Reggio Calabria: nuova governance e innovazione per superare le criticità

The law no. 56/2014 on the re-organisation of Local Authorities provides for the establishment of metropolitan cities, which are entrusted with new tasks and have increasingly become "the engine of growth" of our Country. Lately within the scientific and academic community as well as within good practice, a smart approach has been consolidating, targeted to start virtuous processes which, through an efficient use, could start a deep innovation in the ways of living and using cities.At present, many European cities, very often those placed at the top of the international rankings, are at the forefront in adopting the paradigm of Smart City. Starting from these assumptions, the paper aims at determining in which way the use of a smart approach could help the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria cope with the challenges of the future, such as climate changes, social inclusion, energy efficiency, regeneration and so on. After a short description of the starting conditions, this paper shows the outcomes of the investigation on the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, by pointing out that the route to smartness is still long and difficult. The widespread presence of several problems that "endemically" affect the city, but in general the whole South of the Country, negatively weigh on territorial development, which is undoubtedly penalised when compared with such cities as Milan, Turin or Genoa. Nevertheless, the use of an innovation-friendly smart approach with an open attitude to the use of local resources and vocations could help, in future, bridge the present gap that characterise the south of the Country. Some signs indicate that Reggio Calabria can find new chances of improvement thanks precisely to the use of the Smart City paradigm, by strongly supporting young people who represent the most important resource of this territory.