Exploring Transformative Approaches to Contemporary Territorial Challenges: Between Advocacy, Coproduction and Entrepreneurial Approaches

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic and energy crisis have presented social challenges in European cities and regions that require attention at multiple levels. It is widely acknowledged that these challenges must be addressed at the local level (Brenner, 2019), where community relationships can provide a more nuanced understanding of the issues and opportunities (Cellamare, 2008). The pandemic has emphasised the need for more resilient, sustainable, and equitable cities, as long-distance mobility-based urban development models have been shown to be ineffective, revealing widespread inequalities across cities and regions (Florida et al., 2021; Moreno et al., 2021; Tricarico and De Vidovich, 2021). The energy and geopolitical crisis highlight the need for a transition towards a decentralised infrastructure that can mitigate the effects of climate change and their impact on the vulnerability of cities and territories (Moroni and Tricarico, 2018). To achieve this, a transition towards more democratic governance of urban dynamics is required, with a focus on fostering closer community connections, increasing social capital, promoting social integration, and reducing reliance on unsustainable development models (Pelling, 2012). Failure to meet these demands and ignoring the context risks exacerbating the "geography of discontent," leading to the loss of trust in national and supranational institutions and traditional political parties (Dijkstra et al., 2020), and the rise of radical, intolerant, and populist political positions.

Cities are responding to these challenges by exploring new ways of increasing their "social innovation factor" to reduce the distance between centres and margins through transformative economic, social, and political empowerment practices. Social innovation approaches and bottom-up initiatives can provide valuable insights into new units of analysis and organisational phenomena and suggest new ways of framing the urgent social challenges that traditional top–down regional development policy or zoning planning often ignore or tackle with poor results (Barone and De Blasio, 2022).

The purpose of this Special Issue is to collect state-of-the-art research that examines these new urban realities and explores the themes of advocacy, co-production and entrepreneurial initiatives connected to social innovation and transformative economies (Tricarico et al., 2022 A; LabSU DICEA and Fairwatch, 2023). In particular, we are seeking contributions that focus on three critical issues:

1. Local advocacy groups in marginal areas: Analysing the role of community-based formal and informal organisations in claiming for power through self-organisations in education, cultural, local welfare, and co-housing activities to improve life conditions in marginalised areas, such as peripheries or inner cities. By exploring and highlighting the experiences of local advocacy groups, research contributions in this field can provide valuable information about alternative forms of urban governance that prioritise the needs of local communities, with far-reaching implications for urban planning and policy (Swyngedouw et al., 2002; Cellamare, 2020; Beveridge and Koch, 2022)
2. Urban regeneration initiatives led by place-based institutional schemes: This section will examine co-production in urban regeneration initiatives, where community-based organisations and local coalitions works in collaboration with public administration and/or within the framework of national policy, experimenting community engagement practices and/or participatory urban design processes, delivering a multi-layered governance scheme able to meet different stakeholders interests  (Mangialardo and Micelli, 2018, 2021). We also look at contributions focusing on the analysis of effective governance processes among stakeholders formalised through partnerships and collaborative networks that allow for a more integrated and holistic approach to urban asset strategic management (Tricarico et al., 2022 B).
3. Open social innovation programs: This section welcomes contributions that explore the role of innovation ecosystems and R&D investment policies in promoting local businesses and entrepreneurial solutions for local sustainability challenges (Tricarico et al., 2021). These solutions often embody a unique combination of local knowledge, resources, and creativity, and their effectiveness in addressing sustainability challenges can be a valuable source of insight for policymakers, financial actors, and practitioners alike. In particular, we are interested in place-based impact economy initiatives to foster new social innovation opportunities. This may include case studies of specific initiatives, comparative analysis of different approaches, and assessments of the effectiveness of various policies and programs aimed at promoting both technological innovation and social impact (Chesbrough and Da Minin, 2014).

