
Project Sections
Background analysis and goal setting
Epistemological and theoretical framework
Methodologic framework of Pescara as an hypercity
Pescara Roadmap and empirical analysis.
Policy guidelines for the Nuova Pescara
Background analysis and goal setting
Nuova Pescara is the first merging municipality that the Abruzzo region is experimenting. The citizens of the municipalities of Pescara, Montesilvano and Spoltore, in the consultative referendum of 25.05.2014, called to express if they wanted this merging.
In order to frame the problem of this project work, it is needed to explain the key concepts around the legislative innovation, in particular on the more general law system and its links with the political system. According to Pitasi et al. (2018) law system and political system have "become more and more unlikely as they both represent two different coding and programming with radically different timing sets about short-term contingency (mostly politics) and mid- long and long convergence (law)" (Pitasi et al., 2018, p. 5).
Present developments moved economic system trends to a more similar nature shaped on the law system since both require strategy constructivism to frame the law agenda setting and the investment portfolio. Considering what has been said until now, the political system is thought more in on its behavioral nature. What it is more important to underline, is that the political system nowadays is to be considered not just its vertical aspects from the top of the law source hierarchy, which is no longer so strategic to master and command the lower-level sources, but also in its horizontalization of (state-national) constitutions. Horizontalization means that it has to concentrate on symmetric and mutual alignment within a big- ger Global Player set (just like the EU, for example) treaties and with the Global Player world-class agreements (just like the CETA, for example) (Pitasi et al., 2018).
Strongly linked to the evolution of the political system is the innovation in citizenship policy, which implies considering the citizens' huge expansion as well over the last centuries. The emergence of the exponential trend of citizenship expansion, called by Pitasi & Ferone (2017) "hypercitizenship" requires "moving" the biggest possible amount of citizens from 'Doxa" to "episteme". The possibility to "move" citizens into this novel state of mind, will obviously involve their behaviors. The mindset passage will turn citizens' behavior, which is eradicated in serious emotional, childish, and short-term oriented thinking moved with egoistic motivations to a much more skilled, educated, cognitive, strategic citizens. This kind of citizens will be able to play the game of procedural deliberation as coding and programming systemic functions instead of the etiologic, 'animal', and primitive emotional participation rooted in their "live for the day mood".
Therefore, the multidimensional conceptualization of hypercitizenship is the autopoietic and self-referential way in which the organized and globalized social system is redesigning and reconfiguring itself beyond the ancient scenario (pre-industrial era) of social actions mirrored by the methodological nationalism of old fashion social sciences clearly criticized by Beck as zombie category (Beck, 1999, 2005). The multilevel process from psychosocial to macro, via macro and meso, and the transdisciplinary pattern of knowledge systematization among hard science, political-social and sciences and humanities clearly show that there is no way the welfare form can be epistemologically, theoretically, methodologically, or paradigmatically founded. "Welfare is merely an alloreferential thematization form of self-referential systems"(Pitasi, 2022, p. 64)
The emerging supranational legislator, the legislator (who will have to take into account the Hypercities models), must think not just in its rational orientation nature but also be aware of the inputs in human ethology and socio-biology research. In that regard, it is needed to consider the human being a mostly rational creature, as well thinking that (in the elaboration of new policy designs) its cognitive and behavioral aspects cannot be considered rational. For that reason, the key focus lies on the interconnection of legislative functions and executive-government functions. On a national state level, the two powers occasionally were on the same side, collaborating and cooperating, but as well the same two powers were often opposing. The legislative was supposed to be stable and long-term oriented, while the government was assumed to be short-term oriented. On an intergovernmental scale, the leadership and supremacy of the legislative power began to emerge as international relations could not be crashed by contingent moods and this supremacy turn into more and more evident through transnational and supranational orders according to Triffin's 'golden rule' of the long-term direct proportion. Therefore, the Legislator is taking a hypercitizen shape (Pitasi et al., 2018)
Based on what has been said above, one of the main (possible) Nuova Pescara problems is clearly the size of the city itself, which can become the main discriminator in winning a role as a hub for markets. How far is Hypercity for Nuova Pescara?
