Il ruolo delle pratiche di riuso e condivisione degli spazi aperti nei processi di commoning urbano

Abstract

The role of the practices of reuse and sharing of open spaces in the processes of urban commoning. This essay examines the perspectives that the practices of reuse and sharing of open spaces, which over time have lost their original function (the so-called urban voids), can open in relation to the theme of commoning: the political and social process of the establishment of public goods. Three subjects have been picked up. Firstly, we consider how the consolidated use of the term ‘urban void’ represents the expression of an ambiguous vision of the land, whose primary feature is the exploitation of every square centimetre for building purposes, and which is accordingly quite reluctant to tolerate inevitable exceptions. Secondly, we make an account of the risks related to such a point of view, which undermines the forms of community relations and deprives urban spaces of any collective meaning. Lastly, we discuss a working perspective that has been drawing greater and greater attention and seeks to include the issue of urban voids in a broader strategy aimed to sustain the paradigm of land as a common good.