How Technologies Can Enhance Open Policy Making and Citizen-Responsive Urban Planning

Abstract

This paper explores an innovative approach to open policymaking and citizen-responsive urban planning. It reports on project MiraMap carried out by the Politecnico di Torino (the Polytechnic University of Turin). The project engages both citizens and the Public Administration in a reporting process concerning critical issues, as well as positive trends and resources within the Mirafiori Sud administrative area of Turin (Italy), through the use of a digital collaborative platform. The experiment was a real case study geared at evaluating the use of open source technologies to foster e-participation in urban planning. MiraMap has been set up with an eye to achieving integration within the current administrative management process and to involving new actors in the decision-making process through a “collective governance” approach. Therefore, this paper seeks to set up a methodological (and technological) framework, which is seen as crucial for addressing the complexity and dynamics of urban planning and programming, by integrating the perspectives of citizens through their actual engagement.