The goal of the present project work is to search inside the problem: by resolving them, the perspective is open to address Nuova Pescara as a case study representing an embodied form of Hypercity.
Epistemological and theoretical framework
The use of images in the field of sociology adds great value to the research becoming a unique form of data. Nevertheless, we should be careful since an image or photograph can be considered a tangible object (it gives us a physical reproduction of that moment) but it is also a representation open to subjectivity, since there is an observer behind the viewfinder, and it is this person who decides where to point their camera or what moment to capture. This is the reason why it's important to adapt a methodology to shape our observation.
Charles Suchar (1989), proposed the use of shooting scripts as a way to extract data from images, having a script gives our "viewfinder" a direction, identifying what kind of patterns we should focus on. Furthermore, in order to modelled the string of our research and our shooting script, it's necessary to establish a concept, operational definitions and indexicalities for the variable of study. "Hypercity" (Pitasi, A. 2021) will be the main concept on which our research will be based. The operational definitions and indexicalities attached to this concept, again developed by Pitasi, will also be adopted for this project:
"An Hypercity is a specific and nevertheless universal kind of city designed as a world class hub for the interconnectivity, convergence and high added value scaling and leverage of tangible and intangible formalized capitals" (Pitasi, A. 2022).
Hypercitizenship is the reflection of different types of citizenship: Cosmopolitan, Scientific, Entrepreneurial and Self-Organizational, Societarian, Lobbying Citizenship (Pitasi, A. 2018). These categories are represented in the Hypercity operational definitions (Pitasi, A. 2022), consisting of 11 elements that help us identify these concepts in a less abstract way and that become the shooting script for our visual essay. The operational definitions are the following:
1. Cosmopolitanism
2. Entrepreneurial Spirit in Company Law and M&A
3. Science based public policies and citizenship participation
4. Networking, lobbying and public relation social autonomy
5. High scale and relatively young Demography
6. High speed blue and green development (slow is not sustainable)
7. High speed technological scorecard and the "time zero of desire"
8. Legislative Expansion (from citizenship & residency on talent & Investment to capital attraction and to strategic downsizing and lean organization of procedures, levels, laws, norms, regulations and bureaucracy at large)
9. Strategic high-speed governance of (in)equality: a theorem
10. Complex is easy in problem setting and problem solving
11. A horizontal memetic pattern in platforms in the world within intangible
Methodologic framework of Pescara as an hypercity
The limited literature in visual sociology lacks a detailed guide to using photographs as data in ethnographic field work. Furthermore, sociologists and documentary photographers working on visual topics have therefore been forced to improvise appropriate research procedures and use "ad hoc" methods. As a result, specific techniques for doing visual sociology remain unrecorded and there is limited guidance in how to do visual sociology. Nevertheless, an image is a unique source and form of information. On one hand it is tangibly objective - what you see is what the camera got and so, everything else being equal, the image is also a physical record of something that either was or happened at some point in time. On the other hand, the image is subjective. It reflects the focus of attention at a particular moment of the one holding or directing the camera. The image also captures important aspects of the experience of the subject of the image. Therefore, in a nutshell, images can present complex subjective processes in an extraordinarily objective form (Wright; Vol.38 No. ½ 2001)
This chapter describes the method used for collecting the information required for the purpose of this study. It is important to note that the methodology is based on the framework created by A.Pitasi (The Hypercity World Order: A Theorem in Pictures; 2022), where the overall aim was to frame the knowledge of visual political sciences within a constructivist social system. The methodological design is based on the sociological viewfinder concept which is to investigate the relation between Nova Pescara and the conceptual definition of a Hypercity.
Pescara Roadmap and empirical analysis
1. Cosmopolitanism (crowded metro/tram/bus stops; "habitable" balconies and terraces; road signs, such as street names; general store signs and restaurants/cafeterias in particular)
Cosmopolitanism wants to create a global, supranational society and can be asserted on several levels based on the idea of a global government or just moral, economic or political relations between nations or individuals from different nations.
