The course provides both theoretical and practical knowledge on the interrelationships between the digitization process, which today's society is experiencing, and its implications in terms of environmental sustainability. The specific focus of the course is the cities where the majority of the world population is now concentrated and which are the driving force of knowledge. This interrelation will be analyzed, described and interpreted in the light of the concept of smart cities or those places where traditional networks and services are made more efficient thanks to the use of digital technologies and telecommunications for the benefit of its inhabitants and businesses, favoring a better use of resources and at the same time reducing the harmful emissions that the production process involves. There are several sectors in which smart cities can produce the improvements described above. In particular, the smart urban transport networks, the water supply, waste disposal systems, efficient lighting and heating systems, the improvement and enhancement of the functions of the public administration, the greater usability and safety of public spaces, especially in favor of a population that progressively ages on average. However, the phenomenon in which these changes have involved radical changes in functioning is that of electronic commerce which has had, and will have in the next few years, sustained growth rates with strong implications for the environmental and social sustainability of cities. Precisely for this reason, a substantial part of the course focuses on the study of the implications that this phenomenon has on cities and, consequently, of the intervention policies that can be adopted with specific reference to the urban distribution of goods in order to mitigate the negative effects and promote those advantageous for cities. Students, also thanks to an active participation in the course through: 1) critical discussions, 2) structured bibliographic research; 3) drafting of short documents, 4) public presentations, will learn both to deal rigorously and completely with the study of complex issues, such as those described above, and soft skills also useful for professional purposes.
teacher profile teaching materials
The first part focuses on smart cities, identifying their main characteristics, defining their key performance indicators to measure their evolution over time, and clarifying the economic, technological, social and environmental implications that the emergence of such a paradigm could have in concrete.
The second part of the course focuses on the role of digitalization and the main underlying technologies, discussing its economic (new business models), social (possible greater participation in collective life), and environmental implications (reduction of pollutants).
The third part focuses attention on electronic commerce by connecting, in a specific sector, both the concept of smart city and that of digitalization, showing the implications at a sectoral level in practice.
The fourth part of the course explores the issue of sustainability by declining it into its main components (social, economic and environmental) and defining it in such a way as to clearly evaluate the effects of the possible intervention policies implemented in order to guarantee their achievement.
Articles and book chapters provided durig the course.
Non attending
Smart-cities
Compulsory
Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale, ARCHITETTURA PER LE COMUNITÀ INTELLIGENTI: VISIONE CONCETTUALE E RACCOMANDAZIONI ALLA PUBBLICA AMMINISTRAZIONE, Versione 2.0 del 03/10/2012, https://www.agid.gov.it/sites/default/files/repository_files/documenti_indirizzo/archsc_v2.0.pdf
Optional
de Santis, Roberta and Fasano, Alessandra and Mignolli, Nadia and Villa, Anna, 203, Il quadro concettuale e le esperienze di misurazione delle Smart Cities,{University Library of Munich, Germany, MPRA Paperhttps://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:50207.
R De Santis, A Fasano, N Mignolli, A Villa, 2014 , Smart City: la città del futuro? Anno XLVIII Economia & Lavoro Saggi pp. 177-193, (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roberta-Santis/publication/260685739_Smart_City_the_future_city/links/557fe00908aec87640de1019/Smart-City-the-future-city.pdf)
Digitalization
Compulsory
Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e resilienza (pp. 83 – 115) (https://www.governo.it/sites/governo.it/files/PNRR.pdf)
Strategia per la crescita digitale 2014-2020, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, Roma 03/3/2015(https://www.agid.gov.it/sites/default/files/repository_files/documentazione/strat_crescita_digit_3marzo_0.pdf)
Optional
Guarascio D., Sacchi S., (2017), Digitalizzazione, automazione e futuro del lavoro, Roma, Inapp https://oa.inapp.org/xmlui/handle/20.500.12916/64
E-commerce
Compulsory
Donata Tania Vergura, 2018, E-commerce e digital transformation. Nuovi scenzari per imprese omicanale e consumatori on-demand, capp. 1, 2 4, 5. Giappichelli
Facoltativo/optional
Mara Del Baldo, (2007), Domanda, offerta logistica e imprese minori, Piccola Impresa-Small Business, (https://journals.uniurb.it/index.php/piccola/article/view/2610/2351)
Sustainability
Compulsory
L’agenda globale per lo sviluppo sostenibile, Quinta edizione, n. 89, novembre 2020, Ufficio Studi Camera dei Deputati, (http://documenti.camera.it/leg18/dossier/testi/UE0017.htm?_1574476466411)
Optional
Valera, Luca, 2012, La sostenibilità: un concetto da chiarire, Economia & diritto agroalimentare, Firenze University Press, P. 9-38. (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luca-Valera/publication/239851725_La_sostenibilita_un_concetto_da_chiarire/links/570bdffa08ae8883a1ffdde5/La-sostenibilita-un-concetto-da-chiarire.pdf)
Programme
The course is divided into four parts and is distinguished between attending and non-attending.The first part focuses on smart cities, identifying their main characteristics, defining their key performance indicators to measure their evolution over time, and clarifying the economic, technological, social and environmental implications that the emergence of such a paradigm could have in concrete.
