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This article critically discusses several issues regarding the unfolding of the Metaverse concept. Through the analysis of several sources, it demonstrates the rise of the Metaverse myth, as well as the innovation activities that are ongoing regarding the development of the technologies involved and the actual financial evolution of those companies, or funds, that are related to the Metaverse. Finally, it investigates some of the business model innovations and those that are expected to emerge, while comparing the Metaverse with the present status of the Internet. The conclusions suggest possible lines of analysis for future research.

Published online: 07 Jun 2023 In this paper, we perform a preliminary analysis of the technologies, firms and industries that may be affected by the possible futures of the metaverse, attempting to derive some hypotheses on the spatial effects of this process. We distinguish between two possible evolutive scenarios – the ‘metaverse shaped by reality view’ and the ‘metaverse shaping reality view’ – and factors affecting them, deriving implications for public policy planning. The first scenario presents relatively traditional core policy challenges: ensuring homogeneous availability of network infrastructures as well as the skills indispensable to catch the new technological opportunities at the local level, accompanying the reallocation of factors of production associated to disruption and addressing inequalities. In the second, the main challenge is more radical: to ensure that desirable features are incorporated in the emerging virtual worlds from the start.

On 14th February 2022, the European Commission published a ‘Call for evidence for an impact assessment’ (Call for Evidence) and Public Consultation related to a new framework for standard essential patents (SEPs). The Florence School of Regulation: Area Communications & Media (FSR C&M) of the European University Institute (EUI) is thankful for the opportunity to provide its feedback. Our team of researchers has significant research, policy and training experience in the areas of telecommunications regulation, standardisation and EU competition policy. In this paper, we focus on four specific points raised by the Call for Evidence: 1) the necessity and proportionalityof any SEP licensing policy measure; 2) the measures that increase the transparency of the SEP landscape; 3) the optimal level of licensing in the production chain; 4) the alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licenses. Our contribution aims to be a catalyst for the debate about the appropriate SEP licensing framework.

The introduction of the fifth generation of mobile technology (5G) is expected to bring immense changes. These changes may be much more pervasive than any previous introduction of new mobile “generations”, and they are expected to influence the whole economy. For this reason, the global rush for 5G technology is not only considered crucial in economic or technological terms, but also for its implications in terms of policy, geopolitics, and national security issues. This paper presents an analysis of the patents in the most relevant fields of specialization connected to the 5G development. The period under investigation is from 2010 to 2019, and the data are extracted from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database. The analysis shows how the technologies and the specialisations needed to develop 5G are in the hands of a few countries around the globe, and that single European countries, taken in isolation, are not among these leading players. However, Europe, considered as a whole, competes well with the US and Asia in terms of patented innovations, suggesting the economic and strategic relevance of strong cooperation within the EU.

Este trabalho reflecte sobre o modo como a teoria crítica do espaço pode contribuir para uma genealogia das emergências nas universidades europeias contemporâneas. A literatura existente estuda as mudanças nas condições da vida académica, sendo esta crescentemente caracterizada pelo trabalho precário e por um mercado de trabalho fragmentado - mesmo em estados onde aumentou o investimento na Educação Superior (ES). Tal literatura aborda a neoliberalização para compreender as transformações nas experiências vividas. No entanto, inspirados pela “etnografia crítica” de Hart, suspeitamos de narrativas incapacitantes em relação à neoliberalização. As práticas governamentais estarão certamente ligadas a um enfoque nas hierarquias académicas globais, incluindo modelos normativos de como as universidades devem ser estruturalmente ajustadas para que possam competir; mas os aspectos da vida académica descritos não são meras variações “locais”, já que são constituídos de um modo contingente e através de práticas situadas. Evocamos perspectivas metodológicas dos estudos do espaço para defender um exame diacrónico da articulação situada da neoliberalização com persistências de racionalidades de governo pretéritas. Como alternativa ao enfoque numa excelência desenvolvente no quadro de hierarquias, este trabalho sugere exercícios prospectivos fundados nas potencialidades situadas de todas as universidades enquanto universidades “comuns” - simultaneamente “ordinárias” e um recurso colectivo. This paper presents a reflection on how spatial theory can contribute to a genealogy of emergences in contemporary European universities. The extant literature examines the changing conditions for academic life, increasingly characterized by casualized labor, a fragmented job market, and projectification - even in states where Higher Education (HE) investment has increased. Research has addressed neoliberalization to shed light on changing lived experiences. However, inspired by Hart’s “critical ethnography,” we are suspicious of disabling teleological narratives regarding neoliberalization. While national and local governmental practices are arguably linked to an attention to global academic hierarchies, entailing normative models of how universities everywhere inevitably have to be structurally adjusted in order to compete, the features of academic life described above are not mere “local” variations, as they are constituted contingently and through situated practices. By evoking methodological perspectives within spatial studies, the paper argues for a dyacronic examination of how neoliberalization is situatedly articulated with persistencies of past rationalities of rule in European HE systems. The paper proposes prospective exercises based on the situated potentialities of all universities as “common” universities—both “ordinary” and a collective resource - instead of being founded on a developmental focus on excellence within national, regional, and global hierarchies.

