Topic of the thesis: The city of the future? Exploring Up Town, the smartest and greenest district in Italy.

Abstract: My research project focuses on the construction and gradual settlement process of new residents in a smart district on the outskirts of Milan, called Up Town. The district, conceived as the residential part of a impressive hub dedicated to technological innovation, offers innovative "smart" services (neighbourhood apps, domotics, car sharing for residents, ubiquitous video surveillance) and is inspired by the principles of the so called "social mix", with the coexistence of luxury houses and social housing.  In this empirical context, the aim of the research is to analyze the influence of the urban socio-technical imagery of the smart and green-eco city on residents' housing choices and to frame this influence in a sociological perspective. Moreover, the case study offers the possibility to observe the interaction between different social groups in a semi-experimental context: a neighbourhood with no urban memory conceived by a group of private companies as a social engineering experiment. The research is embedded in an analytical-critical theoretical framework through which the construction of the neighbourhood is framed within a general process of transformation of the capitalist economy in global cities, increasingly focused on the construction of innovation clusters, data exploitation and platform capitalism.

Research interests: Urban studies – Smart city – Critical Theory – Economy of Innovation – Ethnography.

Graduated from: University of University of Turin.

Degrees obtained: BA in Humanities (Classical and Medioeval literature) – MA Sociology.

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