Smart cities and local development. An European approach

The pursuit of new development paths is one of the main challenge of the knowledge economy and a central pillar of European policies. The underlying theoretical elaboration relies on the concept “smartness” which is a successful example of a semantic container that goes beyond its literal interpretation and implicit meaning for advocating a remarkable variety of attributes. Basically, it can be applied to both the demand and the supply-side of the markets, and presents some recurring common elements. First, the centrality of technological innovation and, in particular, the growing potential of ICT. Second, the diffusion of the networks, which connect the ICT infrastructure with those intangible assets related to knowledge innovative services (KIS), the organization of knowledge, and cultural activities. Third, the crucial role of transferrable knowledge and human capital. Another distinguishing characteristic of smartness concerns the bottom-up approach, which leverages on the vocation of each individual component of the system and the communities involved. The need for a bottom-up process is linked especially to the centrality of the phases of listening, participation, co-design, dissemination and exchange of information, and leads to the collaboration between the different agents involved. This requirement is interlocked with the theme of governance, viewed as a system consisting of a plurality of multi- agents based on the effectiveness of the adjustment, the large degree of freedom granted to individuals, on accountability of the actors involved. This paper aims at representing the different meanings of the smart city, smart development and smart specialisation in function of local development policies. In particular, the research question underlying this study concerns the meaning of the adjective "smart" when it is attached to cities and communities. In addition, the paper addresses specific research questions dealing with the importance of human capital in driving the evolution of urban areas in a smart perspective and the possible role of different levels of government in promoting the development of smart cities and communities in accordance with Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and, more specifically, with the Smart Cities and Communities Initiative (SCC) promoted by the European Union in 2012. In order to cope exhaustively with these topics we need to develop both a theoretical interpretation of the concept, and an identification of appropriate indicators aimed at measuring the level of smartness of urban areas. Both steps of the analysis must be performed in accordance with the different smart city dimensions identified in the literature and within the broader perspective of sustainable urban development.