Implementation of local public services' reform is generally a complexissue. A main reason is that the economical, technical and socio-political aspects of public services must be taken in consideration at the same time, particularly in the case of water management. The juridical and economic frame adopted by the majority of the national policymakers, academics and experts analyzing the reform focuses on the institutional dimensions of the management and on the connection between local utilities and local governments. While this approach underlines the role of regulation and formal ownership of the utilities, it seldom delves into the political dynamics related to the local implementation of the reform. The article proposes to look instead at those dynamics in order to overcome the present impasse of the reform. Trough the case studies of Roma, Caltanissetta e Lodi there will be shown the advantages of a decentred approach, focusing on the local actors initiatives and projects connected to the reorganization of the water sector.

Nel contesto politico italiano, caratterizzato dalla personalizzazione della politica, dalle logiche di breve periodo, dalla sfiducia nelle istituzioni, da sentimenti di antipolitica, la mobilitazione per l’acqua bene comune – di cui la vittoria referendaria di giugno 2011 rappresenta il momento più eclatante – presenta chiari elementi di originalità. Senza inseguire leadership carismatiche, ignorato dall’establishment politico e mediatico, questo movimento ha saputo coinvolgere e tenere insieme una coalizione vasta e plurale, riferendosi a principi morali e diritti fondamentali, adottando un’ottica non solo locale ma anche globale, e portando avanti una battaglia paradigmatica per la democrazia e il bene comune. Il presente volume nasce dalla volontà di riflettere sugli elementi e le pratiche che hanno reso possibile questa esperienza e sul suo significato politico più ampio.

1-23; International audience; Mentre è ormai assodato - fin dal lavoro pionieristico di Pressman and Wildavsky del 1973 - che le istituzioni si trovano di norma nella condizione di non poter realizzare i progetti pubblici senza qualche forma di collaborazione o assistenza che proviene dall'esterno dell'arena politica, un tema che resta sostanzialmente meno esplorato nel panorama degli studi di policy è il ruolo che tali contributi assumono nella costruzione, piuttosto che nella mera realizzazione, delle stesse politiche. Come hanno spesso evidenziato le analisi empiriche infatti, i processi di policy-making sono densamente popolati da un certo range di attori non convenzionalmente etichettati come politici (fra questi imprese, organizzazioni non profit o religiose, associazioni, gruppi di cittadini, esperti, società di consulenza, sindacati...). Questi attori appaiono talvolta acquisire ed esercitare funzioni astrattamente attribuibili ai decisori pubblici, ed impiegare repertori di azione a tutti gli effetti politici.

Based on our experience in the project ‘The Importance of Being Digital: Exploring Digital Academic Practices and Methods’, we narrate our different trajectories of engagement with digital methods and digital practices. Inspired by emerging scholarship that looks at prototypes as a cultural and epistemic form, we delve into an exploration of methods (both traditional and digital) as prototypes – open-ended, non-instrumental explorative devices – for our knowledge processes. By opening up the craft of our research we illustrate and discuss what ‘digital ways of knowing’ – ways of knowing inspired by digital practices – might look like, and which reconfigurations of knowledge practices and trajectories they could enable.