiences. The study notes that, from the outset of the emerging concept, the prevailing declination has been accompanied by a s

The article summarizes a process of reflections and research at the PhD course in Urban and Territorial Planning, PDTA Department at Sapienza University of Rome, on the theme of smart cities. Undertaken since 2011, the research activities have been articulated in two doctoral theses and a seminar entitled "Smart Cities: the near future or just another myth?" in 2012. These researches aim to investigate the issue of smart cities by two different aspects: on the one hand trying to understand how smart city defines a new paradigm for urban development; on the other investigate practices related to that concept to highlight possible operational tools or any unexpected consequences. The article is then developed in two parts. The first part introduces some elements for an interpretation of the phenomenon mainly related to the spread of the concept into Italian experiences. The study notes that, from the outset of the emerging concept, the prevailing declination has been accompanied by a strong promotion of new technologies, in particular in the energy and telecommunications. It was also associated with a significant interest for possible funding by tying the term smart city in a new market strategy. The obvious risks are those of trivializing the values related to the spread of the new concept of smart city and prevent questions about how to guide new policies towards a more integrated approach. As planners we may find the new concept potentially useful to regenerate cities and their public spaces according to ecologically and socially favorable attitudes, but undertaken practices seem to indicate another direction. To prove it we may look at the growing interest for performance as an ultimate government purpose: measuring levels of smartness through indicators and statistics can lead to approve only some solutions for issues related to different urban contexts as well as accentuate the gap between technologically advanced and other areas less attractive to economic investments. A recent publication by the Association of Italian Municipalities defines some guidelines towards an integrated design, but it's too early to know how it will be implemented. The second part of the article attempts to outline how some categories such as innovation, sustainability and global interconnection, underlying in the smart city concept, are absorbed in the exercises of prediction of the future and visioning that many governments in Europe and in the world are beginning to experiment. The discourses and narratives on smart cities have to be compared into a globalized, competitive and extremely changeable reality; strategies that different cities try to improve to respond the need for transition require different resources and capabilities over time and space. In this terms smart city becomes an opportunity to build a new vision of the future capable to bring coherence through shared strategies of action, but if we want to be successful throughout this process we need to recognize the importance of proceeding to a new definition of objectives to be achieved.