Transforming city government: Italian variants on urban commoning

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines nascent alternative approaches to “commoning” and “common goods” that have been developed over the last decade by a unique coalition of lawyers, grassroots initiatives, and local governments in Italian cities, notably Bologna and Naples. The aim is to flesh out and to critically appraise two variants of a strategy for advancing urban commons in the direction of Integrative Governance, civic equality, power-with, solidarity, plurality, openness, and care for the city: the “Bologna Model” and the “Neapolitan Way.” The argument is that the two strategies diverge in crucial respects, the former being more top-down and potentially compromising than the latter. Both, however, bear promise and potential for commons-oriented change, opening up processes of new social invention, deeper democratization, political contestation, and counter-hegemonic intervention.