La diffusione delle nuove tecnologie informatiche trasforma in modo dirompente la nostra vita individuale e collettiva. Cambia il campo della politica, dalle tecniche di costruzione del consenso alle modalità di gestione del policy making.
Call for Paper
Digital sovereignty
In un’epoca di rapidi cambiamenti tecnologici e riallineamenti geopolitici, la sovranità digitale è emersa come un concetto cruciale ma controverso. Governi, aziende, organizzazioni internazionali e attori della società civile stanno ridefinendo i propri ruoli nella gestione dei dati, delle infrastrutture digitali e degli ecosistemi tecnologici. Internet, un tempo percepito come uno spazio senza confini e decentralizzato, è oggi sempre più modellato da regolamentazioni nazionali, competizione tecnologica strategica, nonché da considerazioni economiche e di sicurezza.
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Digital sovereignty
In an era of rapid technological change and geopolitical realignment, digital sovereignty has emerged as a crucial yet contested concept. Governments, corporations, international organizations and civil society actors are redefining their roles in managing data, digital infrastructures, and technological ecosystems. The internet, once viewed as a borderless and decentralized space, is now increasingly shaped by national regulations, strategic technological competition, as well as economic and security concerns.
Oltre ai focus indicati, per tutte le call for paper verranno prese in considerazione submission (saggi o web reviews) sui diversi temi della digital politics.
Digital Twins 1
3/2024
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- Fortunato Musella, Il futuro dei Digital twins
- Mauro Santaniello, Carlos Andrés Fonseca Dìaz, The geopolitics of Digital twins. A tale of three cities
- Andrea Gaiba, Michele Giovanardi, Towards interconnected «Politically smart cities»? Rethinking participation from Digital twins to Translocal grassroots digital platforms
- Giuseppe Micciarelli, Architettura e logica politica dei Digital twins: un approccio critico e prefigurativo
- Gianluigi Spagnuolo, Il procedimento amministrativo e il suo gemello (digitale)
- Valentina Ottone, Le politiche di pianificazione urbana e le reti di governance. I casi del Digital twin di Bologna e Barcellona
- Francesco Amoretti, Serena Fraiese, Abdessamad Rhalimi, Integrating Digital twins in Morocco. Can innovation and tradition align?
- Nicola Palladino, Gerardo Ferrentino, Digital twins in border control and migration policies. Balancing security and human rights for sustainable governance
- Luigi Rullo, Paths of Digital twins in the public sector. A systematic review of the social sciences literature
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Il futuro dei Digital twins
Fortunato Musella
Il futuro dei Digital twins
Digital twins (Dt) represent one of the most advanced frontiers of digital innovation. Their growing relevance is evidenced by the rapid emergence of a vast body of literature on the subject, which has expanded alongside a remarkable increase in global investments in this field. This article introduces the Special issue and explores the transformative potential of Dt and their implications for the future of social sciences. It highlights how Dt are not merely technological advancements but also catalysts for deep structural transformations in contemporary politics and society. More in detail, this article presents three fundamental dimensions in which Dt challenge conventional frameworks in political science: control, management, and design. Overall, the article underlines how Dt redefine how we govern, plan, and understand the socio-political context, marking a fundamental shift in the trajectory of social sciences in the years to come.
KEYWORDS: Digital Twins, Social Sciences, Political Science, Policy Innovation, Socio-Political Transformation
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The geopolitics of Digital twins. A tale of three cities
Mauro Santaniello, Carlos Andrés Fonseca Dìaz
The geopolitics of Digital twins. A tale of three cities
By creating real-time, data-driven models of physical objects, systems, or processes, Digital twins (Dt) enable new economic, societal and political interactions. Since the design and the deployment of Dt is still in its infancy, there is a lack of shared definitions, common standards and empirical data about their use and their political implications. However, it is widely recognized that the rise of Dt is not merely a technological advancement but a paradigm shift in human-network interaction, with profound political consequences. While there is a discrete literature that addresses possible political implications of Dt, there is still a lack of studies about the processes of political shaping of technology which explores how Dt are shaped by power dynamics and strategic competition. This paper seeks to partially fill this gap by answering the following research questions: what technologies are constitutive of Dt, and who controls them? The paper first outlines and contextualizes the rise of the Dt from theoretical, historical, and political perspectives. It then presents a conceptualization of the digital twin as a socio-technical assemblage of different technologies, including sensors, robotics, data management systems, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, cloud and digital certifications. For each one of these components, a technopolitical analysis is conducted through the use of a heterogeneous set of secondary data, in order to assess the level of power concentration in each technological sector that is constituent of the Dt. Findings are finally discussed from a geopolitical perspective, which emphasizes some important aspects related to authority and control of the Dt in democratic societies.
KEYWORDS: Digital Twins, Geopolitics, Socio-Technical Assemblage, Governance, Digital Corporation
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Towards interconnected «Politically smart cities»?
