edited by DC13 Bayo Windapo
What brought us to Naples
The second QuiVal summer school took place in Naples, Italy, in July 2026, hosted by the Department of Architecture at the University of Naples (UNINA). The summer school gave the Quival consortium an opportunity to socialise and collaborate with academic, government, and industry practitioners in the Naples context from different disciplinary backgrounds. The event explored how different environmental, social, cultural, and economic values can inform decisions about sustainable urban development. We explored this question through a combination of theory, simulation, stakeholder engagement and discussions.
The three days of the summer school progressed from learning the foundations of Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE) to applying these ideas to San Giovanni a Teduccio, a deteriorating Neapolitan context in need of urban rejuvenation. A key learning from our explorations was that evaluating urban transformation cannot be reduced to a single social, economic, or environmental measure, a holistic approach is needed to assure long term development.
Understanding Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE)
The summer school was centred on principles learned from Giuseppe Munda’s lecture on SMCE. The lecture introduced SMCE as a critical methodological framework to include multiple stakeholder perspectives in a democratic decision-making process. SMCE is useful because complex urban problems often involve competing social, environmental, economic, and technical considerations. It provides a transparent process that ensures different stakeholders’ concerns are recognised and considered. SMCE can incorporate any data point, whether qualitative or quantitative, in the decision-making process without converting it into common numerical units. We tested SMCE in a workshop using a European Commission digital tool called SOCRATES, which allowed us to apply the learned principles to evaluate proposed urban design options for the San Giovanni context.
Applying SMCE to San Giovanni a Teduccio
To apply SMCE, we engaged stakeholders involved in San Giovanni to gain insights into specific initiatives being implemented to mitigate the issues faced in the neighbourhood. The stakeholders represented governmental, educational, arts and culture, and environmental spheres. Although they shared an interest in revitalising San Giovanni, they pursued this goal through a range of initiatives. For example, the use of digital technologies, including thermal cameras and drones, to monitor environmental problems, such as illegal dumping and pollution. Deputy mayor Laura Lieto noted a broader scheme to improve the interconnectivity of Neapolitan neighbourhoods, including San Giovanni, as a means of rejuvenation. In three groups, we used these insights in a playSOCRATES role-playing exercise in which summer school participants took on the role of a San Giovanni stakeholder intending to seek a social compromise between stakeholder positions on the proposed urban schemes.
Conclusion
All in all it was interesting to see the different perspectives revealed by the SOCRATES tool. The transparency provided by the SMCE methodology allowed us to understand how each result was produced. Overall, the summer school showed that sustainable urban transformation requires multiple forms of data, stakeholder perspectives, and transparent decision-making processes that democratically consider various stakeholder values.
