Discussions at this ASL seminar got underway with the observation that the idea of smart cities has come to prominence worldwide as a driver of development in urban areas. Indeed, in the currently unfolding process of polycentric globalization, the smart city has become a linchpin in the innovation ecosystem, a network node capable of galvanizing new energies for growth, with obvious benefits for national economies. But this process is not solely aimed at attracting investment: cities are smart if they are sustainable, and quality of life still remains one of the key indicators of the smartness of urban centers.
It was acknowledged, however, that in order to ensure livability and sustainability, it is not enough for smart cities to be ‘green’: they must also become a source of real development and prosperity. Hence, an integral part of this transformation is rethinking the role of cities as more than just centers of consumption, and envisioning them once more as places of production. It was suggested that the smart city of the future will need to be reimbued with ‘factories’ and productive verve. This does not entail a return to the chimney stacks that were so emblematic of the ‘unsustainable’ city of the Industrial Revolution, but rather the advent of new modes of production based on digital technologies and the optimization of human capital.
The challenge is on for Italy, which, aside from anything else, boasts urban centers that are no strangers to a paradigm that relies on technological means to revolutionize economic and social structures. Indeed, smart cities can be conceived as representing an agent of change not unlike that embodied by the motor car in the 1950s. During those years, on the back of what had happened in other countries, a mass industrial process not only succeeded in changing mobility conditions in Italy, but also had a profound impact on the country’s social, economic and cultural organization.
It was felt that today, from a governance perspective, the means at Italy’s disposal to seize the opportunities offered by smart cities is the ‘metropolitan city’. This governance structure, if vested with appropriate management powers, could become a factor of development, by consolidating the currently fragmented and dispersed potential of vast areas of the country. In a scenario marked by scarce resources, it was seen as crucial to capitalize on and coordinate better the many existing experimental and innovative experiences, as only effective governance of these processes can help create the country paradigms and strategies essential for development.
Also considered key to making Italy’s cities smart was human capital. In this regard, it was stressed that the issue of whether the digital revolution bears tangible fruit in the daily lives of citizens is, first and foremost, a cultural one. Technology, which is constantly being redefined, continues to be an essential ingredient, but it is education and training that makes the difference. It was noted that there is no shortage in Italy of experiences in this field, one such being the role that educational institutions have played in helping to spread smart practices such as recycling. In raising environmental awareness and calling attention to differentiated waste collection, schools, with their student population of 8 million and wider contact base of 30 million people, have been and will continue to be one of the main vehicles for kick-starting the transformation to smarter – and hence better – cities.
Indeed, starting with education, the aim of smart cities is to make institutions more accessible to citizens. It was predicted that with the help of technology, cities of the future will be able to bridge the gap between services and users, with the extensive range of areas to which this could be applied spanning energy, mobility, health and justice, without forgetting one of Italy’s economic powerhouse industries, namely: tourism. Even so, no development strategy for cities can neglect to address the issue of investment in infrastructure, which should include as major priorities both communications and (broadband) digital connectivity. It was stressed, however, that the planning of such investment should focus on serving the common good, with every euro spent on the construction of smart cities producing a twofold benefit, that is, satisfying the demand for development on one hand, and meeting on the other the social needs of citizens, who – being the very people that will inhabit such cities – are in a position to contribute to making the country’s urban centers both vibrant and smart.