The second part of the course focuses on the role of digitalization and the main underlying technologies, discussing its economic (new business models), social (possible greater participation in collective life), and environmental implications (reduction of pollutants).
The third part focuses attention on electronic commerce by connecting, in a specific sector, both the concept of smart city and that of digitalization, showing the implications at a sectoral level in practice.
The fourth part of the course explores the issue of sustainability by declining it into its main components (social, economic and environmental) and defining it in such a way as to clearly evaluate the effects of the possible intervention policies implemented in order to guarantee their achievement.
Core Documentation
AttendingArticles and book chapters provided durig the course.
Non attending
Smart-cities
Compulsory
Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale, ARCHITETTURA PER LE COMUNITÀ INTELLIGENTI: VISIONE CONCETTUALE E RACCOMANDAZIONI ALLA PUBBLICA AMMINISTRAZIONE, Versione 2.0 del 03/10/2012, https://www.agid.gov.it/sites/default/files/repository_files/documenti_indirizzo/archsc_v2.0.pdf
Optional
de Santis, Roberta and Fasano, Alessandra and Mignolli, Nadia and Villa, Anna, 203, Il quadro concettuale e le esperienze di misurazione delle Smart Cities,{University Library of Munich, Germany, MPRA Paperhttps://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:50207.
R De Santis, A Fasano, N Mignolli, A Villa, 2014 , Smart City: la città del futuro? Anno XLVIII Economia & Lavoro Saggi pp. 177-193, (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Roberta-Santis/publication/260685739_Smart_City_the_future_city/links/557fe00908aec87640de1019/Smart-City-the-future-city.pdf)
Digitalization
Compulsory
Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e resilienza (pp. 83 – 115) (https://www.governo.it/sites/governo.it/files/PNRR.pdf)
Strategia per la crescita digitale 2014-2020, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, Roma 03/3/2015(https://www.agid.gov.it/sites/default/files/repository_files/documentazione/strat_crescita_digit_3marzo_0.pdf)
Optional
Guarascio D., Sacchi S., (2017), Digitalizzazione, automazione e futuro del lavoro, Roma, Inapp https://oa.inapp.org/xmlui/handle/20.500.12916/64
E-commerce
Compulsory
Donata Tania Vergura, 2018, E-commerce e digital transformation. Nuovi scenzari per imprese omicanale e consumatori on-demand, capp. 1, 2 4, 5. Giappichelli
Facoltativo/optional
Mara Del Baldo, (2007), Domanda, offerta logistica e imprese minori, Piccola Impresa-Small Business, (https://journals.uniurb.it/index.php/piccola/article/view/2610/2351)
Sustainability
Compulsory
L’agenda globale per lo sviluppo sostenibile, Quinta edizione, n. 89, novembre 2020, Ufficio Studi Camera dei Deputati, (http://documenti.camera.it/leg18/dossier/testi/UE0017.htm?_1574476466411)
Optional
Valera, Luca, 2012, La sostenibilità: un concetto da chiarire, Economia & diritto agroalimentare, Firenze University Press, P. 9-38. (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Luca-Valera/publication/239851725_La_sostenibilita_un_concetto_da_chiarire/links/570bdffa08ae8883a1ffdde5/La-sostenibilita-un-concetto-da-chiarire.pdf)
Reference Bibliography
Smart cities Giorgia Nasti, (2020), Defining and assessing the transformational nature of smart city governance: insights from four European cases, Italy International Review of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 86(1) 20–37. DOI: 10.1177/0020852318757063 Annica Kronsell and Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren, (2018) Experimental governance: the role of municipalities in urban living labs, European Planning Studies, 26:5, 988-1007, DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2018.1435631 Giorgia Nesti (2018) Co-production for innovation: the urban living lab experience, Policy and Society, 37:3, 310-325, DOI: 10.1080/14494035.2017.1374692 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14494035.2017.1374692 