The role of bottom-up care initiatives for commons in urban regeneration and public art projects in Italy

The main focus of this discussion is the role of bottom-up initiatives in the care and management of common goods within urban regeneration processes, as well as the role of public art and cultural commons in these contexts. Due to the absence of a unified national legal framework on commons in Italy, the management of these initiatives has been left to regional and municipal authorities, resulting in a fragmented approach. Bottom-up movements advocating for common goods, particularly following the building occupations of 2011, have reignited interest in this issue. In 2007, the Rodotà Commission proposed a draft law to regulate common goods, but it was never enacted at the national level. The illegal occupation of abandoned public buildings has prompted local governments to consider alternative ways to manage community-led governance models. These models do not fit neatly within the traditional public-private ownership framework, necessitating innovative legal solutions, sometimes involving private law instruments. In most cases, these initiatives have been managed through collaboration agreements established by municipal regulations. However, in some situations, communities have opted for self-governance instead of shared management with local authorities. One notable example is the case of Naples. There, after the Ex Asilo Filangieri self-declared itself as a civic use space, the municipal government under Mayor De Magistris formally recognized common goods in the city statute. The concept of civic use originates from feudal law. It was recently redefined and protected by Law 168/2017, which overturned a 1927 Fascist-era law that aimed to extinguish it. In this case, therefore, the use of the institution of civic use constitutes a political choice, raising doubts in terms of the principle of legality and the replicability of the model. However, many of these projects are led by artistic collectives that aim to create cultural commons and shared spaces for the entire community.