This chapter explores an innovative approach to open policy-making and citizen-responsive urban planning. It reports on the ongoing project MiraMap carried out by the Politecnico di Torino from 2013. It started creating a crowdmap, engaging both citizens and the Public Administration in a reporting process concerning issues, and resources within the Mirafiori Sud administrative area of Turin (Italy), until it became a digital collaborative platform. It was a real case study geared at evaluating the use of open source technologies. MiraMap has been set up by integrating current administrative management process and involving new actors in the decision-making process. Today, the project is focusing mostly on encouraging forms of co-design and co-production, including gaming components. The chapter seeks to set up a methodological and technological framework, by addressing the complexity of urban planning and integrating the perspectives of citizens through their actual engagement.
Top1. Introduction
Nowadays, attention to citizens’ participation and interaction in decision-making is central to the debate about Smart Cities. Technological progress has enabled the creation (Silva, 2010) and rapid evolution (Geertman & Stillwell, 2009) of a new form of urban planning—referred to as e-planning—that incorporates the traditional elements of urban planning into information communication technology (ICT).
ICT are integrated in everyday life and continuously evolving. They include portable digital devices (digital cameras, mobile phones and laptops, and so on), but also a range of applications and online services, such as email, photo and video sharing platforms, Web 2.0 and social media. According to Saad-Sulonen (Saad-Sulonen, 2012; Hespanhol et al., 2018) “the participatory e-planning can be defined as the site of active stakeholder involvement, not only in the traditional collaborative urban planning activities, but also in the co-production and sharing of media content, as well as in the configuration of the supporting technologies”.
Nevertheless, in many cases technological solutions have been proposed without fully considering either first needs and usability by citizens (Calzada & Cobo, 2015) or the socio-technical misalignment within the city (Rogers, 2010), i.e. the peripheral areas.
Within the conceptual framework of experimental knowledge regarding the use of ICT in policy-making, one of the central topics that emerges is the configuration of a common spatial data infrastructure for territorial authorities during the analysis, decision-making and evaluation phases performed in support of planning policies and land management at different levels.
On the basis of the above, this chapter discusses the assumption of the Smart City’s transition from technological determinism to open access and user-centred systems in which the smart use of information can increase transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration (Calzada & Cobo, 2014; Grimm, Fox, Baines, & Albertson, 2013; Mulgan, 2007) in urban planning and programming.
The study group defined the following research questions while structuring the conceptual framework:
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Can ICT support active and effective citizen participation in urban planning processes? How can we design and set up a collaborative digital platform involving citizens and Local Authorities to foster active citizenship and accountability/transparency in the Public Administration?
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How can we combine physical and digital proximity in order to avoid the shortcomings of the use of social media, i.e. to respond to the people using them?
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How can data collected using technological tools be accessed and used, becoming a support for strategic urban planning and design?
The MiraMap project, which will be explained in the following sections, deals with the harmonization of data design in relation to Citizen-Public Administration interaction and the development of micro-urban planning scenarios supported and activated by the digital platform that need to be assessed in a forward-looking, dynamic way.
Top2. Decision Making, Public Choice And The Space Of Participation In Laws And Policies
The contemporary processes and dynamics of designing and governing our cities are devices that allow for the analysis of existing planning tools and norms. The crisis of the old planning paradigms constitutes an incontrovertible fact (Hall, 2012; Jacobs, 1961; Sennett, 2003), having offered a framework for setting up unsuccessful plans. Already in 1961 Jane Jacobs introduced her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities as “an attack on current city planning and rebuilding.” In more recent times, several eminent authors, such as Richard Sennett, Peter Hall and Luigi Mazza, solidly criticised existing urban planning as it is currently implemented.