Cities and Self-organization

In the contemporary city, we are today more and more witnessing different practices and processes of “re-appropriation of space”: regeneration of empty buildings, spaces of cultural production, urban gardens, green areas given renewed significance and re-shaped public spaces, and so on. Beside this, we could also mention experimentations that are activating new social services and welfare spaces, and finally squatting projects, which are defining different modes of co-existence, housing and service provision. This is a vast field of activity and experience, with the widespread involvement and the leading role of the inhabitants, organized or not in committees or associations, and other local actors. Such experiences are both illegal and legal, and question the relationship and the very meaning of the institutions. In many cases, these are practices and processes of re-appropriation of the city that are also processes of resignification of spaces and production of places. Among these practices, many of them are re-opening spaces or re-activating some specific territories/neighbourhoods benefiting from very localized creativity and capitalizing on social relations that are fully embedded in local societies. We should also critically consider that practices of re-appropriation are often substituting the role of local policies and in some case promoting actions that are illegal/informal in a context where institutions are losing financial capacity as well as accountability. These experimentations are so focused on action that are simultaneously redefining the modes of social conflict as well as the routines and spaces of citizenship participation. These practices can be considered sites where to experiment and shape political capacity, thus questioning the very functioning of local democracy.