Hannele Ahvenniemi, Aapo Huovila, Isabel Pinto-Seppä, Miimu Airaksinen (2017), What are the differences between sustainable and smart cities? Cities, Vol. 60, 234-245. Luque-Ayala, A. and Marvin, S. (2015) 'Developing a critical understanding of smart urbanism?', Urban studies., 52 (12). pp. 2105-2116. Anastasia Stratigea, Chrysaida-Aliki Papadopoulou & Maria Panagiotopoulou, (2015) Tools and Technologies for Planning the Development of Smart Cities, Journal of Urban Technology, 22:2, 43-62, DOI: 10.1080/10630732.2015.1018725 M. Batty, K.W. Axhausen, F. Giannotti, A. Pozdnoukhov, A. Bazzani, M. Wachowicz, G. Ouzounis, and Y. Portugali, (2012), Smart cities of the future, Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 214, 481–518. Andrea Caragliu, Chiara Del Bo & Peter Nijkamp (2011): Smart Cities in Europe, Journal of Urban Technology, 18:2, 65-82 Robert G. Hollands (2008) Will the real smart city please stand up?, City, 12:3, 303-320, DOI: 10.1080/13604810802479126 Digitalization Syed, A.S.; Sierra-Sosa, D.; Kumar, A.; Elmaghraby, A. (2021) IoT in Smart Cities: A Survey of Technologies, Practices and Challenges. Smart Cities, 4, 429–475. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4020024 . The Internet of Things: From Data to Insight, (2020) Edited by John Davies and Carolina Fortuna. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Hal Varian, (2019), Artificial Intelligence, Economics, and Industrial Organization, in The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda, Edited by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb, University of Chicago Press, pp. 399 – 419, ISBNs: 978-0-226-61333-8. J. SCOTT BRENNEN and DANIEL KREISS, (2016), Digitalization, The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy. Klaus Bruhn Jensen and Robert T. Craig (Editors-in-Chief), Jefferson D. Pooley and Eric W. Rothenbuhler (Associate Editors). Rob Kitchin, Tracey P. Lauriault, (2015), Small data in the era of big data, GeoJournal (2015) 80:463–475 DOI 10.1007/s10708-014-9601-7 Rob Kitchin, (2014) Big Data, new epistemologies and paradigm shifts 1–12, DOI: 10.1177/2053951714528481 Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian, (1999), Information Rules: a strategic guide to the network economy, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. Ecommerce Petra Jílková1 & Petra Králová, (2021), Digital Consumer Behaviour and eCommerce: Trends during the COVID-19 Crisis, Int Adv Econ Res, 27:83–85, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-021-09817-4 Marta Viu-Roig and Eduard J. Alvarez-Palau, (2020), The Impact of E-Commerce-Related Last-Mile Logistics on Cities: A Systematic Literature Review, Sustainability, 12, 6492; doi:10.3390/su12166492 J. Allen, M. Piecyk, M. Piotrowska, F. McLeod, T. Cherrett, K. Ghali, T. Nguyen, T. Bektas, O. Bates, A. Friday, S. Wise, M. Austwick, (2018), Understanding the impact of e-commerce on last-mile light goods vehicle activity in urban areas: The case of London, Transportation Research Part D, 61, 325–338 Ivan Cardenas, Yari Borbon-Galvez, Thomas Verlinden, Eddy Van de Voorde, Thierry Vanelslander and Wouter Dewulf, (2017), City logistics, urban goods distribution and last mile delivery and collection Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, Vol. 18(1–2) 22–43 Iván Cárdenas, Joris Beckers, Thierry Vanelslander, (2017), E-commerce last-mile in Belgium: Developing an external cost delivery index, Research in Transportation Business & Management Vol. 24, 123–129. Henrik Sternberg and Andreas Norrman, (2017), The Physical Internet – review, analysis and future research agenda, International Journal of Physical recent issue of Science, Mervis (2014) describes the innovative concept, the Physical Internet Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 47 No. 8, pp. 736-762. Eleonora Morganti, Saskia Seidel, Corinne Blanquart, Laetitia Dablanc, Barbara Lenz, (2014) The impact of e-commerce on final deliveries: alternative parcel delivery services in France