The emergent city. Interactive relational systems between public administration and citizen to foster sustainable processes of urban development

Abstract

The widespread of Information and Communication Technologies and the consequently redefinition of roles in the usage and management of the city brought along new systems of relationships and interactions that produce an auto-organisation of territories or communities, showed also through temporary transformation of the environment. In effect, cities are continuously redefined by emergent properties that may, both be originated and then impact on social, political, cultural, and economical people practices. On the other hand, through the arrangement of its patterns the city shapes the social and connective relations occurring among people. So, the city can be regarded as a complex system, that in the last years has been expanded by the widespread of communication devices and sensors connected to the Internet. In this context, the design of new patterns of interactions that focuses on the new relationship opportunities, in part offered by the Information and Communication Technologies, but not limited to them, may significantly affect sustainable processes of urban development. This paper focuses on the civic aspect of the so-called smart cities, and, in details, on the relation between citizens and Public Administration. Some existing interaction patterns are illustrated in order to support the visualisation of the dynamic relationships between citizens and Public Administration, while new possible relations derived by the interaction with the urban space are supposed.