This book explores the possibility to observe the lives of cities through ubiquitous
information obtained through social networks sensors and other sources of data and information
and the ways in which this possibility describes a new form of Public Space which can be used
to define new forms of citizenship and participated city governance. The work is the result of
years of research across sciences arts design ethnography cultural geography performed by
multiple researchers understanding the Relational Ecosystems of cities (the flows of relation
information knowledge and emotion in the city) and using them to reinterpret the concept of
Urban Acupuncture: from the Third Space Third Landscape and Third Generation City to the
Third Infoscape from Urban Acupuncture to Digital Urban Acupuncture. The book starts by
exploring the many theories and methodologies which have been used to try to capture and use
the revolutionary potential found in the daily lives of cities. From De Certeau to Latour
Bateson Bhabha and all the way to Castells Clèment Boyd Casagrande. In a progression which
moves from the Third Space (Soja De Certeau) to the Third Landscape (Clèment) to the Third
Generation City (Casagrande) to the Third Paradise (Pistoletto) the book arrives at a
definition of the Third Infoscape following up on Kevin Lynch: a new legibility and
imageability of the city. Its main themes and objectives lie in the desire to observe and
understand the radical transformation of the definitions boundaries and configurations of what
we call public and private spaces in different cultures and communities in the age of
communication information and knowledge and to use these understandings to formulate a set of
working hypotheses for the positive constructive active and participatory usage of these
transformed scenarios contributing to the re-definition of concepts such as citizenship
city-governance urban planning civic decision-making and more. And using in the process
techniques such as Urban Acupuncture Actor-Network Theory Diasporic analysis Peer-to-peer
Urbanism and more. Multiple real-life research scenarios and documented case studies will be
used from 4 continents coming from our research and from other international contributions.
