Urban Living Labs (ULLs) are public spaces where local authorities engage citizens to develop innovative urban services. Their strength and popularity stem from a methodology based on open innovation, experimentation, and citizen engagement. Although the ULL methodology is supposed to largely adopt a co-production approach, connections between the two have not yet been thoroughly investigated. The paper seeks to fill this gap by examining through a qualitative analysis three experiences of ULLs made in Amsterdam, Boston and Turin. Specifically, the paper aims to assess whether ULLs can be really conceptualised as a form of co-production and, if so, which elements characterised them as innovative in comparison to ‘mainstreaming’ co-production; Then it analyses benefits and drawbacks related to their implementation

Smart cities are a new approach to urban development based on the extensive use of information and communication technologies and on the promotion of environmental sustainability, economic development and innovation. The article is aimed at discussing whether the adoption of a smart city approach entails the transformation of existing institutional structures and administrative practices. To this end, four cases of European smart cities are analysed: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Turin and Vienna. The article describes their models of governance, investigates the level of transformation that occurred in their governmental structures, outlines the main drawbacks and identifies possible connections with the emergent paradigm of the New Public Governance.

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The debate on local governance and urban innovation has recently gained impetus due to the diffusion of the smart city approach. A city can be defined 'smart' if it adopts an innovative collaborative governance style to design urban policies aimed at improving citizens' quality of life and at promoting environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Notwithstanding the fact that civic participation and inclusion should be distinctive characteristics of smart cities, gender inequalities are often disregarded both by academic literature and in the implementation of smart strategies. The paper is aimed at filling this gap by addressing three issues. Starting from a systematic analysis of literature the paper investigates whether, where, how and why gender discriminations could emerge in a smart city. Second, it proposes a set of tools to mainstream gender in smart city governance and possible areas of intervention to reduce gender inequalities in smart cities. Third it tries to identify main theoretical, methodological, and empirical challenges for local administrators that hamper the implementation of gender equality strategies in smart cities.

In an increasingly urbanized world, with over 50 % of the global population living in cities, smart and sustainable city planning represents an emerging topic both in the scientific and in the more general cultural debate.The need for smart planning arises from our constant acceleration towards an information-mediated world experience and is driven by factors such as the current global financial crisis, global climate change, global population growth, and cultural globalization.Smart and sustainable planning makes our cities and regions more liveable and competitive places, consistent with both our inspirations and our aspirations.Transforming existing settlements into smart cities, de facto, means to couple their ICT potential with human factors-innovation in building and energy technology, people's engagement in participatory processes, environmental resources preservation, and the exploitation of new business models.A uniquely coherent definition of the meaning of smart city has still to be established: academics, decision makers, and industries approach this topic from different perspectives, delivering multiple solutions often hard to replicate. Nonetheless, smart city projects are currently spreading worldwide, comprising a more diverse, and so far relatively unexplored, galaxy.Therefore, a discussion on smart and sustainable cities and regional planning should, first of all, have the effect of providing guidance to all experts-researchers, politicians, public officials, and managers-entering into this innovative field. Spatial planning is traditionally a complex discipline, founded on multidisciplinary knowledge, requiring various skills, and pursuing multi-objective goals. Nowadays, it is clear that for tackling "smart and sustainable planning" challenges a holistic approach-going beyond solutions to single technicalities-is required.The aim of this work is to provide a comprehensive outlook on the latest research paths taken by various branches of science in the field of smart and vii