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Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Roots and rise of Digital Social Innovation -- Chapter 3. Digital Social Innovation in the City: In search of a critical perspective -- Chapter 4. Representation: The social imaginaries of Digital Social Innovation -- Chapter 5. Re-production: Digital Social Innovation in Urban Governance -- Chapter 6. Power: The raise of Critical Digital Social Innovation.

Digital Social Innovation (DSI) is a new concept referring to social innovation initiatives that leverage digital technologies potentiality to co-create solutions to a wide range of social needs. These initiatives generally take place in urban contexts. However, in the existing literature, scarce attention is devoted to the spatial dimensions and the social, cultural or political space-related effects of DSI practices. This article suggests that a critical geography perspective can address these gaps. After a review of existing relevant contributes, the article elaborates a research agenda for a critical geography of DSI. This articulates along four research lines, including the emergence of DSI networks, the (re)production of DSI processes and socio-cultural urban space, the representations of DSI practices and the power relationships these mobilise.

Digital Social Innovation (DSI) is a new concept referring to social innovation initiatives that leverage digital technologies potentiality to co-create solutions to a wide range of social needs. These initiatives generally take place in urban contexts. However, in the existing literature, scarce attention is devoted to the spatial dimensions and the social, cultural or political space-related effects of DSI practices. This article suggests that a critical geography perspective can address these gaps. After a review of existing relevant contributes, the article elaborates a research agenda for a critical geography of DSI. This articulates along four research lines, including the emergence of DSI networks, the (re)production of DSI processes and socio-cultural urban space, the representations of DSI practices and the power relationships these mobilise.

This article analyses Bent Flyvbjerg's 'dark side of planning' theory and proposes to increase its critical strength by including, together with ideas of rationality and power, two further theoretical tools: the Foucauldian concepts of governmentality and biopolitics. The potentiality of this inclusion is exemplified by the analysis provided about the influence of 18th-century colonial governmentality on the real rationality of public garden planning in the modern liberal cities of most western European colonising countries. It aims to show that Flyvbjerg's concept of 'real rationality' can be usefully regarded as the product of a broad interpretation of biopolitical technologies, including the disciplining of non-human further than human life, which makes it possible to control the 'uncivilised' instincts of society through public garden planning. This article aims to suggest, that by digging deep into the hidden rationality of planning, even in those cases in which only the progressive face of power is apparently involved, a dark side of planning is unavoidably present in the form of a disciplinary power.

This article addresses a new mode of planning that involves a collaboration between State, private and community actors in the context of growing urban gardening movements. It questions the view of urban gardening as a manifestation of citizens' dissensus towards administration's institutional planning, and the expression of urban 'counterplanning' whose aim is to resist the consequences of a neoliberal governmentality. Although this interpretation of urban gardening is to a certain extent true, it does not completely explain some current developments in socio-spatial planning practices. In order to fill this gap, the article advances a theoretical analysis of the emerging governmentality generated by an intensified relationship between institutional, private and community actors. The theoretical analysis is complemented by the example of representative urban gardening projects in Ghent, a dynamic and inspiring mid-size city in Belgium, providing an ideal context for exploring the transformation of planning practices and their socio-political underpinnings. The article concludes that urban gardening practices exemplify an emerging informal mode of planning supported by a new transactive governmentality, which may lead to a co-creative transformation of public urban space.

"This book critically examines the interplay between digitalization and sustainability. Amid escalating environmental crises, some of which are now irreversible, there is a noticeable commitment within both international and domestic policy agendas to employ digital technologies in pursuit of sustainability goals. This collection gathers a multitude of voices interrogating the premise that increased digitalization automatically contributes to greater sustainability. By exploring the planetary links underpinning the global digital economy, the book exposes the extractive logics ingrained within digital capitalism and introduces alternatives like digital degrowth and the circular economy as viable, sustainable paths for the digital era. Through a combination of theoretical reflections and detailed contextual analyses from Italy, New Zealand, and the UK-including initiatives in participatory planning and technology co-design-it articulates the dual role of digital technology: its potential to support socio-economic and environmental sustainability, while also generating conflicts and impasses that undermine these very objectives. Offering fresh insights into power disparities, exclusionary tactics, and systemic injustices that digital solutionism fails to address, this volume also serves as a reminder that sustainability extends beyond climate-related issues, underscoring the inseparability of environmental discourse from wider social justice considerations. Aimed at a diverse readership, this volume will prove valuable for students, researchers, and practitioners across various fields, including Geography, Urban Studies, Sustainability Studies, Environmental Media Studies, Critical AI Studies, Innovation Studies, and the Digital Humanities"--

