The Territorial Distinctive Signals and their Smartification: An Exploratory Approach

This paper shows us the first conclusion of the research project The Territorial Distinctive Signals which includes countries like Brazil, Argentina, Portugal and Spain. These distinctive signals are the impressive mark of the regional iconography. With this place-based approach we can design a territorial network and its collective intelligence. The actor-network will be the principal of this building territory and the main architect of its new identity. This cognitive and creative process is defined as territorial smartification. The Portuguese Alentejo region and its distinctive signals were chosen and in order to realize the research we have selected the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) as the main distinctive signal since they are one of the main input of the territorial value chain. The challenge of this phase is to consider the territory-network as a global organic landscape and prove that the smartification is also compatible with the agroecosystem horizontal logic.