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An overarching challenge raised by today societal evolution is what Banathy called the “creation of patterns of consensual human interactions” (Banathy, 2000, p. 481). Interestingly, this is one major contribution ICT progress and digitalization promise to deliver, as online social interactions and communication progressively consolidate. ICT usage, in fact, turns out to be pivotal for establishing more robust socio-technical systems capable of adapting and reconfiguring themselves (Whitworth, 2009) in order to deal with and evolve societal problems.
Over the past two decades, the topic has been extensively investigated by researchers and practitioners of various fields (Berkhout & Hertin, 2001), including planning (Falco & Kleinhans, 2018; Klosterman, 2012; Wilson & Graham, 2013). Evidence has shown that while changes brought forward by new technologies might occur rather straightforwardly, being a result of a substitution process, social transformations for appropriating their novel usages are more difficult to establish (Occelli, 2015).
Within governmental organizations, a few barriers and preconditions have been identified which impede successful digital transformation, e.g. rigidity of bureaucratic procedures, lack of ICT competence, poor collaboration among departments (Barcevičius, et al. 2019; Osservatorio ICT del Piemonte, 2013).
Removal of barriers is a necessary but not sufficient condition (Gil-Garcia, 2012). A more pro-active perspective is encouraged to promote more effective and efficient actions by government organizations. A variety of issues are involved, such as: upgrading the management of in the executive branches of government (Fuerth & Faber, 2012); revising the very premises on which policies, plans and programs are posited (De Roo, 2015); strengthening capacity for using evidence in policy making OECD (2020a); moving from the mentality of process control for achieving a goal, to that of assisting flexible design for delivering value (Baggio & Omana, 2019).
In most cases, collaboration among actors is required in a way that challenges ordinary social and communication practices. Recently, concerns about sustainability, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic have made the issue more compelling. Even more noticeably, they have proven that a variety of knowledge is necessary to address the problems. Engagement by academics from different disciplines and non-academic stakeholders therefore is most wanted (Nelson, 2004; Ropes, 2019; Snowden, 2002; Tsoukas, 2005; Waldeck, 2019). Whereas adoption of a trans-disciplinary knowledge approach is commonly regarded as a positive undertaking for actors’ collaboration, the ways it is brought about, seized and applied in transport planning practice are still largely unexplored, with a few exceptions (Bergman & Jahn, 2008; Givoni, et al, 2012).
This study is a contribution to the effort. It deals with a case study where regional officers from different departments are involved to implement in a cooperative way the Mobility and Transport Plan (MTP) laid out in 2018 by the Piedmont Regional Authority (Regione Piemonte, 2018).
This is a wide-range and long-run sustainability-oriented plan that considers adaptation and governance as main requisites in the realization pathway (Occelli, 2019a).