innovation: what makes it urban? GRAZIA CONCILIO Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

OUTLINE! The failed promises of urban smartness! What innovation for urban challenges! Cities as enablers of innovation! How do cities scale up innovation?! Towards purposeful learning cities! Quoted references

The failed promises of urban smartness! Is ICT infrastructuring the (unique) key for smart innovation?! Are highly ICT infrastructured environments and services able to meet citizens needs experienced in everyday life inside urban environments?! Can approaches to urban innovation strictly driven by technologies be the best way to develop programmes of urban intelligence able to deal with contemporary urban challenges?

The failed promises of urban smartness 2013

The failed promises of urban smartness 2016

What innovation for urban challenges

What innovation for urban challenges WE CALL THIS! FRUGAL INNOVATION (Molinari, 2016)! CITIZENS DRIVEN INNOVATION (Eskelinen et al., 2015)! PROBLEMS DRIVEN INNOVATION

What innovation for urban challenges Innovation in a city CANNOT BE! financially and environmentally expensive! independent from local culture and life standards/practices (MORE OF THE SAME IS NOT ENOUGH!)! a solution looking for a problem (marked/technology driven)

What innovation for urban challenges even when INNOVATION IS SCALED UP TO THE URBAN, REGIONAL OR NATIONAL SCALE, this DOES NOT GUARANTEE it solves urgent critical urban/global challenges we NEED DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION, but NOT WHATEVER INNOVATION we need innovation that is able to INVERT CURRENT TRENDS OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES

What innovation for urban challenges Just one example Many cities announced their OD strategies as a relevant step towards innovation Are disclosed data really relevant for dealing with important, challenging problems? What innovation can they nurture?

Cities as enablers of innovation! MARKET: A DOOR TO INNOVATION SCALING-UP. It relates to innovation trading and deals creation.! RESOURCE POT: A SHOP OF RESOURCES, A KNOWLEDGE REPOSITORY. It relates to assets available within a city framework both in terms of quality and variety: Cognitive resources Financial resources Relational resources Spatial resources

Cities as enablers of innovation! IDEARIUM: A TURBOLENT GAS OF IDEAS AND BRILLIANT INITIATIVES It takes into account the diffuse ability of a city to generate solutions to the high number of problems it generates; and the capacity of cities to catalyse creative energies, mainly by attracting skilled work-force.! PROBLEMS LAB: WHERE SOLUTIONS CAN BE TESTED The wicked (or ill-defined) nature of urban problems can only be fully understood by attempting their solutions.! POLICY ARENA: THE SPACE OF POLITICAL DISCOURSE, Meant as public debate on the common good, shaping the political agenda. It is the space of conflict, of social and civic learning. Of institutional innovation

Cities as enablers of innovation resource pot problems lab idearium ACTIVATORS innovation spheres political arena the urban market place RECEPTORS

How do cities scale up innovation? inception development transition

How do cities scale up innovation? inception development transition epiphanies ideas problems intuitions

How do cities scale up innovation? inception development transition Prototyping/Testing epiphanies ideas problems intuitions

How do cities scale up innovation? inception development transition Prototyping/Testing epiphanies ideas problems intuitions (Geels and Shot, 2007)

How do cities scale up innovation? Scaling up is resource consuming It may introduce changes which are not relevant And often those changes are conflictual, not synergic, in opposition

Towards purposeful learning cities Innovation schizofreny

Towards purposeful learning cities (RE)discovering the role of visions (Albrechts, 2016), the relevance of innovation alignment strategies, importance of sound collective/civic values

Towards purposeful learning cities towards relevant systemic changes (Wieczorek and Hekkert, 2012) not a mere methodological issue (Brown, 2009)

Towards purposeful learning cities innovation lab consequences acting discovering previous mental model co-designing new mental model not enough changes in action

Towards purposeful learning cities SCALING UP feedbacks (selective) scaling up to be conceived as an experiment so to make it a collective (urban) learning environment knowledge (output of innovation) to be a common good and not a competitive resource feedbacks for the innovation to be urban we need critical learning cities (McFarlene, 2011)

Quoted references Albrechts L. (2016) Strategic Planning as Long-Lasting Transformative Practice. In Concilio G., Rizzo F. (Eds.) (2016) Human Smart Cities. Rethinking the interplay between design and Planning. Springer, Dordrecht. Brown T. (2009) Change by design. Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. Harper Collins. Eskelinen J. Et al. (2015) Citizen-Driven Innovation : A Guidebook for City Mayors and Public Administrators. World Bank Group, Open knowledge repository. Geels F.W., Shot J. (2007) Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways. Research Policy 36, 399 417. Mc Farlane C. (2011) The city as a machine for learning. Trans Inst Br Geogr NS 36, 360 376. Molinari F. (2016) The Frugal Government Concept Revised. In Concilio G., Rizzo F. (Eds.) (2016) Human Smart Cities. Rethinking the interplay between design and Planning. Springer, Dordrecht. Wieczorek A.J., Hekkert M.P (2012) Systemic instruments for systemic innovation problems: A framework for policy makers and innovation scholars Science and Public Policy, Volume 39, Issue 1, 74 87,

http://www.faceboook.com/designscapesproject/ http://www.designscapes.eu Together with: Ilaria Tosoni (Politecnico di Milano), Francesco Molinari (ANCI Toscana), Nicola Morelli (Aalborg University), Ingrid Mulder (TU Delpht), Munir Abbasi (Surrey University) THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION Contact: grazia.concilio@polimi.it