Bologna, a front-runner in regulating the urban commons

ROCK first webinar on collaborative regeneration

4th April 2019

In 2014, Bologna’s City Council officially adopted the regulation on the collaboration between citizens and the public administration on activities aiming at the care and regeneration of urban commons. The regulation acts as a general framework within which citizens, both individuals or groups, can submit proposals for projects to be developed on a spontaneous basis with voluntary effort for the involved parties, putting competences, resources and energy available to the collective good. Such projects are disciplined by the regulation through a series of specific agreements, called collaborations pacts, in which both the citizens and the public administration agree to the terms of their cooperation for the safeguarding of the commons. The commons targeted by this regulation are material spaces as public squares, green areas or schools, immaterial commons, such as education and social inclusion, and digital commons, such as applications and digital alphabetisation.

Case studies:

• The regulation of collaboration between citizens and the city for the care and regeneration of urban commons in Bologna
• Within the framework of the CO-CITY project supported by the EU Urban Innovative Actions programme, Turin aims to develop the experience of the commons towards the creation of an innovative social welfare that will foster the co-production of services with community enterprises.
• The Commons Transition Plan in Ghent describes the possibilities and role of the City of Ghent (as a local authority) in reinforcing citizen initiatives. With this, the city wishes to give further shape to a sustainable and ethical economy in Ghent.

Invited speakers:

• Christian Iaione, Professor of Public Law at LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome, co-director of LabGov, the LABoratory for the GOVernance of the City as a Commons. LabGov is an international network of theoretical, empirical and applied research platforms engaged in exploring and developing methods, policies, and projects focused on the shared and collaborative management of urban spaces and resources.
• Giovanni Ginocchini, architect, urban planner and director of the Fondazione Innovazione Urbana (FIU), Bologna urban centre and open laboratory to study, communicate and co-produce the urban transformations of Bologna.
• Giovanni Ferrero, officer of the City of Torino, Project Manager of the CO-CITY project (financed under the UIA - Urban Innovative Actions initiative). He is an architect, with a PhD in Urban Planning.
• Dirk Holemans, coordinator of think tank Oikos and editor-in-chief of the eponymous magazinefrom Ghent on the ‘commons city of the future’, resulting in the Commons Transition Plan.

Register here!

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Author: Houpert Cecile - EUROCITIES