References:

• Barone, G. and Blasio, G.de (2023) Place-based policies in the Italian case, part 1: A lot of money for little or no growth, CEPR. Available at: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/place-based-policies-italian-case-part-1-lot-money-little-or-no-growth (Accessed: February 7, 2023).
• Beveridge R., Koch P. (2022), How Cities Can Transform Democracy, Polity Press, London
• Brenner, N. (2019). New urban spaces: Urban theory and the scale question. Oxford University Press.
• Cellamare, C. (2020). Città fai-da-te: tra antagonismo e cittadinanza. Storie di autorganizzazione urbana. Donzelli Editore.
• Cellamare, C. (2008). Fare città: pratiche urbane e storie di luoghi. Milan: Elèuthera.
• Chesbrough, H. and Di Minin, A. (2014) Open social innovation. New frontiers in open innovation. In: Chesbrough, H., Vanhaverbeke, W., and West, J. (eds.), New Frontiers in Open Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 169– 187.
• Dijkstra, L., Poelman, H., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2020). The geography of EU discontent. Regional Studies, 54(6), 737-753.
• Florida, R., Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Storper, M. (2021). Cities in a post-COVID world. Urban Studies, 00420980211018072.
• LabSU DICEA, Fairwatch (2023). Reti di Mutualismo e poli civici a Roma. Osservatorio delle rete romane di mutualismo e sperimentazione di centri civici a supporto dello sviluppo locale integrale delle periferie. https://www.carteinregola.it/index.php/la-capitale-che-ce-gia-la-ricerca-sulle-reti-dei-poli-civici-di-roma/
• Mangialardo, A., & Micelli, E. (2021). Grass-roots participation to enhance public real estate properties. Just a fad?. Land Use Policy, 103, 105290.
• Mangialardo, A., & Micelli, E. (2018). From sources of financial value to commons: Emerging policies for enhancing public real‐estate assets in Italy. Papers in Regional Science, 97(4), 1397-1408.
• Moreno, C., Allam, Z., Chabaud, D., Gall, C., & Pratlong, F. (2021). Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, resilience and place identity in future post-pandemic cities. Smart Cities, 4(1), 93-111.
• Moroni, S., & Tricarico, L. (2018). Distributed energy production in a polycentric scenario: policy reforms and community management. Journal of environmental planning and management, 61(11), 1973-1993.
• OECD (2021) “Building Local Ecosystems for Social Innovation: A Methodological Framework”. Available at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/industry-and-services/building-local-ecosystems-for-social-innovation_bef867cd-en
• Pelling, M. (2012). The vulnerability of cities: natural disasters and social resilience. Routledge.
• Swyngedouw, E., Moulaert, F., & Rodriguez, A. (2002). Neoliberal urbanization in Europe: large–scale urban development projects and the new urban policy. Antipode, 34(3), 542-577.
• Tricarico, L., De Vidovich, L., & Billi, A. (2022 A). Entrepreneurship, inclusion or co-production? An attempt to assess territorial elements in social innovation literature. Cities, 130, 103986.
• Tricarico, L., Jones, Z. M., & Daldanise, G. (2022 B). Platform Spaces: When culture and the arts intersect territorial development and social innovation, a view from the Italian context. Journal of Urban Affairs, 44(4-5), 545-566.
• Tricarico, L., & De Vidovich, L. (2021). Proximity and post-COVID-19 urban development: Reflections from Milan, Italy. Journal of Urban Management, 10(3), 302-310.
• Tricarico, L., Bitetti, R., & Buonanno, F. (2021). Can we shape social innovation-based urban policy? Reflections on the fondo per l’innovazione sociale strategy in Milan. Economia & lavoro, 55(1), 121-138.
• Tricarico, L. (2018). Community energy enterprises in the distributed energy geography: A review of issues and potential approaches. International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, 18, 81-94.

Dr. Luca Tricarico
Prof. Dr. Carlo Cellamare
Prof. Dr. Ezio Micelli
Guest Editors

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• transformative economy
• co-production
• advocacy planning
• urban regeneration
• local sustainable development
• social innovation
• open social innovation
• local innovation ecosystems
• territorial policy