Urban spaces of relation, protection and sharing as care places and common goods: the cases of ‘iMorticelli’ in Salerno and ‘LGBTQIA+ Centre’ in Prato

Abstract

The theme of care, one of the most significant theoretical models in the late 20th century philosophical thought, is today at the core of national and international debate. The lack of attention towards care activities has generated a serious crisis that highlights the injustices intrinsic to social production processes and the importance of reproductive work. In this conceptual framework, care becomes a practice, a cultural and ethical value on which it is necessary to set up new policies focused on listening, inclusion, production of public space and of proximity democracies, which in turn generate places of care becoming common goods. In this light, the article describes two practices of care and common good which, although not yet fully developed, have given rise to urban relation, protection and sharing spaces: a collective space, iMorticelli in Salerno, aspiring to become a community landmark through collaborative processes and educational, cultural and research activities; a territorial relation and protection space around genderqueer issues, the LGBTQIA+ Centre in Prato.