The project “Preparing a COST Action proposal on DSI in the European cities” is intended to feed basic research and boost international dimension and attractiveness of UniTo by leading the consolidation and further expansion of a wide international networks of academic and high-level research institutions (including strategic partners from UNITA). The above-mentioned partners (see “Gruppo di Ricerca Internazionale”) already confirmed their interest. Envisaged collaboration is directed toward the elaboration and submission of a COST Action proposal. COST Actions are pan-European intergovernmental frameworks aimed at creating open networks of excellence in all scientific fields to internationalise the scientific community and to achieve breakthroughs in science and technology by bridging different research communities, disciplines, fields and methodologies
The project situates in the transdisciplinary research field of digital society (encompassing digital geography, economics and politics; urban studies; internet studies and computer science) and sitting within the ERC subfields SH7_01 “Human, economic and social geography”, SH7-07 “Cities; Urban, Regional and Rural Studies”, SH3_13 “Digital social research”.
The project and the subsequent COST Action proposal focus on the effects of Digitally Social Innovation (hereafter DSI) in the urban contexts. DSI Initiatives encompass heterogeneous collaborative innovation practices in which communities of innovators adopt digital technologies to advance knowledge and solutions for a wide range of social needs. Being their consequences particularly felt in cities, the COST Action proposal interrogates how changes in the digital dimension modify the organisation, understanding, and functioning of society in multiple spatial dimensions, with special attention devoted to the agency of innovator communities.