and Germany, Transportation Research Procedia, 4, 178 – 190. Amanda B. Bower & James G. Maxham III, (2012), Return Shipping Policies of Online Retailers: Normative Assumptions and the Long-Term Consequences of Fee and Free Returns, Journal of Marketing, Volume 76, 110 –124. Julia B. Edwards, Alan C. McKinnon and Sharon L. Cullinane, (2010), Comparative analysis of the carbon footprints of conventional and online retailing A “last mile” perspective, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 40 No. 1/2, pp. 103-123 PATRICIA L. MOKHTARIAN, (2004), A conceptual analysis of the transportation impacts of B2C e-commerce, Transportation 31: 257–284. Markus Hesse, (2002), Shipping news: the implications of electronic commerce for logistics and freight transport Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 36, 211-240. Sustainability Ulrich Lichtenthaler, (2021), Digitainability: The Combined Effects of the Megatrends Digitalization and Sustainability, Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 9, p. 64-80. Gema Del Río Castro, María Camino Gonzalez Fernandez, Angel Uruburu Colsa, (2021), Unleashing the convergence amid digitalization and sustainability towards pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A holistic review, Journal of Cleaner Production, 280, pp. 1- 40. Fazia Ali-Toudert, Limei Ji, (2017), Modeling and measuring urban sustainability in multi-criteria-based systems — A challenging issue, Ecological Indicators 73, 597–611. Peter Seele and Irina Lock, (2017), The game-changing potential of digitalization for sustainability: possibilities, perils, and pathways, Sustain Sci (2017) 12:183–185, DOI 10.1007/s11625-017-0426-4 Christopher T. Boyko, Mark R. Gaterell, Austin R.G. Barber, Julie Brown, John R. Bryson, David Butler, Silvio Caputo, Maria Caserio, Richard Coles, Rachel Cooper, Gemma Davies, Raziyeh Farmani, James Hale, A. Chantal Hales, C. Nicholas Hewitt, Dexter V.L. Hunt, Lubo Jankovic, Ian Jefferson, Joanne M. Leach, D. Rachel Lombardi, A. Robert MacKenzie, Fayyaz A. Memon, Thomas A.M. Pugh, John P. Sadler, Carina Weingaertner, J. Duncan Whyatt, Christopher D.F. Rogers, (2012), Benchmarking sustainability in cities: The role of indicators and future scenarios, Global Environmental Change 22, 245–254 Frank W. Geels, (2012) A socio-technical analysis of low-carbon transitions: introducing the multi-level perspective into transport studies, Journal of Transport Geography 24, 471–482 Koichiro Mori, Aris Christodoulou, (2012), Review of sustainability indices and indicators: Towards a new City Sustainability Index (CSI), Environmental Impact Assessment Review 32 (2012) 94–106. Eric S. Zeemering, (2009), What Does Sustainability Mean to City Officials? Urban Affairs Review Volume 45 Number 2, 247-273. Stefan Baumgärtner, Martin Quaas, What is sustainability economics? Ecological Economics, 69, 445–450. Carol A. Adams, Geoffrey R. Frost, (2008) Integrating sustainability reporting into management practices, Accounting Forum, 32, 288–302. C. Borrego, H. Martins, O. Tchepel, L. Salmim, A. Monteiro, A.I. Miranda, (2006), How urban structure can affect city sustainability from an air quality perspective, Environmental Modelling & Software 21 (2006) 461–467. Giuseppe Munda, (2005), “MEASURING SUSTAINABILITY”: A MULTI-CRITERION FRAMEWORK, Environment, Development and Sustainability, 7:117–134, DOI 10.1007/s10668-003-4713-0Type of delivery of the course
Attending The course includes lectures (online if necessary). Participants will have to develop group research work on specific topics agreed with the teacher. All group members will also have to publicly present the results of their work in class.Attendance
Attending lessons, although not compulsory, is strongly recommended.Type of evaluation
Attending Attending students are assessed for: 1-active participation in class, 2- group project work, 3 - presentation of group project work in class, 4- final oral exam Not Attending Non-attending students must take an oral exam on the texts adopted.