The concept of digital social innovation (DSI) refers to a fast-growing set of initiatives aimed at providing innovative solutions to social problems and needs by deploying the potential of the social web and digital media. Despite having been often interpreted as synonymous with digitally enhanced social innovation, we explain here why, in consideration of its epistemological and socio-political potentialities, we understand it as an interdisciplinary set of practices able to interpret and support the changes of a society that is more and more intrinsically virtual and physical at the same time. Notably, we briefly discuss how DSI processes can be functionally mobilized in support of different socio-political projects, ranging from the mainstream neoliberal to the revolutionary ones. Eventually, we provide a synopsis of the articles included in this thematic issue, by aggregating them accordingly to the main stakeholders promoting the DSI projects, being more bottom-up oriented or more institutional-based.

This paper investigates the emergence of informal planning practices and their relationship with the new geometries of power and responsibility that characterise what is here defined and described as 'fluid governance'; and that leads to co-creative forms of public space governance. In particular, the research explores the key role played by some politically progressive forms of urban gardening in pivoting actions that transform green spaces through informal planning into areas for food production and collaborative management. This challenges traditional governance networks and re-defines the functioning of public spaces. The case of Parco delle Energie in Rome (Italy) serves as an example of a process of space re-appropriation, planning and finally co-management performed by a dense network of very diverse actors, who established a collaborative framework with the administration in order to re-shape decision-making dynamics. A comparative analysis of international cases confirms that urban gardening is challenging the dominance of a traditional planning perspective worldwide, both spatially as on the level of governance, and is turning citizens' dissensus into a productive force in the re-imagination and stewardship of public urban space. The conclusion suggests the self-design and co-managing capacities of urban gardeners and citizens could lead to adequate synergies between actors, enabling new urban governance models in line with the global ambition to build more sustainable and inclusive cities.

Introduction : promises and concerns of the urban century / Jeroen van der Heijden, Harriet Bulkeley, and Chiara Certomà -- Unpacking agency in global urban climate covernance : city-networks as actors, agents, and arenas / David J. Gordon -- Empowerment and disempowerment of urban climate governance initiatives : an exploratory typology of mechanisms / James J. Patterson and Nicolien van der Grijp -- Transnational municipal networks and cities in climate governance : experiments in Brazil / Fabiana Barbi and Laura Valente de Macedo -- Making climates through the city / Lauren Rickards -- Cross-movement alliances as a novel form of agency to increase socially just arrangements in urban climate governance / Karsten Schulz and Antje Bruns -- The politics of data-driven urban climate change mitigation / Sara Hughes, Laura Tozer, Sarah Giest -- Urban planning for sustainability and justice : lessons from urban agriculture / Francois Mancebo and Chiara Certomà -- Unpacking the black box of urban climate agency : (dis)empowerment and inclusion in local participatory processes / Scott Morton Ninomiya and Sarah Burch -- From public to citizen responsibilities in urban climate adaptation : a thick analysis / Caroline J. Uittenbroek, Heleen L.P. Mees, Dries L.T. Hegger and Peter P.J. Driessen -- Agency and climate governance in African cities : lessons from urban agriculture / Christopher Gore -- The effects of transnational municipal networks on urban climate politics in the global South / Fee Stehle, Chris Hohne, Thomas Hickmann, and Markus Lederer -- The politics of urban climate futures : recognition, experimentation, orchestration / Jeroen van der Heijden, Chiara Certomà, Harriet Bulkeley,

This book analyzes the ongoing transformation in the "smart city" paradigm and explores the possibilities that technological innovations offer for the effective involvement of ordinary citizens in collective knowledge production and decision-making processes within the context of urban planning and management. To so, it pursues an interdisciplinary approach, with contributions from a range of experts including city managers, public policy makers, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialists, and researchers. The first two parts of the book focus on the generation and use of data by citizens, with or without institutional support, and the professional management of data in city governance, highlighting the social connectivity and livability aspects essential to vibrant and healthy urban environments. In turn, the third part presents inspiring case studies that illustrate how data-driven solutions can empower people and improve urban environments, including enhanced sustainability. The book will appeal to all those who are interested in the required transformation in the planning, management, and operations of data-rich cities and the ways in which such cities can employ the latest technologies to use data efficiently, promoting data access, data sharing, and interoperability.