Reti Civiche e innovazione sociale fra micro e macro. Il caso di "Urbino in rete"

This article displays the main results of a research about a specific typology of social nets - the civic nets - as a possible factor of socio-cultural and institutional innovation, in particular into the macro-macro, macro-micro and micro-micro communicative dynamics that involve institutions, citizens and associations. More precisely, the research started from the hypothesis that a new telecom-net - that overlaps and interacts with the traditional social nets - could co-determine a change in communication in the local community. The study of a civic net case has been carried out starting from an analysis of the literature and the experience of civic nets in Italy and abroad. This analysis wanted to identify key-categories and variables useful to understand a very complex phenomenon which is strongly expanding in our country. The chosen civic net was the relatively atypical Urbino’s one, which has revealed itself particularly significant for the study of macro-macro communicative dynamics, one of the focuses of the research. Moreover, the Urbino case can be an empiric evidence in support of the hypothesis that the declared aims of civic and telecom-nets can be reached only by increasing technologic networks and social networks together, that is adding value the intermediate aggregative structures: the telecom-net principally can develop where it is supported by social nets. In our case the social net are prevalently informal, given the relative weakness of the institutional net (into the promoter body and among different bodies). With reference to the macro-micro relationships, and then the participation of the citizens in the civic net, the broad-spectrum analysis of the different possibilities of inter-action between civic government and citizens in the Urbino’s net shows the weakness of the communicative channels in this stage.

Roberta Bartoletti, Reti Civiche e innovazione sociale fra micro e macro. Il caso di "Urbino in rete" in "SOCIOLOGIA DELLA COMUNICAZIONE " 30/2000, pp , DOI: