BOELLA G. - Progetto UIA01-051 "CO-CITY - The collaborative management of urban commons to counteract poverty and sociospatial polarisation" - Scad. 30/10/2019

CO­CITY is intended to break the self­reinforcing circle of poverty, social segregation in deprived neighbourhoods and lack of participation. It achieves this by supporting the development of an innovative, polycentric “commons­based urban welfare” composed of generative communities centred on urban commons, low-cost service co­production, social mixing, and care of public spaces. CO­CITY is innovative in its legal, managerial and technological aspects, providing: ­ an unconventional legal framework to enable citizens to take care of urban commons; ­ an innovative ICT infrastructure for local social market and networking; management tutoring towards economic sustainability. The authoritative approach is replaced by a collaborative one that considers citizens as potential changemakers, agents of virtuous circular processes of commoners’ welfare. Meanwhile, the public sector evolves from being a service provider to being an enabler and a partner. CO­CITY focuses on the cyclic process of “place production” rather than on a specific social target or deprived area. Empty public or private spaces become an opportunity instead of a cost and urban care becomes a collective task. This approach shares the logic of urban commons, helping to tackle social exclusion and neighbourhood deprivation, promoting commons’ use values rather than assets’ exchange values, and enabling hidden resources of social capital to emerge.