La tragedia (romana) dei commons. Città e patrimonio immobiliare pubblico in transizione

This contribution reconstructs the recent history of the public real estate assets of the municipality of Rome, with particular reference to the regulation and management of assets under concession. Emerged with the ‘Affittopoli’ scandal, the substantial ‘deregulation’ of the public real estate management system, characterized by opacity and discrection, has favored collusive practices but has also guaranteed margins of informality in which collective uses based on inclusion and cooperation have found fertile ground. The crisis of this model has triggered in Rome a conflict between a centralistic and legalist approach to the management of public assets, which takes as a priority the profitability or disposals, and the culture and practices related to some heterogeneous social networks strongly inclined to the self-organization and social enhancement. Assuming the perspective of the theory of commons (material and digital), the contribution questions the reasons and perspectives of this conflict in the framework of the evolution of national policies on public real estate and current developments of social practices oriented to the bottom up valorization.