Preface

This volume contains the proceedings for the fourth International “NEW METROPOLITAN PERSPECTIVES. Knowledge Dynamics and Innovation-driven Policies Towards Urban and Regional Transition”, scheduled from 26 to 28 May 2020, in Reggio Calabria, Italy. The Symposium was jointly promoted by LaborEst (Evaluation and Economic Appraisal Lab) and CLUDs (Commercial Local Urban Districts Lab), Laboratories of the PAU Department, Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, Italy, in partnership with a qualified international network of the academic institution and scientific societies. The fourth edition of “NEW METROPOLITAN PERSPECTIVES”, like the previous ones, aimed to deepen those factors which contribute to increase cities and territories attractiveness, both with theoretical studies and tangible applications. When the call for papers of New Metropolitan Perspectives was launched in September 2019, no one could imagine that in a few months we would find our- selves suddenly catapulted into a totally unknown future. And the papers sent in January 2020, of course, could not in any way reflect the dynamics caused by the spread of COVID-19, the outlines of which will all be discovered and deepened in the coming years: it is still too early to fully understand the extent of these changes. Today, we are still dealing with what appears to be a cataclysm of planetary proportions; it will take time to “historicize” events and interpret their profound meaning and long-term impact, through the multilevel observation—through the interpretation of macro-data and the in-depth investigation of the different realities involved—that the scientific community will be able to develop when the health emergency is over. At that point, the scenarios can begin to be configured with scientific rigour, which are beginning to be intuitively delineated in constant events. It will be possible to appreciate the permanent (real and perceived) effects on the daily life of communities, on the organisation of work and logistics chains and in the system of social relations. At present, we can only hypothesise scenarios, more or less well founded. v vi Preface The common thread, that linked the different themes from the Symposium in its original conception, was technology, in particular the effects produced on the set- tlement systems by the relationship between man and technology, in two different aspects: the progressive replacement of man with machines in practically all pro- duction processes and the spread of ICT. The pandemic and the policies and practices put in place to contain the infection have brought this issue to the fore with arrogance. The replacement of physical interactions with “virtual” contacts has used consolidated technologies but has accentuated their pervasiveness, generating impacts of different nature. The next few months will tell us how much of this acceleration will persist in our daily lives and how much it will be a transitory phenomenon. Permanent changes are conceivable, for example, in the organisation of work, with the adoption of smart working as an ordinary way of carrying out various tasks, also in areas where until a few months ago it seemed a distant future, such as in teaching. And these changes will probably also affect other areas, just think of the use of culture, in a broad sense, as the many virtual opening initiatives of museums and sites of cultural interest have shown us in this period. As well as central issues for democratic systems will be those related to the use of big data and their impact on individual freedoms: the ongoing debate on tracking movements and personal preferences is extremely topical. However, the data that seems to emerge with greater force from the phase we are experiencing is the p