Giulia Canzian (p), Simone Schuller, Davide Aloini

Raquel Ortega-Argiles

See extended abstract

Vinko Mustra (p)

Raquel Ortega-Argiles

In the current urban century, recognition and documentation of the presence of agglomeration economies has been well defined (e.g. Puga, 2010, Glaeser, 2011, Kourtit and Nijkamp,2016, 2018). Yet, understanding the causes of agglomeration economies is still open process without clear results (Puga, 2010, Martinus and Stigler, 2018) but with no doubts about the importance of the knowledge. The key ingredients of theoretical approaches lie in the fact that knowledge is conceptually distinct from information (Feldman and Audretsch, 1999) and that knowledge "is best transmitted via face-to-face interaction and through frequent contact (Feldman and Audretsch (1999). As a result, importance of social interaction (Akerlof, 1997; Glaeser et al., 1996; Ballester et al., 2006; Calvó-Armengol et al., 2009) and especially the critical role of space for social interactions has been recognized (Brueckner, Thisse and Zenou, 2002; Helsley and Strange, 2007; Brueckner and Largey 2008; Zenou, 2013; Helsley and Zenou, 2014, Buchel and von Echrlich, 2016).
At the same time, digital revolution and the underlying new technoeconomic paradigm are associated with creating drastic social changes (Tranos and Nijkamp, 2012) resulted with increasing attention to the role played by information and communication technologies for social interactions (e.g., Bruni & Stanca, 2008; Shapiro, & Sinkinson, 2011; Kearney & Levine, 2015; La Ferrara, Chong, & Duryea, 2012; Misra, Cheng, Genevie, & Yuan, 2016; Pénard, Poussing, & Suire, 2013;). However, it seems the exiting literature and research offers space for many questions on its space-time trajectories and its social implications.
Thus, the paper tries to analyse does and how digital transformation affect the social interactions in urban areas. In first place it tries to offer conceptual framework that will confront exiting empirical evidence claiming higher efficiency of social networks in urban areas (Buchel and von Echrlich, 2016) with the studies showing higher level of society digitalization not only leads to less time for face-to-face social interactions (e.g. Olkean, 2009; Mumford & Winner, 2010) but also to the reduced quality of face-to face social interactions (Misra & Stokols, 2012, Pea et al., 2012, Rotondi et al, 2017).
Finally, the digital revolution and knowledge creation, transmission and accumulation are a highly interdepended processes requiring analysis and focus that should stimulate researchers to pay more attention on theoretical explanation for possible channels through which digital transformation might affect space-time trajectories of the knowledge but also lead policy makers to better understand agglomeration forces and deliver more effective policy measures.