This article sheds light on the advent of online platforms and the way it is reshaping urban enviroment, breaking down traditional axes of both social interaction and commercial power, shifting the structure of traditional services. The platform revolution is radically transforming an array of many functional cities’ areas, like transportation, accommodations and personal services. Thus current concerns as strong urbanization, industrialization and world population growth, enable sharing economy firms to flourish as a reaction against the frictions of urban life exploiting such exacerbation, in order to fulfill demand for appropriate services. After a critical analysis of these issues, the article deepens innovative transportation services, moving on to illustrate the Italian rulemaking process as a chance to provide a solution to the ongoing problem of striking the right balance between competing priorities, such as market access and preservation of sustainable mobility. It suggests to reflect upon the best approach able to face the complexity of urban transport systems, in order to break in a new culture for urban mobility, comply to EU legislation too.
There is a very high interest in international literature about the governance of common goods related to a redefinition of representative democracy. Scholars like Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione have proposed new models of governance enhancing the preservation and management of the commons in order to overcome problems and contradictions of complex contemporary cities, such as social exclusion and land privatisation. The aim of this paper is to verify, through a recognition of administrative documents, if in the example of Rome, the political actors, the municipal government, and the civil society, could be able to take part in a collaborative governance inspired reform. To answer this question, the relationship between the policy making process, the economic production model and the normative claims arising from social groups will be investigated. What is emerging is a difficulty of the administration in implementing collaborative principles. This is reflected in the issuance of discordant administrative measures, stemming from problems in relaying to civil society and active citizens the role that these principles assign. The reasons for this mismatching might be identified in the distinctive urban regime of Rome and the political and economic set that fosters social exclusion and does not consider the positive effects and the value of collaborative-oriented policy, enhancing sharing economy and social cohesion. The constant recall in the political discourse of concepts such as common goods, citizen’s participation and collaboration values takes the characteristics of a discursive resource, a ‘common washing’, which institutions and politics seem to re-propose and consolidate the traditional mode of public action, though apparently declaring its inadequacy and ineffectiveness.
Baltic Europe, i.e. the sea and inland hinterland, form a unique macro-regional unit. Strong collaboration links as well as competition in the Baltic Sea Region are an inherent feature of the region from the beginnings of its civilization development. The article shows the forty-year-long Baltic integration process and the Polish scientific contribution to the process. Since 2004, the Baltic has become an internal EU sea. This fact no doubt strengthened cooperation of the countries around the Baltic Sea. In many spheres, these ties take the form of networking. An important stimulus for further integrations is the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. Political stabilisation and economic development may transform, in a longer time span, the emerging transnational Baltic Europe into a new economic and cultural European centre.
The Opole region struggles from the most unfavourable demographic situation among all Polish administrative regions. The region is not only losing its population but also reports a growing number of inhabitants aged 50 and more. For this reason, demographic challenges are high on the region’s development agenda. The establishment of the Special Demographic Zone for Opolskie Voivodeship (SDZ) has provided an incentive to take measures, both on the local and regional scale, to reverse the undesirable situation.
This article discusses one of the SDZ packages, namely Package 4 Golden Autumn intended for persons aged 50 and move. Based on surveys held in the municipalities of the Opole region, the author seeks to answer questions related to the perception of the existing demographic processes as developmental barriers and looks at different initiatives and action taken by local self-governments for 50+ residents.
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