Smart cities. Infrastrutture ICT per la partecipazione sociale?

The term smart city holds different meanings, and in the literature various definitions can be found such as digital city or open city, thus making reference to a possible evolution toward a kind of high-tech urban milieu where social participation and inclusion are the main features. The paper is bound to explore the link between ICT diffusion and smart growth, putting in evidence how high-tech information technology is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a true smart development. By means of first-hand quantitative as well as qualitative data deriving from the research programme “Regional ICT Infrastructures and development of High Intensity Knowledge Actvity and Services (HIKAS)”, conducted in Piedmont region in 2010-12, and a number of territorial WI-Fi case-studies, an analysis is offered about the diffusion and quality of infrastructures and related services effectively adopted by citizens, enterprises and public administrations, in order to verify to what extent ICT can really induce high intensity knowledge activities and services able to promote social participation and cooperation. The theme of governance and participation is also dealt under comparative terms, in order to demonstrate that a legislative model, like the so-called digital agenda, is necessary, as it has been the case for the project Hacia una ciudad inteligente bound at developing Mexico City into a digital and knowledge city.