Digital Hamlets: Innovative Methods and E-Participation Tools Supporting Policy Making at the Local Level

E-participation in decision making is gaining ground. An increasing number of administrations recently tries to foster innovation processes at all levels of government, supported by EU cooperation strategies and funding. The task of the paper is to test the usefulness and opportunities coming from a mix of e-participation and “proactive” decision support tools, especially in low density residential areas and districts, affected by structural limitations in terms of accessibility, loss of population, and public services consequently. Here, participation can play an important role in the user-centred design of public spaces. The authors present an overview of the work-in-progress on an experience of policymaking in a low density residential rural area, in order to ensure self-sustainability through a series of methods and tools to encourage participation and identifying consistent and low cost policy choices for administrations. We conclude that, far from the technology-based smart city paradigm, this bottom-up approach to innovative practices for e-participation is extremely useful since it provides an administration with a simple, immediate and free use of a pool of ideas and proposals previously unimaginable. On the other hand, e-participation tools can support administrations to better and cheaply organize a number of basic services and facilities in rural areas and foster citizens and visitors to define new input and projects for small communities.