‘Slowing down’ in small and medium-sized towns: Cittaslow in Germany and Italy from a social innovation perspective

Sept, Ariane

doi:10.1080/21681376.2021.1919190

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Among the pillars of the concept of slow city, the literature most often reports on: the appreciation of the quality and creativity in unhurried and reflective activity of people in all areas of their lives, the circular economy (consuming less, recycling and reusing), resilience, social justice, local culture and heritage, sustainability and cooperation [35][36][37][38][39]. Jeong et al [40] defined slow city goals in five areas, i.e., the quality of life, sustainable development, place-making, locality, and conviviality.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polish Cittaslow Local Governments’ Support for Renewable Energy Deployment vs. Slow City Concept

et al. 2021

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The slow city concept is associated with great care for the protection of the natural environment and the use of renewable energy sources. Thus, the study aimed to discuss the potential of the slow city model and the actual role of Cittaslow local governments in deploying renewable energy, based on the case study of the Polish Cittaslow Network. To achieve this aim, we carried out qualitative and quantitative data analyses, based on literature review and data for all 35 Polish Cittaslow municipalities, retrieved from: (i) development strategies (ii) a survey (iii) the Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland, (iv) the Quality of Life Synthetic Index (QLI). To process the data, we applied descriptive statistics, the Shapiro-Wilk test, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test, and the Spearman’s rank test. Findings showed that the support for renewable energy deployment was not at a high level and did not correlate with the goals set in the Cittaslow development strategies. This was the result of a cumulation of pressing social and economic problems, which the local authorities in Poland are legally obliged to solve, while the implementation of renewable energy is not obligatory. The QLI for these municipalities was low and renewable energy was not a significant element in improving the quality of life of citizens.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polish Cittaslow Local Governments’ Support for Renewable Energy Deployment vs. Slow City Concept

et al. 2021

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“…While there has been extensive research on the role of social innovations in rural development (Bock, 2016;Neumeier, 2012), less has been written about the role of social innovations in the SMST context. One exception is the study by Sept (2021), which shows that the membership of select SMSTs in Germany and Italy in the network of Slow Cities helped these towns to take on a different development perspective, namely one of slowing down and putting quality of life first and foremost on the agenda. Thus, the social innovation led to a revised notion of what constitutes a good life in the towns under investigation.…”

Section: Going Beyond Patents and Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation and entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized towns

Mayer¹

2022

The Important Role of Nature in Planning for Small Cities

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Innovation and entrepreneurship only play a minor role in research on small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs). As crucial economic development dynamics, innovation and entrepreneurship are mostly associated with large cities (Mayer and Motoyama, 2020). Thus, as scholars and teachers, we are used to pointing to entrepreneurial hotspots like Silicon Valley, Boston and Stuttgart. We utilize theoretical models such as industrial clusters (Porter, 2000), regional innovation systems (Asheim et al., 2019) and entrepreneurial ecosystems (Spigel, 2020) without acknowledging or even recognizing that these conceptual models have been developed in the context of large cities or metropolitan areas. Yet, the large city context is quite different from that of an SMST. While the large city boasts a great number of firms, different types of economic actors such as support organizations, higher education and research organizations, research partners, etc., a medium-sized city or small-town may lack part or all of them. In addition, SMSTs differ in other characteristics necessary for innovation and entrepreneurship to flourish.Most studies of innovation and entrepreneurship in SMSTs make several problematic assumptions. First, there is an implicit 'urban bias' when studying the geography of innovation and entrepreneurship. Shearmur (2017) highlights this and argues that often innovation is identified from data that are urban-related and that dominant theories on innovation and how such dynamics unfold describe creative processes in the economy as an urban phenomenon. Others such as Mayer and Motoyama (2020) add that often the lived experiences of researchers studying entrepreneurial and innovative regions is quite urban and that the small or medium-sized town context is left out simply because we as researchers have not fully experienced the more

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“…While there has been extensive research on the role of social innovations in rural development Neumeier, 2012), less has been written about the role of social innovations in the SMST context. One exception is the study by Sept (2021), which shows that the membership of select SMSTs in Germany and Italy in the network of Slow Cities helped these towns to take on a different development perspective, namely one of slowing down and putting quality of life first and foremost on the agenda. Thus, the social innovation led to a revised notion of what constitutes a good life in the towns under investigation.…”

Section: Going Beyond Patents and Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Research Agenda for Small and Medium-Sized Towns

2022

The Important Role of Nature in Planning for Small Cities

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and Arts. He is Head of the Department of Human Geography at the Anton Melik Institute of Geography and Lecturer at the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU. His interests lie mainly in urban and economic geography with a focus on participatory research methods and community involvement. He is involved in several international projects looking at alternative futures and socio-economic transitions of small industrial towns across Europe. His work has appeared in City, Culture and Society, Geography Compass, Innovation and other journals.

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‘Slowing down’ in small and medium-sized towns: Cittaslow in Germany and Italy from a social innovation perspective

Cited by 13 publications

References 14 publications

Polish Cittaslow Local Governments’ Support for Renewable Energy Deployment vs. Slow City Concept

Polish Cittaslow Local Governments’ Support for Renewable Energy Deployment vs. Slow City Concept

Innovation and entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized towns

A Research Agenda for Small and Medium-Sized Towns

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