Designing a Social Urban Networks to Promote Smart Participation in Matera (Italy).

A Smart City is a place in which innovative technologies and ICT-based solutions coexist with an active citizen participation in order to tackle effectively major challenges in urban development. This paper aims at contributing to the discussion on how the use of technologies can foster an active engagement of citizens, discussing the example of a Social Urban Network developed for the town of Matera (SUN4Matera), that has been awarded European Capital of Culture 2019. The SUN4Matera has been developed within the "Smart Basilicata" R&I Project, on the basis of a prototype designed for L'Aquila town (Annunziato and Pede 2012), aimed at producing integrated information for the valorization of community knowledge assets and facilitating the sharing of new ideas. The proposed approach is based on an in-depth analysis of the local community, considering citizen feedback since the design phase. To this end, an innovative methodology based on an argumentative and participative approach was adopted supported by structured interviews with citizens, stakeholders and tourists (in January 2014) by a multidisciplinary staff to identify a core set of priorities and sustainable behaviours. These informal interviews overcome the limits of traditional research and socio-anthropology reportages, experimenting a multitasking approach to collect deep needs, wishes, creative ideas and enhancing individual freedom and capacities. Based on the priorities identified by the survey, the SUN4Matera will contribute to people empowerment by facilitating the exchange of tangible/intangible assets and services, fostering initiatives to support socially vulnerable groups, and implementing multilayer interactive areas and interactive tools for tourists and citizens.