Territorial Networks, Services and Public Engagement

Rethinking territorial networks today is the task of a system of actors that includes not only city governance, but also local communities (associations, informal groups) and those public and private actors who consider public engagement an important leverage for their own role and function. Proximity means connecting, integrating and creating systems that make cities welcoming, safe, and pleasant: imagining human- and non-human-friendly spaces, organising actions around shared ideas, building short-, medium-, and long-term programmes and contributing their own resources to the redefinition of places and services. In a historic moment that brings with it an emerging social unease, it is necessary to take actions that look at knowledge sharing, democratisation and facilitation of access to resources. This is why, increasingly, universities, companies, and foundations today are protagonists in the transition to proximity living, working alongside city governance and the third sector in the creation of new territorial networks and services.