The photos assigned to this operational definition and its indexical categories show us that the need for people to move to and from home, to work, to shopping, to restaurants, to recreation and so on is paramount, bus stations being crowded. We can also observe how the city preserves its identity through the buildings that have imposing, specific architecture and which become part of the representation of culture, but also how the most important personalities of Italy are kept in the memory of the citizens, the streets bearing their names (Guglielmo Marconi).
Last but not least, within this definition, we have images that present one of the largest fast-food chains in the world, but also another restaurant that offers typical New York food, restaurants that offer residents the opportunity to try something different.
2. Entrepreneurial Spirit in Company Law and M&A (large buildings, even skyscrapers, with brands of global multinational corporations; large, medium, or even small stores brands of huge, continental chains if not even global; newsstands, small stores; Digital displays with financial information accessible anywhere and in real-time)
Entrepreneurship is a process of identifying and developing economic and social opportunities through the efforts of individuals and organizations, which can result in starting and building new businesses, either as independent enterprises or within existing organizations.
Analyzing the entrepreneurial spirit in the city of Pescara through the representative photos we can say that it is at an average level. Although there are no "skyscraper" buildings, the presence of multinational companies is felt in this city, which represents the citizens' openness to entrepreneurship on a large scale. However, in the city of Pescara, there are also small workshops, typical of a "lifestyle enterprise" mentality, which are nevertheless necessary for residents and which provide the owners with the necessary income to satisfy their needs.
3. Science based public policies and citizenship participation (billboards of commercial advertising, social advertising, and political communication; banquets for petitions, processions, and high forms of political street movementism; screens of cell phones with their downloaded apps; posters of in-person, online, or hybrid events dealing with issues at the intersection of science and politics: ecology, energy, assisted reproduction, euthanasia, etc.)
The public policy represents an action that aims to solve problems that have arisen in the real world, problems that can affect the well-being of the citizen. Public policies in a "Hypercity" should be developed on a global, global, and cosmopolitan scale, national policies no longer having any meaning.
The citizens of Pescara have a say in the decisions to be taken or the decisions already taken by the authorities. Thus, they organize various petitions and street political movements to express their opinions and grievances about the problems the city faces, about the decisions, and about the next actions of the city management, as can be seen in the representative photos for this operational definition.
Residents are informed and kept up to date with all the things that are happening or are going to happen in their city. Regardless of the type of ad, citizens are informed at every step through advertising panels displayed in the city, buildings, offices, and universities, but also online through the "IlPescara" Facebook page.
4. Networking, lobbying, and public relation social autonomy (golf, social, tennis & more clubs; textures; metaphors and further rhetoric figures; universities, research centers & more)
The development of networking and lobbying offers citizens the opportunity to generate and modernize urban organizations and institutions, improve influence, and seek the common good of society. This idea is reinforced even by the image associated with this definition, in which a picture is presented of a "giant" man who is erecting a building and analyzing it, an image that could convey to us the fact that man has the power and possesses the necessary skills to generate change and new social structures.
Moving on to the other photos intended for this operational definition, the city of Pescara supports an active, sporty lifestyle, organizing marathons dating back to the 90s and having stadiums where athletes can train. These types of activities offer citizens the ability to maintain social and interpersonal relationships and to behave appropriately in a social context in which they all live. At the same time, the city also has universities and research centers, D'Annunzio University, being the most important university center whose role is to ensure education and professional training for all students, thus developing a close, immediate and direct link with the economy, but also with the practical needs of society.
5. High scale and relatively young Demography (street photography of places particularly of movida, art galleries, tables of cafes and restaurants, cinemas, theaters, etc; kindergarten spaces in stores, offices, etc.; photos of public gardens and parks with human presence; crosswalks at points of higher population density or commercial movement
The data provided by the "Istituto Nazionale di Statistica-ISTAT" show that in 2021 the presence of a relatively young demographic was felt in the city of Pescara, being represented by a percentage of 43.2% (Italian people aged between 0-44 years from the city of Pescara). At the same time, of the total population present in this city, 5.7% represent the foreigners resident in Pescara, and of which 63.3% is represented by the relatively young population (foreigners resident in Pescara aged between 0-44). These data are supported by the visual material attached to this conceptual definition in which several groups of people appear through parks, restaurants, cafes, and "Piazza della Rinascita".
