Public Governance in Smart Cities: educational issues in a continuously planning society

The issues of public governance in the so-called “smart cities” can sample the apparent contradiction between the latest forms of authoritarian democracy and wider possibilities of democratic participation through new communication and information technologies (NCIT). The concept of “smart city” has become today the horizon to move towards for the creation of environments based on ecological, economic and social sustainability. The need for adequate human and intellectual capital, which can increase the efficiency and awareness of the “smart city” project, requires a reflection on educational methods that stimulate creativity and adaptation. A continuously planning society can use information and communication networks, creating concrete synergies between citizens and public administration in resource management, problem solving, and improving public service operating conditions. The risk of failing to prepare people for this new model of participation, leaving room for incompetence, management imbalance and poor politics, is closely related to the same growth opportunities offered by the NCIT. A dialogic education that stimulates communicative exchange is the foundation and key to future social and economic projects, based on democratic participation, ethical behavior and social awareness. Following the ideas of John Dewey on the birth of democracy, this grows from small communities, through trainings aimed at improving the skills and intelligence of the individual; a formation along the whole course of life that adapts to the rhythm of continuous change of society, and of life itself. In this constant formation, collaboration plays a fundamental role: it encourages individuals to lean towards constructive dialogue for the resolution of problems, beyond impositions dictated by dominant powers. In a famous text of political theory from 1935, Dewey elaborates the central difference between the planned society and the continuously planning society: the planned society is based on a scheme imposed from above, which provides for the adjustment of all social life to the directives leading to the realization of a determined purpose. So it is essentially immobile and immobilizing, it uses a coercion both physical and psychological in conforming the actions to the final drawings; this applies to all types of totalitarian society, as the presupposition of an ultimate goal towards which to strive, denies any possibility of debate and therefore of cooperation between citizens. On the contrary, a continuously planning society is attentive to a more articulated social control of the results of the liberation of intelligence, through broader forms of cooperative interchange. The democratic method allows to discuss every purpose, promotes collaboration and participation. The problem of democracy, as Dewey argued in 1916, is that of a form of social organization that must nurture and support individual forces, as well as freeing them from external mechanical constraints. Moreover, directed towards the active participation of all in the formation of values that regulate associated life, both for the social good and for the development of individual human beings.