Alberio, Marco

Urban commons experiences are diverse even in the same city. This the case concerning the city of Bologna which is known of its 2014 commons regulation. Prior to this institutional and governance framework, there was a long grassroots commons tradition in the city. Today there are hundreds of urban commons initiatives most of which participate or have participated in the municipality’s Pact. Once again, there is an incredible variety of such experiences, among which some date to the 1980s long before the creation of a legal framework. This paper analyses five different urban commons experiences along the lines of urban commons ideal types found in the literature and within different categories that are often present in urban citizenship-based initiatives (needs and issues targeted, politics and the political, democratic practices and inclusion, feminist values and practices, ecological values and practices, right to the city and appropriate of space, definition of urban commons). Our findings lead us to understand that in some cases the urban commons are part of a larger social movement dynamic whereas in other cases it takes on more of a neighbourhood dynamic. In all of the cases, the subjects act as intermediaries between citizens and the state by offering services and activities that in the past have been offered either by the state or by traditional socio-political institutions to a designated public. There is thus both continuity and rupture with the past in terms of socio-political moblisation.
Nevertheless, the urban commons go beyond a simple material issue to encompass urban identities and relationships between citizens, with the municipality and between residents and their urban environment. By analysing the practices, positions, spaces and visions of urban commons experiences, we can reflect critically on the heterogeneous nature of the commons and their role in urban governance and citizenship.