17^th International Conference - INTI International Network  of Territorial Intelligence    

4^th International Conference - ICSR Mediterranean Knowledge

The International Network - Cultural Changes, Inequalities and Sustainable Development (CcISuD), International Network of Territorial Intelligence (INTI) and the International Centre for Studies and Research “Mediterranean Knowledge” (ICSR-MK), invites you to participate in the 17th International Conference of INTI / 4th International Conference of ICSR Mediterranean Knowledge, expected at the University of Salerno, by submitting scientific abstracts.

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The conference Collective Intelligence and Innovative Territories. Transitions, Cultural Changes, and Inequalities, jointly organized by three international networks  (CcISuD, INTI and ICSR MK), aims at collecting contributions that address the most important issues related to collective intelligence, under the point of view of different social sciences and humanities.

Collective intelligence is the core of a reflection that, although in different articulations and disciplinary approaches, could produce the sharing of roles, strategies and projects.

The valorisation of the territorial resources is a new configuration including, besides the methods in which programmes are merged, the healthy part of the cultural tradition of a community, which constitutes its social capital. The territory, in this sense, in not only taken in consideration under the economical point of view, as was the case of the industrial society, which considered it as an environment in which to exploit material resources without worrying for the territorial depletion and for the distributive destination favourable to minorities.

Today, the role of collective intelligence has to identify paths leading to realize objectives shared by the community and congruent with the environmental policies. At the same time, the sustainability of a development model shall be measured through a survey aimed to define pluralities, possibilities and multidimensionalities of an investment of resources, valorising and privileging the historical-cultural elements. The territory, therefore, is understood as the context in which cultural, human and historical resources, which constitute the intangible heritage, becomes more and more significant.

Too often, when talking about development, the mind goes to economics, but, as is known, the concept of development is not limited to economic paradigms. Today, when we talk of development, we refer to sustainable development, understood as the process aimed at offering environmental, social and economic services to all the members of a community, without compromising the framework of environment and of social system.

Understood in this way, the concept of sustainable development completely changes frameworks and dynamics that characterized the industrial society: the prosperity of a territory does not come only from the capability of producing goods for the market, but also from the ability of integrating all subjects of the community, including disadvantaged and non-productive subjects. The development of a territory, therefore, today is measured trough a sustainability that put human resources in the heart of the territorial policies. The promotion of such a development is a process that shall last and be congruent with a wider programme, open to social environment, without sacrificing the non-reproducible resources.

In such a context, collective intelligence produces knowledge related to the understanding of territorial structures and dynamics and, at the same time, it orients the social players in the choice of means and strategies that must be used to produce a shared knowledge, able to ease the lasting development of the territory. Collective intelligence, therefore, can be seen as a practice of social, cultural and economic changes, controlling functions and performances in the pursuing of programmed goals. In this sense, it eases the political-economic action of territorial governance and sustainable development: in this way, a congruent communicative and educational interaction is established among the social players operating in a territory; collective intelligence assumes a leading role, because it orients the direction of innovation and development. This development strategy must be oriented to substantiate the sense of territorial belonging through growth and strengthening of consent and social equilibrium; however, in order to achieve this goal, the majority of the social groups - holder of material interests, exigencies, and differentiated needs - must identify and be identified by the sharing of values related to essential elements of society, in order to ease civil coexistence, participation and growth of human capital, inexhaustible source of richness for a territory.

A) Territorial observation: social-technical tools of territorial observation for the collective intelligence

The observation of the territory is experiencing a strong growth at diverse level, with the diffusion of information and communication technologies, particularly geo-localization, big data and artificial intelligence, which have a strong innovative potentiality, but also technical and bureaucratic elements. The territorial observation allows to overcome the production of indicators and enables the actors of a territory to be really involved in determining its needs, in the actuation of concrete shared initiatives and in their evaluation. In this context, it is necessary to develop best practices for the use of tools of observation, in order to evaluate the general impact on social and supportive economy and on the improvement of the collective life.

B) Participative territorial governance, planning of social-ecological innovation, territories and networks

Territorial governance supports the evolution of individual and social behaviours, boosting the innovation in the context of social-ecological programmes of transition, suitable for the specificity of each territory. The topic of the participative governance aims at studying one of the great emergencies of mankind: the regeneration of agency, strengthening the tie between knowledge and the answer to social-ecological problems and integration of synergies (territorial intelligence) and programming of the social-ecological transition. The general goal of this topic will be rethinking the role of human activity in society, connecting the individual responsibility to the concerted activities of cooperation.

C) Vulnerability, resilience of territories and populations

This topic aims at addressing two key concepts, strictly tied each other when one studies the territories and their answers to crises: social vulnerability and resilience. In last decades, attention in not only paid to lack and loss (think to the territories involved in disasters), but also to the ability of individuals to adapt and grow in spite of critical situations. “Resilience” defined as the ability of an individual or group to regain balance after critical events.

D) Fundamental rights, inequalities and protection systems

Three great currents of modern political thought – liberalism, socialism and social Christianity – converge in proposing a system of fundamental rights (although they keep their identity by preferring some rights rather than others). Even if they are not considered natural, human rights are not given once and forever. The present forms of power characterize the present stage in comparison with the previous ages and strengthen the claim for new rights, aiming at reducing inequality and creating systems of productions.

E) Gender, territories and sustainable development

The transversal topic of gender entails to study the integration of this dimension in the definition of new models of development, in order to reduce gender inequality and remove an imbalance that hinders the development itself. Gender is not only an identity dimension, through which is possible to analyse what today is presented, at level of collective imagery, as a clash of civilizations; it is also a dimension that allows to study some aspects of the process of social integration.

F) Cultural changes, communication, knowledge

In last two centuries, societies have been more and more complex, both in the relations and in the processes, with a different gradualism according to geographical areas and social-cultural contexts. Processes of secularization, rationalization and, finally, individualization, have produced cultural transformations that reverberates in the social representations, in the beliefs through which individuals interpret the territories where they live and in the values thanks to which they orient themselves. These transformations of ways of life lead to a sort of “decline of daily life”, understood as a measure of human wellbeing, which  overcomes the economic parameters and includes elements related to the ability of individuals to carry out an activity, to the cultural identity and sociality, as well as aspects related to living environment. This topic, therefore, wants to analyse the role of collective intelligence, communication and knowledge (including educational process) as an element of production of cultural and identity transformations.