Start date: 15.10.2023 | End date: 14.10.25

Research units:

• Bologna University, Prof. Laura Sartori (PI)
• Trento University, Prof. Francesca Forno
• Palermo University, Prof. Laura Azzolina

NUECity envisions a novel ‘conceptual grammar’ to capture the complex processes of the rescaling of territorial organizations under a capitalistic economic system which has been put under considerable pressure (e.g. 2007-2008 financial crisis, the 2020 Pandemic), by boosting a multiscalar framework of relationships and a diversifying economic space in a globalized and accelerated world.

NUECity is a proposal to study New Urban Economies (NUEs) which are diverse innovative economic activities happening in a specific urban relational ecosystem that offers a bouquet of physical and digital infrastructures along with perspicuous and innovative urban lifestyles. Taking into consideration literature on both lifestyles and platforms, we define NUEs as place-based relational ecosystem emerging at the intersection of urban-bound lifestyles and platforms in light of the ongoing digital transformation.

NUECity is designed to fill some important theoretical and empirical gaps to enforce the Recovery and Resilience Plan, known as the Italian Strategy PNRR. First, the study of three Metropolitan Areas contributes to overcoming the USA focused-only approach created to study the platformization of the economic and social life in the last ten years. Our comparative approach aims to contend that ‘place don’t matter’ through the description of contextual opportunities that differentiate territories in promoting digitalization and innovation, ecological transition and social inclusion. Second, the comparative approach helps to render the multidimensionality (from micro to macro) of NUEs while available research usually focuses on just one level of analysis especially when it comes to multiple sectors’ analysis.

The objectives of the proposal are far-reaching and relate to new demands for social inclusiveness,   accessibility and sustainability of urban life that are steadily increasing in a fast-changing scenario.

At the urban level, the proposal locates 1. Food, 2. Mobility, 3. Care, as terrains for social innovation where New Urban Economies are in the making but already visible with their potential transformational drivers .

For each city and sector, NUECity investigates the following aspects:

• urban lifestyles as new ways of life and assembled practices for reducing the “value-action gap” (WP2);
• the organizational dimensions of new economic forms and their variance across different sectors and cities (WP3);
• the contextual opportunities (and barriers) for enabling (and disabling) NUEs (WP4).

The research design is as composite and diverse as required by the complex nature of NUEs, associating to each objective a specific work package (WP) and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques. In sum, NUECIty is designed to critically assess emerging economic phenomena at the crossroads of infrastructures and lifestyles, opportunities and enabling factors at the urban level

Il presente progetto è finanziato dall’Unione europea – Next Generation EU, nell’ambito del bando PRIN 2022, progetto “NUEcity: Mapping and Critically Assessing New Urban Economies in Three Metropolitan Areas” (2022MY3W9P) – CUP E53D23011910006.