The recipe for a resilient smart city: a collaborative governance and technological approach.

In the last decade, cities have become the centre of economic, social, and environmental development. An ageing population, the problem of inclusion, new forms of poverty, migratory flows and environmental protection are just some of the issues facing urban areas. Based on this awareness, local authorities (LAs) are called upon to assume an increasingly complex role of territorial governance with growing responsibilities and progressively reduced financial resources. This complexity can generate very challenging financial crises for municipalities. In this context, the smart city framework, based on innovative collaborative governance, can be a reference to help public administrations to lead a city out of the crisis. Using a case study, Parma’s process of becoming a smart city is described and analysed, suggesting a possible new model for all administrations wishing to implement virtuous processes capable of creating an efficient and effective management of smart services. Parma is the second largest city in the Emilia-Romagna region, in northern Italy, and represents one of the most important food producing areas in Italy and Europe. Starting from a near-default situation, since 2017 Parma has become one of the top ten smart cities in the annual “ICity Rank” index, which ranks Italian smart cities. This exploratory case study shows how, by implementing the right policies and transition levers, through an innovative process of collaborative governance, a city in financial crisis was able to become “smart” and turn into a best practice.