New images of city through the social network

Purpose – The following paper aims to study the role of Facebook to improve the participation of thestakeholders to the urban regeneration and to identify preferences and create a database. Then greatattention is given to the study of the potential of the social network in linking up extremely varied users,favoring also the connection from the web to the real.

Design/methodology/approach – The methodology will combine the use of the social networking siteFacebook and Checkland’s CATWOE. In this way, heterogeneous and selected groups of stakeholders couldhave an increasingly active role in the definition of urban strategies of transformations.

Findings – The stakeholders’ participation is revealed in the choice of criteria, future cities characters andfocal points, with the objective to identify some strategies for future sustainable scenarios of development.

Originality/value – Facebook allows users to access the network of specific realities of the city and tomeet and know them, improving the connection among people, thanks to the flow from web to real and viceversa.