Smart Commons Lab

Modelli e strumenti di management per lo sviluppo innovativo delle risorse comuni

L’innovazione tecnologica cambia continuamente lo scenario dei beni comuni (commons), sia quelli tradizionali, come gli ecosistemi naturali locali, sia i cosiddetti “new commons”, come ad esempio la conoscenza, la salute pubblica, le città, il clima.

Ogni innovazione tecnologica implica nuovi problemi, come pure nuove soluzioni ai precedenti problemi. La digitalizzazione sta imprimendo un’accelerazione inaudita a queste trasformazioni. Perciò, emergono continuamente nuovi commons, nuove minacce ai commons, e nuove opportunità per svilupparli e proteggerli.

In questo quadro di grande complessità, i tradizionali approcci top-down sono insufficienti, a causa della loro rigidità. D’altro canto, anche i tradizionali approcci bottom-up basati sul mercato e l’iniziativa individuale sono inadeguati, a causa delle fragilità intrinseche dei commons. Mancano dunque, ad oggi, gli strumenti per favorire una positiva co-evoluzione dei commons, delle tecnologie e delle capacità umane.

Per queste ragioni, lo Smart Commons Lab si pone l’obiettivo di catalizzare la creazione di una nuova generazione di strumenti dinamici per migliorare i processi di policy-making, sperimentazione, partecipazione, formazione, monitoraggio, misurazione, organizzazione, gestione, decision-making e sviluppo economico che ruotano attorno ai commons.

Lo Smart Commons Lab intende perseguire questo obiettivo attraverso il coordinamento collaborativo di un’ampia rete internazionale di soggetti diversi, quali enti di ricerca, non profit, aziende, enti pubblici, ma anche gruppi di interesse, associazioni di cittadini e comitati locali.

In questo modo, lo Smart Commons Lab punta a favorire l’integrazione orizzontale tra discipline diverse, come pure l’integrazione verticale tra la ricerca scientifica, le soluzioni pratiche, e i bisogni concreti delle persone, delle organizzazioni e delle comunità. Grazie a questa integrazione, la rete dello Smart Commons Lab potrà proporsi con efficacia per bandi di finanziamento nazionali ed europei.  I servizi dello Smart Commons Lab comprenderanno la ricerca accademica multi-disciplinare, la divulgazione, la formazione, lo sviluppo di soluzioni digitali e la consulenza. Questi servizi potranno essere erogati direttamente dallo Smart Commons Lab oppure anche indirettamente, tramite attività di supporto a soggetti partner.

A titolo di esempio, alcuni ambiti elettivi per le attività dello Smart Commons Lab saranno le smart city, lo sviluppo dei territori locali, le reti di imprenditoria sociale, le aree protette, le destinazioni turistiche, i parchi tecnologici, le reti di innovazione, il sustainability reporting.

Referente:
Francesca Ricciardi (Università di Torino)
Valter Cantino (Università di Torino)
Paola Dameri (Università di Genova)
Paul Pierce (Università di Lund, Svezia)
Guido Tripaldi (Associazione Equiliber)
Alessandro Zardini (Università di Verona)

Per informazioni e adesioni scrivere a:
smartcommonslab.management@unito.it

NEWS

• 14 Maggio 2018: presentazione ufficiale dello Smart Commons Lab. Scarica la locandina. Evento gratuito. Registrazioni.
• 21 febbraio 2018 – Lo Smart Commons Lab nella newsletter FERPI: http://www.ferpi.it/beni-comuni-la-sfida-e-imparare-a-gestirli/
• 31 gennaio 2018 – Lo Smart Commons Lab partecipa al Salone della CSR e dell’innovazione sociale: http://www.csreinnovazionesociale.it/tappa/torino/

Management models and tools for the innovative development of the commons
Some years ago, business school students and start-uppers were unlikely to consider the commons as a relevant issue to their future activities. In fact, until recently, with the term “commons” people usually labelled only those natural environments, such as grazing lands or fishing areas, on which local communities have collective rights of use in traditional contexts. In other words, the concept of commons was strictly linked to the studies on rural economies and medieval villages. Therefore, no wonder if business people overlooked this issue: what role could the commons play in today’s dynamic, hyper-technological world?

A key role, indeed. Thanks to the pioneering work of Elinor Ostrom, the first woman who was awarded with the Nobel prize in Economics, multidisciplinary studies on the commons have boomed. The results of these studies allow us to understand that the dynamics that can lead to the disruption of a medieval grazing land can also jeopardize a tourism destination or a technological start-up of our times. These dynamics can be synthesized with the expression “tragedy of the commons”, that is, the collapse of the system due to the myopic opportunism of its users. Luckily, the ongoing research efforts suggest that some approaches and solutions that allowed to prevent the tragedy of the commons from occurring in medieval grazing lands may also be used, if properly integrated, to achieve survival and prosperity of today’s tourism destinations and technological start-ups.

In other words, the concept of commons has grown broader, and can be used today to identify all those systems that provide a community with resources for collective use, but are vulnerable to opportunistic behavior (of over-exploitation and/or disengagement) on the part of that very community of users. In this light, the commons are everywhere: Wikipedia, a city’s mobility system, or an industrial district’s reputation can all be viewed as commons. A society that can rely on a robust fabric of commons allows for a higher quality of life for all. Also businesses are immersed in an environment made up of commons, and depend on the resources that the critical commons provide them with. But how do businesses contribute to (re) generate and protect the commons they rely on?

Many people still think that businesses can just exploit the commons, possibly paying taxes for this. However, it is increasingly clear today that thick, distributed caring for the common good is necessary to prevent system fragility. Today, the (re)generation of the commons is not an issue that managers can disregard or leave to the government or to small groups of activists any more. The reason is that today’s commons are much more complex than medieval grazing lands. We live in a globalized world, and many  key commons, such as the planet’s climate, have a global dimension. In this inter-connected scenario, each technological innovation implies new problems, as well as new solution to previous problems. Digitalization is dramatically accelerating these transformations. Therefore, new commons continuously emerge, as well as new threats to the commons, and we need new and capillary organizing, managing and monitoring capabilities to develop the commons and protect them from disengagement, opportunism and ignorance. Traditional management approaches are poorly suited to address these challenges. Business and management scholars and practitioners are today called to contribute to a positive co-evolution of the commons, technologies, and human capabilities, based on an increasing scientific understanding of the phenomena relating with common resources.

In order to contribute to this effort, we have recently founded the Smart Commons Lab as a project of the SAA Business School, within the Department of Management of the University of Turin. The Smart Commons Lab will leverage a wide international network to develop innovative management approaches and tools for the (re)generation of the commons. The Smart Commons Lab aims to catalyze the horizontal integration across different disciplines, along with the vertical integration between scientific research, practical solutions, educational initiatives, and the concrete needs, behaviors and capabilities of the communities, organizations and people that (may) benefit from the commons.

Coordinator: 

Francesca Ricciardi (University of Turin)
Valter Cantino (University of Turin)
Paola Dameri (University of Genoa)
Paul Pierce (University of Lund, Sweden)
Guido Tripaldi (Associazione Equiliber)
Alessandro Zardini (Universiity of Verona)

For information and applications please send an email to: 

smartcommonslab.management@unito.it