6. High speed blue and green development (images of technologies in urban context; from cars to cell phones; from electric car charging stations to gas stations etc; nerdy lifestyle e.g. in a coffee shop full of young people each at a small table with their laptops)
Through the photos attached to this definition, we can see how in the city of Pescara there are electric scooters that aim to improve the way citizens/residents live in the city of Pescara. Thus, with these types of technology, the dynamics of urban mobility can be changed, making it much easier and more sustainable for the future. We can also observe the differences between an agglomeration that exists from a gas station and the fact that there is no car parked at the electric charging station. Although the presence of electric cars is low in the city of Pescara, the existence of some charging stations shows us that a few citizens own these types of cars, and the chances that more and more people will purchase them and switch to "Green development" are quite of large
7. High speed technological scorecard and the "time zero of desire" (pictures of public transportation from both outside and inside; pictures of riders from Amazon, Glovo, etc. in action; any image that can metaphorize the instantaneousness or at least the immediacy of the demand/supply intersection; images of multiple participants in Zoom & related events)
Over time, technology has developed more and more, becoming a major factor for citizens, and for society itself. The technology was also developed within the urban service in the city of Pescara, almost all buses that circulate in the urban network are equipped with a tracking device that allows citizens to monitor in real-time the exact position of the vehicles, as well as the existence of devices in which citizens can purchase tickets immediately.
The desire of citizens to get things as soon as they place a request led to the development and involvement of courier companies, they can even order food and receive it in less than an hour. This emphasizes the immediacy of the demand/offer intersection (zero time of desire). But technology has not only made urban service or courier service easier, but also interpersonal communication. Meetings have become easier, people can hold discussions, meetings, and meetings right from the comfort of their homes and whenever they want, accessing different videotelephony platforms.
8. Legislative Expansion (textures; metaphors and further rhetoric figures; borderless wide horizon landscapes and scenarios; symbols of worldwide high global impact organizations)
Analyzing the photos for this operational definition and for the indexical categories, we can observe 2 organizations of great global impact, one being the Mcdonald's restaurant, which we have repeatedly mentioned throughout this chapter as a symbol of globalization, being one of the largest chains of fast food in the world, and the second one is "Glovo", being a courier company. Although the restaurant is strategically positioned near the beach, in order to attract as many people as possible during the time you see, we can see that the employees are dressed in thicker clothes, the picture was most likely not taken during the summer, which could look like regardless of the weather, the Mcdonald's restaurant is one of the choices that the citizens of the city of Pescara make when they want to eat something.
9. Strategic high-speed governance of (in)equality (Street photography of social stratification; insider outsider dynamics visualized; high speed technology symbols; celebrating innovation images)
Good governance promotes an equal and fair society, in which everyone, regardless of gender, age, culture, or race, has the opportunity to develop and reach their maximum potential. Also, this type of society will help the economy to develop and even maintain itself at a high level even in difficult economic times. However, the representative images for this definition show us that no matter how strategic a government is, the differences in social stratification cannot be avoided, some people having the opportunity to develop, while others do not.
Moving on to the other representative photos, the Pescara authorities have developed a project that aims to offer free Wi-Fi on all the beaches in the Abruzzo region. They understood that technology has become an integral part of the lives of each of us and it is essentially the part that helps us in carrying out our daily tasks, whether we are talking about work at the office, about work at home, or about recreational activities.
10. Complex is easy in problem setting and problem solving (metaphors and further rhetorical figures about mapping, variety, abundance & more; textures; teambuilding and win-win situation images; glittering, shining, and fashionable global symbols
This conceptual definition has different representative images. In one of them, a store with a "#REDUCE_REUSE" sticker on the window is presented, which can make us think that it is a second-hand store where people can buy clothes. Other photos for this category are represented by a medical team, the medical system being an important component of it and by an event that has a great impact on the city of Pescara and on its future because it is about innovation, digitization and sustainability. The last photo is of the Ponte del Mare" a symbol and a point of attraction for the city of Pescara, having a pedestrian path as well as a bicycle path, cars being prohibited.
