Innovazione place-based: il caso delle social street

Starting from the evidence that places, namely urban places, are more and more showing up as innovation drivers, which are able to connect, activate and put in synergy spontaneous citizen initiatives, this paper describes the phenomenon of 'social streets', analysing three Italian examples in the light of four interpretative components of the place-based innovation concept, and also discussing some aspects related to the emerging governance structures, as well as the profiles of similarity with the so-called Urban Living Labs (ulls). The conclusion is that the social street experiences can actually contribute to place-based innovation, intended as improving localized social relations.