Andrea Gaiba, Michele Giovanardi
Towards interconnected «Politically smart cities»? Rethinking participation from Digital twins to Translocal grassroots digital platforms
The rise of Digital twins (Dt), powered by supercomputers and sophisticated Ai models, presents a transformative opportunity for crowdsourcing innovative policy processes within cities. This paper explores the potential of technology to enhance democratic innovations, fostering more sustainable, interconnected and politically engaged urban environments. Our vision centres on the concept of Politically smart cities (Psc) where Dt and participatory democracy work in synergy to create a transnational, digital infrastructure for evidence-based public discourses and informed decision-making. In Psc, citizens act both as «political sensors», contributing to real-time data to simulate and evaluate policy decisions, but also as political actors, who own and consult the same data to partake in democracy in a more accessible way. The first part of the paper anchors this normative horizon in the broader theoretical work on affective polarisation and presents some of the conditions of possibility for enabling more granular «agonistics» and collective intelligence, where debates on political trade-offs originate at the local level and are presented upstream. The second section outlines the synergistic nature of Dt and Smart cities (Sc), focusing on the conditions necessary for both to be imbued in meaningful and inclusive citizen engagement. Lastly, the concept Translocal grassroots digital platforms (Tgdp) is introduced as a counterpoint to the dominance of Very large online platforms (Vlop) and the risks related to technocratic dominance, data extractivism, and polarization. Interoperable Tgdp are presented as the enablers of trans-local, interconnected participation. The last section theorises that Dt-powered Tgdp can prioritise localised knowledge, needs, and experiences, and foster solidarity and collective action across local contexts, without trumping translocal heterogeneity.
KEYWORDS: Digital Twins, Politically Smart Cities, Democratic Innovations.
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Architettura e logica politica dei Digital twins: un approccio critico e prefigurativo
Giuseppe Micciarelli
Architettura e logica politica dei Digital twins: un approccio critico e prefigurativo
This article provides a reflection on the general architecture and political logic of Digital twins (Dt), when oriented towards supporting policy making. The extant literature on strategies to limit any negative effects of algorithmic democracy relies mainly on regulations or mechanisms such as codes of ethics, explicability reports and auditing. I will propose an alternative hypothesis, which is to foster political imagination through a methodology of political-legal hacking. This approach is not intended to compromise their objectivity and validation mechanisms; rather, its purpose is to extend their use and co-design to subjects other than decision-makers. To develop this hypothesis, the discussion will encompass the thresholds of ineliminable politicity involved in the displacement of Dt from the original techno-industrial field to that of policy making. The discussion will emphasis the potential risks associated with the objectivity and neutrality that data may project, potentially obscuring their partiality. The paper will emphasise the potential of a prefigurative approach, theorizing the consequences of Dt shifting its focus to the adoption (or non-adoption) of certain policies, and simulating the application of its alternatives. It will also highlight the difficulty of considering certain types of variables involved in this scenario. Finally, the paper will present a policy proposal that could serve as a prototype for this prefigurative strategy using Dt to simulate the ecological impacts of large-scale works, with the aim of producing new material to enhance the deliberative processes of public debate.
KEYWORDS: Digital Twins, Policy Making, Algorithmic Democracy, Deliberative Democracy, Climate Change
LEGGI QUI: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.53227/116587
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Il procedimento amministrativo e il suo gemello (digitale)
Gianluigi Spagnuolo
Il procedimento amministrativo e il suo gemello (digitale)
The concept of Digital twins (Dt), typically used in industry and engineering, has also extended to the Public administration (Pa) sector, in particular to the government of the territory. The conceptual model of digital twin – which concerns not only physical products or objects but also processes and organizations – can also be applied to the administrative activity of the Pa, in particular to the administrative proceedings and act, characterized by digitization and automation. The Digital twin of administrative proceedings remains primarily characterized by the three typical elements of the Dt: the real space; the virtual space; the connections between the two spaces, which configure a digital model of proceedings able to reflect or predictively simulate the conditions and behaviors of its corresponding specific real proceedings. Secondly, the concept of Dt is used to predict future behavior and performance of the product (the administrative act) for its entire life-cycle. It is a dynamic model characterized by the constant updating of data and documents, already covered by the act, through the interoperability of the information systems and databases of the Pa. Case-study analyses show how the application of the Dt can improve the services of the Pa through a more complete and personalized procedural investigation, a further push towards the automation of procedures, and an accompaniment following the adoption of the administrative act in the event of changes.
KEYWORDS: Digital Twins, Artificial Intelligence, Automated Proceedings, Administrative Simplification, Product Lifecycle Management
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Le politiche di pianificazione urbana e le reti di governance. I casi del Digital twin di Bologna e Barcellona
Valentina Ottone
Le politiche di pianificazione urbana e le reti di governance. I casi del Digital twin di Bologna e Barcellona
The digital transformation process presents increasingly complex challenges for governments, as they strive to align with European development benchmarks. The Digital twin (Dt) serves as useful tool for evaluating the feasibility of public policies and assessing their cost-benefits impact on the community. One of its key applications is in the urban sector, to make cities increasingly smarter. Notably, the cities of Bologna and Barcelona represents a successful example of implementation of the Dt. This article aims to enhance the existing literature on innovative public sector collaboration by analysing the governance structures that have emerged at various stages of urban planning policy. Specifically, it examines these structures in each phase of the Dt implementation project.