11. A horizontal memetic pattern in platforms in the world within intangible (textures; metaphors and further rhetoric figures; universal or global platforms of any kind; visualizing any shape of intangible added value)
Non-cash payment instruments present a number of advantages compared to the use of cash, they are widely used in developed countries. The most frequently used payment instruments in international practice are payment cards, credit transfers, and direct debit. In order to facilitate the use of credit transfers and cards, remote payment account management services from the e-payments range (internet payments, mobile payments, etc.) are used to make payments, as can be seen in the photos for this conceptual definition.
Policy guidelines for the Nuova Pescara
As we said in the precedent chapters our principal goal is to understand if a city (in our particular example Pescara) can have all the characteristics to be an Hypercity, in this investigation phase we discover that are present some items inside our research that are not perfectly correlated to the definition of Hyper city and in this chapter our goal is to establish what are the solutions that we can propose from a constructivist point of view the fill this gap and give our study case a structure to solve this problems and always be nearest to our Hypercity concept.
First of all we need to talk about our concept of Hypercity, "An Hypercity is a specific and nevertheless universal kind of city designed as a world class hub for the interconnectivity , convergence and high added value scaling and leverage of tangible and intangible formalized capitals" (Pitasi, 2022), inside of this concept we have some indexicalities that represent to our case study a must have to be defined as an Hypercity, that are: Cosmopolitanism, Entrepreneurial Spirit in Company Law and M&A, Science based public policies and citizenship participation, Networking, lobbying and public relation social autonomy, High scale and relatively young demography, High speed blue and green development, High speed technological scorecard and the "time zero of desire", Legislative Expansion (from citizenship & residency on talent &Investment to capital attraction and to strategic downsizing and lean organization of procedures , levels, laws, norms, regulations and bureaucracy at large), Strategic high speed governance of (in)equality, Complex is easy in problem setting and problem solving, an horizontal memetic pattern in platforms in the world within intangible capital currency for example
In this chapter our intention is not to analyse each one of them, instead of that we want to focus ourselves in the particular indexicalities that Pescara needs to improve to become an Hypercity in the next ten years, I would like to focus your attention particularly on this two items: High scale and relatively young demography and Legislative Expansion, with these I don't mean that we need to exclude all the other items but in terms of improvement in the short-mid-term this items could play a really important role for the continuous development of the city.
Conclusions
The first conclusion referred to our project is the fact that the actual work has been done considering the actual city of Pescara, considering it as one of the principal cities of the region Abruzzo and the most populated city of the province of Pescara.
The title of the Project Nuova Pescara means the next mid-long-term future for this city, as you can read in the last chapter, the Nuova Pescara will probably become a reality in the next years, as the union of Spoltore, Montesilvano and Pescara.
The aim of the project was to establish an answer to the principal question that was Can Nuova Pescara be considered as a representative case study of a Hypercity? As you red all long our work it's difficult to define if Nuova Pescara will have all the characteristics to become an Hypercity in the future, we retain necessary to analyse the actual context of the city and evaluate all the different solutions that we retain the city can keep developing in the next years.
For the first consideration we need to take in consideration that Pescara is one of the most recent cities in Italy considering it was founded in 1927, only behind the most recent cities of the nation that were founded in the late 30s, for example Carbonia, Latina, Aprilia and Pomezia for example.
This means that the city has become a reference point for the Adriatic Coast of the nation, being the third city by population after Bari and Rimini, cities that can count with a long and important history.
One of our considerations is linked to the constitution of the Nuova Pescara, it's no more and hypothesis or a political will, nowadays we can consider this a reality to come in the next years, linked with the two nearby cities Montesilvano and Spoltore, this could bring Nuova Pescara to be the biggest city of the Adriatic Coast by number of inhabitants, and will give the city more opportunities for any point of view that we analyse in this paper.
We consider the result of this paper not a final point, but a small start to incentive the continuous development of the city in the next future and how the constitution of the New Pescara could be the principal solution.