1. Daniela Toccafondi, Municipality of Prato
PISA, 8-10 MAY 2018
WORKSHOP “SMALL AREA METHODS AND LIVING CONDITIONS INDICATORS IN EUROPEAN POVERTY STUDIES IN THE ERA OF DATA DELUGE AND BIG DATA”
Daniela Toccafondi, Municipality of Prato
FINAL EVENT OF THE JEAN MONNET CHAIR SAMPLEU

2. Prato: a community in huge transformation
Multiculturalism: inhabitants with more than 120 ethnic communities
From the textile district to the European capital of Fast Fashion → 2342 clothing companies in 2005, 4210 in 2017
Number of textile companies continues to decline → 4931 in 2005, in 2017
Transformation of the commercial activities in the city centre → Less shops, more coffees and pubs.
Diversification and reinforcement of other sector (services, food)

3. How to face the transformation
Municipality of Prato identifies several goals through participatory process from the early stage to improve best quality of life (POP-UP LAB, Prato si fa Brand, Creazioni Urbane, Reversibility Projects...)
Reorganisation of European team and collaboration with other Institutions and Unions; participation to European Project to enforce local industries (TCBL project; Reset; Creativewear….)
Sectoral diversification in order to attract more investments (new foreign Universities, Manifatture Digitali Cinema)
Focus on communication; Improve the image of the city with positive promotional campaign

4. POP-UP LAB project
Period: March/December 2017 Where: city centre, via Muzzi e via Serraglio Financed by: Region of Tuscany (80%) and Municipality of Prato (20%) with collaboration of Sociolab and Pin, University of Florence Phases: Mapping of vacant shop loan contracts with the owners, call for ideas, projects identification, preparation, free opening for 3 months in a form of temporary shop, organisation of events during the period, opportunity matching between owners and popuppers

5. POP-UP LAB project results
Stores opened in form of temporary shop (October/December 2017)
Of them remained open in a stable business
New start ups opened in this area
60 related events organised by Municipality, 20 by popuppers, artisan and craft market during the week end
Important communication campaign on social media: more than followers, 355 post, users reached by the promotional videos, visualisations on the period and minutes of transmission
A huge process of urban regeneration made from the cooperation of public and private subjects that became a model for other cities

6. Circular economy and digitalization in textile
Enhancement of circular economy and eco-sustainability processes of local textile productions
Prato one of the 5 cities chosen by Italian Government to test faster broadband (5G project based on European Action Plan 2017/2020)
Heritage digitalization: the textile samples of 12 private companies and archives of the public textile Museum. The methodology was developed by the University of Florence in agreement with companies and experts.

7. The other side of the coin. Actions to combat illegality
Lack of awareness of some fundamental rights in the ethnic companies
Several controls carried out by joint-force teams (Progetto Prato) with the participation of Region of Tuscany, Province, Municipality, PIN, Trade Unions, Chamber of Commerce and Healthcare Authority.
With a special focus on the water consumption, Irpet estimated of 30% black economy (IRPET 2014)
8257 activities have already been inspected (2017)

8. Circular Information
Daily contacts with trade unions, citizens, cultural association but normally also with the local “Consorzi” a mixed associations of citizens and commercial entrepreneurs (7 different groups only in the ancient city centre). A new model of participation grew up involving the young generation. This is a new way to be informed about the necessities of the citizens

9. Information out of stereotypes
Difficulty to use time series because the Province was born in 1995
Industrial district has never overlapped with the administrative territory of the Province
Absence of a full cooperation between the Institutions
Absence of a single centralized research centre
Absence of consistency between operative actions and statistic data
No correspondence between quantitative analyzes and qualitative information because of the increasing complexity of reality

10. Thank you for your attention. Daniela Toccafondi d. toccafondi@comune
Thank you for your attention. Daniela Toccafondi