María R. Vicente, Ana Suárez Álvarez (p)

Gülfiye Özcan Alp

The twin digital and green transitions are giving rise to unprecedented changes in European economies. The twin transition is a key policy objective for the European Commission, which seeks to establish a new economic growth model based on a green, digital, and resilient economy. Consequently, it is of great interest and relevance the analysis of their implications in people’s well-being as well as the geographical differences of these effects.

The aim of this paper is to unravel the spatial divides in the triplet: digital use, environment, and well-being. Specifically, the focus of this paper will be on the analysis of the urban-rural disparities that shape Europeans’ use of digital technologies, their environmental awareness and their level of well-being as measured by life satisfaction. Given the novelty of the twin transition, there is little empirical evidence on this issue. So, one of the major contributions of this paper will be to provide empirical evidence in an area for which it is scarce. In addition, while the urban-rural digital divides are well-known in the literature, much less is known on the extent to which they might constraint individuals’ well-being and their environmental attitudes. Then, a second contribution of this paper would be to assess such an issue.

To achieve these goals, this paper uses microdata from the last round of the European Social Survey (ESS10) which collected information from representative samples of the population aged 15 and over living in each of the European Member States. Using these microdata, a system of three-simultaneous equations will be estimated to asses the importance of urban-rural disparities over individuals’ digital use, their environmental awareness and ultimately, their level of life satisfaction. Such modelling will consider the endogeneity of internet use, the connection between this usage and environmental awareness and corresponding importance of these two elements on individuals’ life satisfaction.

Overall, these preliminary results suggest that, though rural areas are still being excluded from the digitalization process, such a gap does not translate, at least by now, into lower levels of well-being of the population in those territories. In addition, the statistically significant link between internet use and life satisfaction may indicate that, to the extent that the urban-rural digital divides are bridged, there are additional well-being gains for Europeans in rural areas.

Michele Melchiorri, Patrizia Sulis (p), Paola Proietti, Marcello Schiavina, Alice Siragusa

Paolo Gerli

One of the defining trends of contemporary society is the simultaneous rise of urbanisation and digitalisation. While digital broadband access is critical for facilitating this transformation, there can be significant discrepancies in its availability across different regions. In this contribution, we take a comparative approach to explore the relationship between urbanisation and digitalisation, focusing on the quality of broadband access in urban areas using geospatial data processing. To conduct our analysis, we combine open and free data from Earth Observation programmes, such as Copernicus and Landsat, with social sensing data to evaluate broadband quality at the grid level using data from Ookla®. We stratify our analysis to identify whether high-income countries have better broadband connectivity in urban centres than developing economies, whether urban centres with larger populations have an advantage in regions with low connectivity, and whether urban centres that have experienced recent population growth have a broadband speed advantage. Our work highlights the nature and extent of deprivation resulting from uneven access to digital infrastructure. We found significant disparities in internet download speeds across the world, with geography and income level playing significant roles. Additionally, we found that mobile and fixed broadband connectivity have different performance levels, with mobile connectivity providing a higher performing alternative in less affluent countries. In summary, this contribution examines the interplay between urbanisation and digitalisation by investigating broadband access quality in urban centres across the world. Through our analysis, we identify inequalities in digital infrastructure and suggest possible alternative solutions to mitigate the negative impacts of uneven access.

Gülfiye Özcan Alp (p), Tüzin Baycan

Patrizia Sulis

In recent decades, the complex relationship between ICTs and the city has become a hot topic in urban and regional development. Recently, the digital economy has been the center of research, and several researchers have already approved its transformational effect on cities. Yet, there is limited research on how development differences in terms of ICTs adaptation, usage, and outcomes affect this change. This paper uses the digital divide and the new digital economy as a primary approach to unveil the relationship between ICTs and urban spatiality. In particular, innovative enterprises are accepted within the scope of the new digital economy. Accordingly, the main question is: How does the digital divide affect innovative industries' volume and spatial distribution? Within the framework of the new digital economy in Turkey, R&D and Design Centers and Technology Development Zones enterprises included in the Ministry of Technology and Industry's technology and innovation ecosystem are examined. The paper investigates 8905 innovative enterprises located in various cities. In the first part, this paper examines the innovative industry volume in Turkish cities by adopting spatial regression models (OLS and GWR). In the second part of the study, the locational patterns of innovative industries are investigated by using Euclidian distance to the city center in various Turkish cities with different ICTs development levels (İstanbul, İzmir, Ankara, Bursa, Kocaeli, and Tekirdağ). Based on the primary findings, digital development, and technopark existence influences innovative industries' volume and spatial distribution. Istanbul, Ankara, Kocaeli, and Izmir are becoming innovation centers by hosting more than half of the innovative industries. Additionally, the higher the digital development is, the higher the innovative industry concentration in the centers. While Istanbul has 15 percent of innovative industries in the center, no city has reached a higher value.

Paolo Gerli (p), Mara Ferreri, Cristiana Lauri, Marta Regalia, Andrew James Williams

Ana Suárez Álvarez

Scholars across different disciplines are increasingly acknowledging and discussing the risks that smart place initiatives (such as smart cities and smart villages) pose to an equitable, fair, and inclusive society. However, how such debate translates into the practice of local governments is unclear and largely undocumented. This paper presents the preliminary results of an exploratory study aiming to build links between theoretical and practical knowledge on socio-inequalities and smart places.

As part of this research project, multiple qualitative methods have been employed to investigate how both existing and emerging inequalities are being dealt with within smart places in Italy and Scotland.

The preliminary results indicate that the narrative of smart places is still imbued with techno-utopian discourses that tend to overlook the complex socio-economic implications of digital transformations. Furthermore, our analysis has evidenced the lack of data-driven strategies to measure inequalities and support decision-making in smart places. As a result, there is little understanding of the actual outcomes that these initiatives may generate for different social groups and what their consequences are in terms of socio-economic inequalities.

This study offers valuable insights to both scholars and practitioners interested in smart places. First, it reiterates the importance of adopting an intersectional approach when discussing, analysing, and addressing inequalities. Second, it unveils the contradictions and challenges embedded in the rhetoric on participatory smart places. Whereas the open participation of local actors to the design and management of smart places remains a crucial principle, its operational implementation deserves further investigation to ensure that the participatory tools currently employed also work in practice and do not end up reinforcing and legitimising existing inequalities and biases.

Overall, this project shows that, despite the emphasis placed by policymakers and scholars, social and digital inclusion remain marginal aspects in smart place strategies. Therefore, this paper highlights the importance of creating smart places that are inclusive by design. In other words, we postulate that the technological solutions and operational models implemented in smart place initiatives should be planned, conceived and delivered with the explicit commitment to prevent and address any potential form of discriminations.