DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND SUSTAINABILITY - LABORATORY OF MULTISTAKEHOLDER URBAN PLATFORM DESIGN

Course objectives

The learning aims to give the overall knowledge to understand the points of contact between digital transformation and sustainability. Furthermore, it will give the student all the skills that will help him to develop a systemic planning approach. It will be oriented to the making of urban platforms in a multi-stakeholder logic that will be embraced as an instrument of planning and development based on the logic of digital sustainability. Specific objectives The course offers a training process, oriented to give the student all the necessary knowledge and skills both theoretical and practical related to the whole urban platform design process. The process will be oriented to sustainability, with particular reference to the systemic role of digital technology both seen as an instrument to the achievement of the sustainability goals, and as the main context to sustainable development from an environmental, social, and economic point of view. Dublin descriptor 1: this teaching aims at giving the students the necessary knowledge to hold responsibility roles concerning urban planning oriented to digital sustainability, in the Public Sphere (institutions, municipality, etc.), and also in the private sphere (factories, and service sector.) Dublin descriptor 2: particular focus is given to the development of specific skills necessary to analyse and comprehend – with specific reference to SDG11 (Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable)- the relationships between sustainability and digital technology, in order to develop the necessary planning skills to design multi-stakeholder-like urban platforms. Dublin descriptor 3: The workshop is oriented towards a designing dimension. The objective is thus the development of practical, critical, and judgment skills related to the subjects of the course. Dublin descriptor 4: it is necessary to work in an interdisciplinary climate, that is why the main objective is to give the students the relational skills to communicate with the most heterogeneous targets. Dublin descriptor 5: The themes connected to these subjects evolve with such fastness that the fundamental goal is to enable the attendees to keep updated autonomously once fulfilled the study. This goal will be reached by giving them the fundamental bibliographic reference, but also the main links to all the structures, research centres, and experts of the sector. The specific activities of the workshop will also enable the attendees to come into contact with the landmark links of the sector.

