The power of knowledge of the citizens

Considering the fast development of some countries and societies around the world and the complexity of markets and economies, technology and knowledge represent the main resources to involve place actors in generating opportunities for a sustainable development and a better quality of life for countries, cities and organizations. The aim of this work is to highlight the power of knowledge as a key resource to be shared, diffused and managed within territories and places, with a focus on the first stakeholders for a place: the citizens. Around the world, from the perspective of the quality of life and wellbeing for people, the geographical areas emerge as places to live when stakeholders perceive the opportunities to be involved as active actors in the place development at different levels. For this reason, governments, institutions, organizations, people should be interested in integration of their actions with territories and geographical areas that are involved by their activities. Citizens are the first category of stakeholders in territories and the knowledge is the key resource to make possible the involvement and participation, for instance in thinking, designing and shaping the place of the future; the citizens-sourcing is a key for this approach. Place marketing framework and SD-Logic approach are used to explain that the final goal in a place management activity is to stimulate the value co-creation and the generation of a strategic benefit for actors involved in a place; this could be the way to stimulate the emerging of a sustainable development, improving the quality of life, co-creating value.