How Urban Decorum works. Territorial othering in Italian cities

Urban Decorum has been gaining ground in Italy in recent years. This paper explores how the idea of Urban Decorum works—and for whom, reviewing the case of recently implemented municipal regulations in Italy, by examining the case of recently implemented municipal regulations in Italy, starting from the so-called Minniti Law n. 14/2017. It does so by proposing an analysis of the role of Urban Decorum as an actor and logic in the formation of public urban space, as a normative tool for regulating the life of urban space, and as a selective disciplining of specific practices in certain selected and heritage-relevant areas. This paper aims to provide a new perspective on territorial stigmatisation, also suggesting how Urban Decorum speaks to literatures on neoliberal urbanism, urban commodification, gentrification and touristification, and is therefore proposed as a potential lens for future research on neoliberal directions of urban development.