Sustainable urban regeneration policy making: Inclusive participation practice

Abstract

In physical and economic planning at both urban and regional scale, the role of participation is a key element of the planning process. Participation is often linked to organization forms (we call it “structures of participation”) that find a heterogeneous applications in the Urban Center model. This work analyses the first results of Project CAST (Active Citizenship for Sustainable Development of Territory), especially those related to the neighbourhood of Poggio Tre Galli in Potenza (Italy), where the test of a traditional/technological participatory approach has allowed the development of urban regeneration scenarios characterized by an inclusive approach “Citizens centred”. This is an operative contribution in terms of Inclusive Smart Planning, and so of evolutionary 2.0 approaches oriented to an inclusive and participative urban management through ICT tools. A singular feature of the ICT platform developed during the project CAST is the integration of management tools and streaming analysis of the main social networks with a SDI. The experience, described both in quantitative terms and as a strategic design of urban regeneration at neighbourhood scale, shows from one hand the request of bottom-up contributions, especially from institutions (i.e. Municipality), on the other hand, the need to test effective solutions to balance the commitment to manage and configure complex information systems according to quality results. Research perspectives look at the definition of webassisted procedures for the participation in urban and territorial government choices that can reinforce bottom-up practices such as DSS, starting from ICT tools tested during the project CAST.