Smart retail and urban spaces 

This paper deepens the interwoven influences among smart technologies, retail spaces and urban structures in central areas with a twofold objective. On the one hand, the work aims at exploring the role played by smartness in the reconfiguration of urban retail spaces, often exploited as an instrument to overcome the current economic crisis within the planning paradigm of Smart City. On the other hand, the study focuses critically on geo-economic and social implications deriving from the growing polarization and privatization of public spaces due to the increasing – and uneven – diffusion of ICTs. 

Keywords: smart city, smart retail, urban spaces, social polarization, privatisation.