Channel 1
MARIA CAMILLA FRAUDATARIO Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program
The course is structured in two parts. The first part addresses digital transformation and sustainability, with particular focus on the role of digital transformation as a lever for sustainable development. Traditional research streams on the “environmental question” and unlimited economic growth will be examined, followed by an in-depth exploration of new theoretical perspectives within the “Sustainability Science.” These broad topics are approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, emphasizing the contributions of different scientific fields. In this context, the class includes, in addition to lectures, reading and discussion workshops on recent national and international contributions. The second part is dedicated to developing research skills through case studies and advanced methodological techniques, in contexts where data play a crucial role in informing and shaping evidence-based governance models. In-class working groups will be formed to enhance both the ability to design research projects with solid methodological foundations and the skill to analyze data from primary and secondary sources.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites are required
Books
Exam texts for attending students 1. Angelini A. & Pizzuto P., 2021, La società sostenibile. Manuale di ecologia umana. Franco Angeli (Parte I e Parte II). 2. Amato E., Fraudatario M.C., Lippi A., 2025, Governare lo sviluppo sostenibile nelle città metropolitane. Il caso di Firenze. Roma: Carocci Editore (Capitolo 1 e Capitolo 2 fino a pagina 44, paragrafo “Misurare per localizzare gli SDG”). 3 Agrosì G., 2022, La Smart city e la città comoda. Una nuova realtà futuristica “Smartiana”, Milano: Mimesis Edizioni (Parte I e Parte IV). 4. Choose between the book (4.1) or the pair of articles (4.2 and 4.3) 4.1 Ciaffi D., Crivello S., Mela A., 2020, Le città contemporanee. Prospettive sociologiche, Roma: Carocci (capitoli: V, VI, X). OR 4.2 Khavarian-Garmsir, A. R., Sharifi, A., Hajian Hossein Abadi, M., & Moradi, Z. (2023). From Garden City to 15-Minute City: A Historical Perspective and Critical Assessment. Land, 12(2), 512. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020512; 4.3 Mouratidis, K. (2024). Time to challenge the 15-minute city: Seven pitfalls for sustainability, equity, livability, and spatial analysis. Cities, 153, 105274. 5. Bocken, N. M., & Short, S. W. (2016). Towards a sufficiency-driven business model: Experiences and opportunities. Environmental innovation and societal transitions, 18, 41-61. Select 2 scientific articles from the list below: 1. Amato E., Bernaschi D., Fraudatario M.C., 2024, The Wicked Future of Cities: Localising Sustainable Development in the Case of the Metropolitan City of Florence. In: Lippi A., Tsekos T.N., (a cura di), Policy Capacity, Design and the Sustainable Development Goals: Wicked Problems in Uncertain Environments, Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited, ISBN-10 1804556874. 2. Fraudatario M., Bernaschi D., Amato E., 2023, Sustainable development: from global goals to local implications. The case of the Metropolitan City of Florence. In: Regional Studies and Local Development, 4(1), pp. 91-122. DOI: 10.14658/pupj-RSLD-2023-1-4. 3. Salvini A., Riccardo A., Vasca F., Psaroudakis I., “Inter-Organizational Networks, Social Capital and Third Sector. Emerging Features from Two Empirical Studies in Southern Italy”, in Ragozini G., Vitale M.P., (eds.), Challenges in Social Network Research. Methods and Applications, Switzerland: Springer, pp. 209-233 (2020). ISBN: 978-3-030-31462-0. 4. Riccardo A., “La Multilevel Analysis per lo studio delle reti di partecipazione urbana”, in De Toffoli M. e Laneri C. (eds.), “Confini, Identità e Cittadinanza. Uno sguardo multidisciplinare”, Edizioni Ets, pp. 159-172 (2021). ISBN: 978-884676154-5. 5. Ratner B. D., Larson A. M., Sarmiento Barletti J., El Didi H., Catacutan D., Flintan F., Suhardiman D., Falk T., and Meinzen-Dick R., 2022, Multistakeholder platforms for natural resource governance: lessons from eight landscape-level cases, Ecology and Society 27(2):2. 6. Fedeli V., et al., 2022, La città alla prova del capitalismo delle piattaforme. In: Urbanit. Settimo Rapporto sulle città, pp. 205-218. 7. Bennato D., 2020, Verso uno sviluppo tecnologicamente sostenibile. Strategie per un uso etico delle piattaforme digitali compatibile con gli SDGs, in Culture e Studi del Sociale, n. 1, pp. 43-59. 8. Djalali A., Gianfrate V., Longo D. & Vai E., 2019, An advanced design approach to support urban transformations through multi-stakeholders collaboration, Strategic Design Research Journal, volume 12, number 02, May-August 2019. 235-246. Exam texts for students not attending the class 1. Choose between manual 1.1 or manual 1.2 1.1 Angelini A. & Pizzuto P., 2021, La società sostenibile. Manuale di ecologia umana. Franco Angeli OR 1.2 Eriksen T.H., 2017, Fuori controllo. Un'antropologia del cambiamento accelerato 2. Agrosì G., 2022, La Smart City e la Città Comoda. Una Nuova realtà futurista “smartiana”, Mimesis Edizioni. 3. Choose between the book (3.1) or the pair of articles (3.2 and 3.3) 3.1 Ciaffi D., Crivello S., Mela A., 2020, Le città contemporanee. Prospettive sociologiche, Roma: Carocci (capitoli: V, VI, X). OR 3.2 Khavarian-Garmsir, A. R., Sharifi, A., Hajian Hossein Abadi, M., & Moradi, Z. (2023). From Garden City to 15-Minute City: A Historical Perspective and Critical Assessment. Land, 12(2), 512. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020512; 3.3 Mouratidis, K. (2024). Time to challenge the 15-minute city: Seven pitfalls for sustainability, equity, livability, and spatial analysis. Cities, 153, 105274. 4. Amato E., Fraudatario M.C., Lippi A., 2025, Governare lo sviluppo sostenibile nelle città metropolitane. Il caso di Firenze. Roma: Carocci Editore (Capitolo 1 e Capitolo 2 fino a pagina 44, paragrafo “Misurare per localizzare gli SDG”). 5. Epifani S., 2020, Sostenibilità digitale. Perché la sostenibilità non può fare a meno della trasformazione digitale, Digital transformation Istitute. 6. Bocken, N. M., & Short, S. W. (2016). Towards a sufficiency-driven business model: Experiences and opportunities. Environmental innovation and societal transitions, 18, 41-61. Select 2 scientific articles from the following list: 1. Amato E., Bernaschi D., Fraudatario M.C., 2024, The Wicked Future of Cities: Localising Sustainable Development in the Case of the Metropolitan City of Florence. In: Lippi A., Tsekos T.N., (a cura di), Policy Capacity, Design and the Sustainable Development Goals: Wicked Problems in Uncertain Environments, Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited, ISBN-10 1804556874. 2. Fraudatario M., Bernaschi D., Amato E., 2023, Sustainable development: from global goals to local implications. The case of the Metropolitan City of Florence. In: Regional Studies and Local Development, 4(1), pp. 91-122. DOI: 10.14658/pupj-RSLD-2023-1-4. 3. Salvini A., Riccardo A., Vasca F., Psaroudakis I., “Inter-Organizational Networks, Social Capital and Third Sector. Emerging Features from Two Empirical Studies in Southern Italy”, in Ragozini G., Vitale M.P., (eds.), Challenges in Social Network Research. Methods and Applications, Switzerland: Springer, pp. 209-233 (2020). ISBN: 978-3-030-31462-0. 4. Riccardo A., “La Multilevel Analysis per lo studio delle reti di partecipazione urbana”, in De Toffoli M. e Laneri C. (eds.), “Confini, Identità e Cittadinanza. Uno sguardo multidisciplinare”, Edizioni Ets, pp. 159-172 (2021). ISBN: 978-884676154-5. 5. Ratner B. D., Larson A. M., Sarmiento Barletti J., El Didi H., Catacutan D., Flintan F., Suhardiman D., Falk T., and Meinzen-Dick R., 2022, Multistakeholder platforms for natural resource governance: lessons from eight landscape-level cases, Ecology and Society 27(2):2. 6. Fedeli V., et al., 2022, La città alla prova del capitalismo delle piattaforme. In: Urbanit. Settimo Rapporto sulle città, pp. 205-218. 7. Bennato D., 2020, Verso uno sviluppo tecnologicamente sostenibile. Strategie per un uso etico delle piattaforme digitali compatibile con gli SDGs, in Culture e Studi del Sociale, n. 1, pp. 43-59. 8. Djalali A., Gianfrate V., Longo D. & Vai E., 2019, An advanced design approach to support urban transformations through multi-stakeholders collaboration, Strategic Design Research Journal, volume 12, number 02, May-August 2019. 235-246.
Frequency
Attendance is not mandatory, but recommended in order to take part in the group work laboratories
Exam mode
The exam will include an evaluation of group work (paper and presentation) and an oral exam.
Lesson mode
Classes are held in person. In exceptional cases, teaching may be delivered online.
ANTONIETTA RICCARDO Lecturers' profile
  • Lesson code10600177
  • Academic year2025/2026
  • CourseSocial planning for sustainability, innovation, and gender inclusion
  • CurriculumSingle curriculum
  • Year2nd year
  • Semester1st semester
  • SSDSPS/08
  • CFU9