Urban development in the South of Italy between innovation, specialization and well-Being: The case of Bari

The awareness that the competition with emerging Countries can only takeplace in terms of technology and innovation, and that cities are the fittest placeto meet the challenges of the new millennium, certify that in «smart» Europeancities innovative sectors, such as biotechnology, sustainable mobility, constructioncompatible with the environment, creative industry and smart grids, will becomedriving forces for the growth of the most traditional sectors of industry, transformingthe urban areas in an accelerator of innovation and an engine of sustainabledevelopment.Even Puglia region is particularly leaning towards the model of smart communitiesthrough interventions aimed at enhancing the different components oflocal attractiveness, focusing on the needs of competitive growth of businesses inthe new global dimension of the market and aiming at a redevelopment of thearea and productive, cultural and local tourist systems, at international level. Inview of the new challenges of the 2014-2020 programming period, the Regionproposes to the major cities of Puglia some agreements for the implementationof sustainable urban development as a form of agreement between municipalitiesand regions on a set of shared and participatory interventions aimed at revitalizingthe urban context, acting on the infrastructure networks and environmentalquality through the integration of socio-economic component and the territorialones as well as an active (also) private participation. In this sense, the city ofBari has sought to attain a «smart» vision involving all the local stakeholders inthe planning and implementation of initiatives in the economic, environmental,social and cultural field. Bari's «smart» approach, in fact, though in line with thestrategy of the European and Italian institutions, has a level of newness, since itpromotes a governance where all players in the area contribute to the achievementof the strategic objectives set for 2020; simpler partnership models inspiredto the idea of agility will enable operational forms of collaboration, today obstructedby too rigid administrative and regulatory structures.