The Territorial Dimension of Living Lab Approaches: Starting the European “Participant Observatory”

Abstract

Territory production can be intended as any process of spatial transformation deriving from a sustainable and reciprocal dialogue between local communities and their spatial context along history time; the territory is a dynamic but durable balance between human settlements and their environments. Territory intended in this way - maybe the major competitive factor of regions and their economic actors too - depends less on merely technological advances, rather than socio-technical innovations able to generate better life quality in cities and regions. This is why in the CIP project “Periphèria”, started in November 2010, a European Observatory of LLs and Smart Cities will be set up, conceived as an interactional learning space/environment oriented to network their innovation experiences towards a kind of 'integrated' territorial development.