Planning urban quality as a shared value. The role of social communication networks

Urban quality is a concept that plays a central role in the debate about planning. A theory of urban quality should give a scientific interpretation of it, clarifying its possible role in the decision-making process and helping to define the tools for making it a working reality. A definition of “quality” can result only from multidisciplinary confrontation of different approaches. Quantitative approach, as expression of scientific and technical culture, and qualitative approach, more related to human science, can be integrated into a complex view of the problem. In this paper a set of performances is proposed to drive urban changes towards qualities of the city that can be considered satisfactory by the local communities involved in planning process. Furthermore, the relationship between this set of performances and the tools that decision makers, technicians and citizens use to modify the form and organisation of the city is investigated. This allows a definition of the twofold role that social communication networks play: - to support communication from decision makers to users to the purpose of user requirements elicitation and of broadcasting the outcomes of urban policies; - to support participation of urban communities to the decision-making process, that means communication from users to decision makers, in order to define priorities in urban policies and to verify consensus around their outcomes.