The Crowdmapping Mirafiori Sud (Torino, Italy): an Application of Community Impact Analysis (CIA) to Impact Evaluation of the Social Empowerment Strategies

The evaluation of technologies for development interventions is a complex issue. The literature highlights that the evaluation method provide for estimating the cost-efficiency and potential risk of technologies tools, but the level of complexity that characterizes the ICT matched with a participatory process is different: it can not only be measured by quantitative techniques. This paper intends to explore a methodological proposal in order to evaluate the strategies in the framework of the Crowdmapping Mirafiori Sud project, whose goal is to create a collaborative map through which citizen and Public Administration can cooperate in the management of public goods and micro-projects in the area of the improvement of urban quality to the neighborhood level. The paper focuses on the socio-economic feasibility plan, in particular on the application of Community Impact Analysis (CIA), developed by Lichfield. These processes can be defined as sustainable? In conclusion, the simulation of the CIA produce the final framework of social impacts assessment and the achievement goals matrix of strategic issues: the technique shows that no group of interest is affected by the use of a platform once improvement of the territory, but rather that the positive impact of the process would cross over all stakeholders.