PhD

Phd emmapuerari cover 2

Author

Emma Puerari

ISBN code

978-94-93164-07-9

Size

147 pages

DOI code

10.17418/PHD.2021.9789493164079

Cities are facing the challenge to maintain and upgrade urban infrastructures and establish effective, open and participative innovation processes to develop public services able to respond to citizens' needs. This research considers public services in urban environments fundamental for value creation and for the experimentation of governance models that might have considerable implications for planning research and practice, policy development and societal well-being. While public services are innovated, different governance models in service provision are experimented, aiming to answer to new challenges, demands and priorities.

Starting from these premises, the major aim of this work is to analyse the interdependence between public services innovation processes and the related governance models. The main research question of this research is: how are public services innovating in relation to their governance models?

Operationally, the purposes of the research are to:

i. Identify a framework to analyse innovation in public services by observing the governance models related to service provision.

ii. Discussing two of the governance models related to service provision, public-private partnership (3P) and public-private-people partnership (4P) model, by identifying strengths and weaknesses of both.

iii. Explore governance models related to service provision by the analysis of three case studies –Milan (IT), Athens (EL) and Rotterdam (NL) - where particular environments and changes are causing governance shifts in the management of some specific urban services.

In the first part this work presents the definition of services and the existing interrelations and connections elapsing between public services innovation and governance. The second chapter analyses existing listing of public service innovation through a literature analysis, aiming to compose an analytical framework of critical elements lying between innovation processes and service governance. The third chapter presents the analysis of two governance models: the Public-Private Partnership (3P model) and the Public-Private-People-Partnership (4P model) in the provision of public services. Chapter four analyses the management of green and abandoned areas in three European cities– Rotterdam (NL), Milan (IT) and Athens (EL)- using the analytical framework built in the second chapter. The fifth chapter presents the main results of the research through the analysis of the three case studies. This part explores: (i) how public services are changing and what are the dynamics of these changes; (ii) when, how and under what condition the 4P model works, presenting a critical review of the theoretical, methodological and empirical research developed. Finally, chapter five presents a session that describes the possible future research that may arise from this dissertation.

Keywords: governance models, public-private-people partnerships, co-creation, co-production, urban planning and service design

About the author

Emma Puerari is Assistant Professor in Urban Design and Planning at the Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the University of Groningen (FSS, RUG) since 2018. She holds a Ph.D. in Territorial Design and Government from Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) (2016). She has been Post-doc researcher at TU Delft, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) and visiting researcher at the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) (2016-2018).

Her research activities focus on the interplay of planning and design domains in sustainability transition processes. The core of her research develops around urban (and territorial) transformation with a focus on services innovation and design and the related governance models (3Ps and 4Ps). The impact on territorial transformation of co-creation and co-production processes are crucial elements of her research interests.

She has been active as researcher and manager on several national and European research projects: Participatory City Making, NWO-STW, for TU Delft and DRIFT (2016-2018); Community Participation in Planning, Erasmus +, for DAStU POLIMI (2015-2016); MyNeighbourhood|MyCity, EU-CIP PSP Grant Agreement no 325227 for DAStU POLIMI (2013-2015); Periphèria, EU-CIP PSP Grant Agreement no 271015, for DAStU POLIMI (2012-2013).

She is member of the Urban and Regional Studies Institute (URSI) and of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Urban Science and Design (CASUS) of the FSS. She is member of the PhD programme of the Graduate School of Spatial Sciences. She is member of the editorial board of the Italian Journal of Planning Practice. She is part of the Scientific Committee of the Greening Cities-Shaping Cities Symposium and of the Communities and Technologies Conference. She has been coordinator and lecturer of several master and bachelor courses for the different institutions she worked for.