Società civile e politics of scaling: mobilitazioni locali e governo metropolitano a Roma

The article presents the results of research into the relationships between mobilisations of civil society and the ongoing reform process of Rome’s metropolitan government. The results are used to discuss various aspects of the constructionist and neo-marxist approaches to political scale and scalar transformations of political power. In particular, empirical evidence is provided to discuss a theory stating that the carrying out of reforms affecting the scale of government and governance in urban regions has to face political, economic and social conflicts. In the case analysed the rescaling of metropolitan government is not part of the cognitive and strategic horizons of the civil society actors involved, who are excluded and exclude themselves from the arena in which the reform is being formulated. The reform is rather the subject of bargaining between political and economic actors, who are also better able to develop strategies along a trans-scalar dimension.