The smart city is not merely a set of digital infrastructures, but a complex ecosystem in which technological networks, human capital, and urban communities intertwine. This volume explores the smart city as a relational space, a place where innovation, creativity, and resilience redefine urban development.
Through a critical analysis of international models and European policies, the book highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, while questioning the boundaries between efficiency, inclusion, and citizenship rights. The text also draws on theoretical perspectives that capture the enduring appeal of the city as a laboratory of creativity, coexistence, and imagination. What emerges is a new paradigm of a generative and resilient smart city: one that can attract talent and diversity, transform fragilities into resources, and build new forms of environmental sustainability and social cohesion. The book combines solid theoretical and critical foundations with practical methodologies and real-world case studies that support planners in designing smart cities. Readers will gain an understanding of the key features of smart cities, the evolution of related concepts and design methodologies, as well as the tools required to define new types of services and functions.
Offering a European and humanistic perspective on the urban future, the book is intended for a diverse readership including scholars, public administrators, planners, and citizens interested in understanding the challenges and opportunities of the city to come.