Between consultation and collaboration: Self-reported objectives for 25 web-based geoparticipation projects in urban planning

Web-based participatory mapping technologies are being increasingly harnessed by local governments to crowdsource local knowledge and engage the public in urban planning policies as a means of increasing the transparency and legitimacy of planning processes and decisions. We refer to these technologies as “geoparticipation”. Current...

User Acceptance of Technology: Statistical Analysis of Training’s Impact on Local Government Employees’ Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease-of-Use

This article investigates how training public officials from two municipalities in Spain and Cyprus with new technologies affects three dependent variables: level of understanding of the technological innovation being introduced, its perceived usefulness, and its perceived ease-of-use. The tests to determine the impact of training were carried...

Web-based participatory mapping in informal settlements: The slums of Caracas, Venezuela

This article explores the potential of web-based participatory mapping tools for urban planning purposes and spatial information creation in informal settlements, i.e. the slums (barrios) of Caracas, Venezuela. While an increasing use of mapping tools is found in developed countries, fewer applications are found in informal settlements of...

Institutional fragmentation in megaprojects: Lessons from the Metro C project in Rome

A strategic infrastructure project in Rome, Italy, and namely the Metro C line, is presented here for scrutinising how institutional frameworks and governance arrangements shape megaproject implementation. On the one side, we look at legal endowments and institutional reforms related to a still incomplete territorial rescaling; on the other...

The Impact of the Community Infrastructure Levy on English Local Authorities' Planning Practice

The English system of developer contributions, planning obligations, remained unchanged between 1990 and 2010 and attracted major criticisms of causing slow, opaque, unaccountable planning processes. In 2010, the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was introduced to reform planning obligations and deliver a faster, more transparent, certain and...

Beyond Information-Sharing. A Typology Of Government Challenges And Requirements For Two-Way Social Media Communication With Citizens

Despite great advances in ICT, social media, participatory platforms and mobile apps, we seem to still be locked in the one‑way communication “paradigm” where information flows unilaterally from government to citizens and seldom vice‑versa. As a result, citizens are more receivers rather than conscious producers of information, data, ideas,...

The transfer of development rights in the midst of the economic crisis: Potential, innovation and limits in Italy

The paper deals with the transfer of development rights (TDR) in Italy. It presents a comparative analysis of the TDR programs implemented in the twelve capital cities of the Lombardy region in the past decade. After introducing the international debate on TDR and the distinctive features of the transfer of development rights in Italy, the...

Challenges to government use of social media

The use of different kinds of social media by government has been steadily increasing over the last decade. National, regional and local governments often employ social media to communicate and interact with citizens, organizations and/or other government agencies. However, as many authors highlight, the use of social media by government has...

Beyond technology: Identifying local government challenges for using digital platforms for citizen engagement

Previous research has highlighted that there is a lack of advanced technological solutions able to foster government-citizens collaboration. We argue that many examples of digital participatory platforms are already available and also ready to use for governments and citizens. Hence, causes for ineffective citizen engagement and collaboration...

Digital Participatory Platforms for Co-Production in Urban Development: A Systematic Review

A renewed interest has appeared in citizen co-production of public services due to financial pressure on governments. While social media are considered an important facilitator, many digital participatory platforms (DPPs) have been developed to facilitate co-production between citizens and governments<br/>in the context of urban development....

Smart governance in the context of smart cities: A literature review

This literature review has focused on smart governance as an emerging domain of study that attracts significant scientific and policy attention. More specifically, this paper aims to provide more insight in the definitions of and relationships between smart governance and concepts such as smart and electronic government, in the context of smart...

Land Value Recapture in Italy: A Detailed History, TDR Practices and Case Studies

Land value recapture has always been a controversial subject. In many countries there have been and there are different experiences that deal with the common objective of sharing with the wider community the benefits that derive from the development of land. Different approaches are the consequence of diverse private property regimes, planning...

Protection of coastal areas in Italy: Where do national landscape and urban planning legislation fail?

Italian coastal areas have been subject to strong anthropogenic pressure and urbanization processes over the past 60 years. Urbanization of the protected 300-m strip from shoreline has reached levels of over fifty per cent in some parts of the country. This article, by building on previous quantitative analyses and by providing some more...

Smart City L’Aquila: An Application of the “Infostructure” Approach to Public Urban Mobility in a Post-Disaster Context

Ever since the earthquake of April 6, 2009 hit the city of L’Aquila, Italy, the city has been facing major challenges in terms of social, physical, and economic reconstruction. The system of public urban mobility, the bus network, is no exception with its old bus fleet, non-user-friendly information, and poor scheduling. This paper argues that...