KEYWORDS: Digital Twin, Innovation Policy, Multi-Level Governance, Cpsi, Network
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Integrating Digital twins in Morocco. Can innovation and tradition align?
Francesco Amoretti, Serena Fraiese, Abdessamad Rhalimi
Integrating Digital twins in Morocco. Can innovation and tradition align?
This paper aims to map the primary areas of Digital twin (Dt) applications in Morocco, analysing the interpretive frameworks, discursive structures, and key actors involved. The hypothesis suggests that the deployment of Dt is shaped not only by technological and administrative priorities but also by Morocco’s constitutional culture, with the monarchy playing a crucial role in integrating religious and traditional values. This dualism suggests that Dt are not merely tools for enhancing public administration, infrastructure, and social programs, but also reinforce the legitimacy and accountability of Morocco’s political system, blending digital innovation with traditional religious values. Drawing on Vivien Schmidt’s discursive institutionalism, the study provides a theoretical framework to understand how Morocco’s constitutional culture influences the discourse surrounding Dt, merging tradition with modern governance. A mixed methodological approach will be employed, combining a literature review and semantic and textual analysis of academic papers, policy documents, and government reports. This review will explore Dt frameworks, identify opportunities and challenges, and apply Natural language processing to classify themes, trends, and socio-political impacts within Morocco’s digital transformation narrative.
KEYWORDS: Digital Twin Technologies, Moroccan Digital Transformation, Discursive Institutionalism, Islamic Ethical Principles, Moroccan Constitutional Culture
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Digital twins in border control and migration policies. Balancing security and human rights for sustainable governance
Nicola Palladino, Gerardo Ferrentino
Digital twins in border control and migration policies. Balancing security and human rights for sustainable governance
The Digital twins (Dt) are a transformative technology supporting digital transformation and decision-making across various sectors. A Dt can be defined as «a virtual representation of a physical system (and its associated environment and processes) that’s updated through the exchange of information between the physical and virtual systems». These continuous interactions allow for monitoring, control, and optimization of processes, enabling predictive maintenance and innovative configurations. This article examines the role of Dt technology in the Eu’s migration and border control policies, analysing how Dt contribute to a securitization framework that prioritizes security over humanitarian considerations. Using an Actor-network theory (Ant) approach, the paper explores how human and non-human actors – including algorithms, data infrastructures, and institutional policies – interact to shape migration governance. This work challenges the wide-spread «data-realism» in border control and migration management, namely «the belief that data held about migrants and travellers objectively represent their identities». We argue that Dt are not a neutral and objective means to enhance the efficiency of administrative action, but rather the way in which Dt are built, the goals and purpose for which they are established, and the data that are selected to represent the reality embed specific value choices and political rationalities in their architectures. The analysis points out that, in line with current practices, the development of Dt may result in further securitization of the migration issue, criminalization of migrants, and a scaling up of systematic power abuses, human rights violations, and rule of law infringements. Finally, the paper will discuss how Dt technology can be designed using a non-securitarian approach to improve the efficiency of immigration reception processes. This approach aims to shift away from an emergency logic, thereby preventing the eruption of social tensions. We will illustrate concrete examples on how to achieve this goal, employing predictive analytics and virtual simulations to optimize resource allocation, estimate migrants’ needs, and identify the most likely patterns and sites for successful integration.
KEYWORDS: Digital Twins, Eu Migration Policies, Algorithmic Governance, Securitization Framework, Artificial Intelligence
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Paths of Digital twins in the public sector. A systematic review of the social sciences literature
Luigi Rullo
Paths of Digital twins in the public sector. A systematic review of the social sciences literature
Digital twins (Dt) technology is a remarkable revolution of our time, with the potential to disrupt all aspects of the public sector, government, and society. Combined with the rapid advancement of algorithms and related innovative technologies such as Artificial intelligence (Ai), blockchain, and Machine learning, using Dt opens a new and wide range of opportunities for the public sector. This article provides a systematic literature review on Dt, mapping and exploring the existing social science literature, to specify the scope and the nature of the concept and analyze the operational definitions of Dt and the relevance of the concept. The article is structured as follows. First, using the Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (Prisma) method, it gives an overview of the search criteria and the sample of records. Second, it reflects critically on the historical development of the concept of Dt and highlights its basic elements and ambiguities, shedding light on the theoretical and empirical gaps in the existing literature. Third, it explores the main initiatives and applications of the use of Dt, and argues that political science has much to offer in advancing global understanding of this emerging technology.
KEYWORDS: Digital Twins, Public innovation, Prisma, Government, Political science, Politics, Social Sciences