Participatory mapping and civic engagement in a Roman neighbourhood

This paper presents the findings of a research project part of a third mission initiative titled “NextCityLAB - Participatory Workshop on Civic Engagement for an Inclusive and Sustainable City”. The project adopts a participatory research framework, emphasizing reciprocity between researchers and participants, flexibility in the research process, empowerment and emancipation. It prioritizes dialogue between scientific and civic knowledge while fostering intergenerational and intergroup learning to drive social change. Particularly attentive to marginalised and fragile social contexts, participatory research seeks to address socio-economic vulnerabilities, but also the lack of voice and representation. NextCityLAB has been implemented in Quarticciolo, a neighbourhood in Rome marked by visible socio-eco- nomic and socio-material vulnerabilities, drug-related criminality, and strong stigmatisation (Galantino and Messineo, 2024). Quarticciolo has recently been included in the so-called “decreto Caivano bis”, a leg- islative act that has been met with criticisms due to its top-down and emergency-focused approach to deprived areas. In this context, participatory mapping has proven to be a powerful approach for integrating the physical, relational, symbolic, and political dimensions of the neighbourhood, helping to articulate diverse actors’ experiences, needs, and claims about public space as a common and collective good. Two mapping workshops have been developed within the frame of the project. The first workshop, de- signed for post-graduates’ sociology students, involved participatory observations and interviews with key local actors to map the neighbourhood’s civic fabric, the resources available to civic actors and the shortcomings they face. The findings revealed inadequate public and private services, environmental deg- radation, abandonment of the neighbourhood public space, feelings of insecurity, perceptions of institu- tional neglect, and limited opportunities for youth. At the same time, they helped to map the community assets helping to visualize informal civic organisations, committed educational and religious institutions, and grassroots regeneration initiatives. The mapping exercise served also to outreach to other organisations, groups and active residents which then participated in further activities (termed Living-labs) aimed at sharing experiences and knowledge about the community and imagining possible solutions. The second workshop, aimed at engaging students from the local school, P.R. Pirotta, was one of the projects that emerged from these dialogical spaces. Primary school pupils were thus invited to discuss, amend and enrich the map with visual tools to capture their experiences, emotions, and perceptions of Quarticciolo’s public spaces. This process provided unique insights into the neighbourhood’s challenges and opportunities and helped shed light on the mechanisms by which stigma is internalised, reproduced, and challenged at the grassroots level. Additionally, their in- put revealed deep feelings of positive attachment to the neighbourhood and highlighted the potential for transformative change as envisaged by local youth. This initiative highlights how participatory research can catalyse practical and empowering interventions, effectively combining citizen and experiential perspectives with academic rigour. In this context, participa- tory mapping facilitates the elicitation and redefinition of symbolic territorial meanings, the co-design of solutions, and the empowerment of the community over top-down regeneration initiatives.