THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: A phenomenological approach of Social Science — How to look beyond what is seen and transcend the limits of scientific orthodoxy.

My approach of urban research consists in spending some months in territories which features interesting cases on my topics: Smart-City, Digital Democracy and Stakeholder Engagement. By comparing very different cultural contexts, with the same tools and apps, replicating the same protocol of research in a close period of time, I give myself the opportunity to perceive and reveal more about this worldwide phenomena of digital transformation of the cities. In fact, contemporary people are surrounded by systemic digital devices such as smart-phones and internet, at least. It gives them new power and opportunities to live more efficiently by the use of high-speed calculation in the management of their living. It also brings the new generation a whole new definition of self-being worldwide. But the risk of this fusion between digital and non-digital life is to lose the capacity to look critically at the underlying societal changes.

To take some distance on this phenomena, I follow some philosophers practice who brings back some nearly-forgotten concepts in science, like phenomenology and ontophany, previously developed for theology and metaphysics, to apply in my every day living. Furthermore, citizen participation (including peers from civil society in the conception of the scientific models) which is at the core of my research, definitely stems from the use…