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Per comprendere le radici dell’emergenza abitativa è essenziale innanzitutto capire che la questione non riguarda la casa in quanto tale, ma lo spazio urbano. Ancora oggi, benché in circostanze mutate, vale l’insegnamento dei classici: «è la rendita del suolo e non la casa ciò che costituisce propriamente l’oggetto principale della speculazione edilizia nelle città in rapido sviluppo» (Marx 1 894, vol. III, Parte VI, cap. 46). Le difficoltà abitative sono legate all’andamento dei costi di acquisto e locazione delle case, ma questi costi, assai più che al valore dell’abitazione in sé, sono legati al valore del suolo, il quale è a sua volta dipendente dalla posizione nello spazio urbano. In definitiva, la questione abitativa non può essere compresa, né tantomeno affrontata, senza prendere in considerazione il modo in cui lo spazio urbano è utilizzato, posseduto, governato (Bricocoli e Salento, 2020; Arbaci et al. 2021 ). Nei centri urbani più attrattivi, la difficoltà di accesso al bene-casa è connessa al costo di acquisto e di locazione degli alloggi.

Nell’affrontare il legame tra crisi climatica e crisi della sostenibilità dei sistemi di welfare, occorre riformulare il paradigma entro il quale si garantiscono gli obiettivi di decarbonizzazione e di transizione energetica delineati su scala internazionale, ed i principi di giustizia sociale insiti nei sistemi di welfare per garantire servizi e benessere alle popolazioni più fragili. La prospettiva dell’eco-welfare risponde a questi intrecci e può far leva su alcuni temi capaci di tenere insieme questioni di carattere sociale e questioni di carattere ambientale come, ad esempio la povertà energetica, discussa in questo capitolo come terreno di sperimentazione per politiche di eco-welfare. Il progetto di ricerca indaga il tema della povertà energetica a Trieste, concentrandosi su quattro edifici di edilizia residenziale pubblica, e interrogando il punto di vista degli abitanti nel comprendere le difficoltà a sostenere le spese energetiche per il riscaldamento e raffrescamento del proprio ambiente domestico. In questo modo, la ricerca si confronta con problemi di natura sociale come la povertà, e problemi di carattere ambientale, relativi alle conseguenze dei consumi di energia sull’ambiente.

The discussion about social innovation's agendas entails the understanding of context that increasingly necessitates new methodologies, aware of the limits unfolded by the traditional approaches to tackle wicked problems, scattered on a global scale. Amongst these, the polarization of structural conditions experienced by both the Italian and European middle class is a key theme which, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, represents a meaningful challenge to be addressed in the next future, and it is particularly relevant to when compared to polarization and territorial exclusion phenomena, usually related to weak analysis in terms of policy implications within a place-based framework. By taking into account this body of contextual elements, this paper aims at discussing a number of key themes in the field of social innovation: the complexity of defining “margins" in an appropriate territorial configuration, the methodological and organizational outline of social innovation, the elements fuelling or limiting the spread of new opportunities in marginal contexts, the relevant policy fields where to transform episodic projects into shared and diffused opportunities among diverse territorial contexts.

Senza una quotidiana disponibilità di acqua potabile è fortemente compromessa la dignità del vivere delle persone. È infatti dall’accesso diffuso e di qualità ai servizi di captazione e fornitura dell’acqua, a quelli di fognatura e di depurazione delle acque reflue, che dipende una rilevante porzione del benessere dei cittadini. Per molto tempo l’infrastrutturazione e la gestione delle reti materiali che hanno con- sentito il consumo sociale del bene acqua e dei relativi servizi essenziali è dipeso dalla sfera pubblica. Ma la fornitura di beni e servizi fondamentali è una posta in gioco di grande valore, perennemente contesa da interessi potenti spesso coadiuvati da classi politiche compiacenti. Ecco che anche in Italia, pur in ritardo rispetto agli altri paesi europei, si è sviluppato un forte e trasversale interesse di una gran parte della classe politica e degli attori economici del settore per la trasformazione della gestione del servizio di distribuzione dell’acqua in senso privatistico: l’acqua, da bene comune, sarebbe diventata merce

According to the early transposition of the EU directives by the Italian government, this paper presents some of the outcomes of the qualitative-led applied research titled Community Energy Map, aimed at identifying the main operational models and organisational frameworks put in place for the development of renewable energy communities (RECs). In this respect, the article discusses a threefold subdivision of organisational models to implement RECs: public lead, pluralist, and community energy builders’ model. Furthermore, the paper illustrates in detail three of the nine case studies dedicated to recently launched RECs, conducted through qualitative fieldworks, to investigate the social and local implications generated by these community-led initiatives. The article stresses the relevance of both the local scale and community-led initiatives in the pathway towards a fair and just energy transition, by discussing how RECs define new organisational models of distributed energy systems.

The traditional conception of metropolis has been challenged by the emergence of city-regions and large agglomerations. Most of the different conceptualizations share the key feature of polycentricity. Besides, several theories today enrich the study of urban transformations. Introduced by a brief overview of polycentrism, the paper advances a reflection on Milan urban region to discuss features and functions of polycentrism, by questioning whether the shift from monocentric to polycentric patterns is capable of observing the contemporary complexities of urbanization. On such basis, the paper stresses how processes of densification, complexification and diversification of the urban in-between, resulting from multi- scale and multi-topological rationales, can be construed in a perspective of “polycentric post-suburbanization”. The ultimate aim of the paper is to bridge the knowledge gap between poly- centrism and contemporary urbanization.

Over the last 20 years, suburbanization has gradually turned into a key topic of analysis, whereas welfare policies have faced a significant public reconfiguration towards the local scale of provision and the development of local welfare systems. Combined in such a way, these two statements tell us little, and they appear to be separate and without any relation. This article aims at building the analytical and research interplays between these two topics. In so doing, the article addresses the governance and planning of local welfare services in suburbs, entwined with the post-suburban theoretical frame. By identifying the issues at stake—that is, the governance of welfare and services—the analysis investigates the uneven socio-spatial polarizations that are currently emerging in metropolitan areas. The research bridges a research gap between the unevenness of the suburban expansion and the changing provision of welfare services. The article discusses these insights with three Italian cases from the edges of the three main metropolitan areas: Milan, Rome, and Naples. The empirical discussion, which relies on the outcomes of qualitative fieldwork activities, discusses and compares the differentiation of welfare provision and the relevant diverse “suburban societies” amongst the three contexts. Through this focus, the article points out that a heterogeneous and unequal spatial distribution of basic services and social infrastructures is to be found amongst the constellation of towns located on the outskirts of an urban core.

With the proliferation of studies on and local programmes of urban regeneration on the one hand and the stereotypes and stigmatisation of peripheries on the other hand, a more comprehensive understanding of urban peripheries is needed today, when urbanisation is proceeding at a dizzying pace. Focusing on the northern peripheries of Naples, this article discusses the ways in which we can renew our understanding of urban peripheries by posing two views of ‘the peripheral’: a view from the city, which entails a valorisation of the knowledge, know-how and issues related to what is commonly known as urban regeneration, and a view from the periphery, where suburban ways of living raise emerging complexities and peripheral conditions that push towards a reconceptualisation of urban peripheral neighbourhoods. The peripheral area of Scampia was adopted as a research ground for reflecting on this reconceptualisation. In this respect, the northern urban peripheries of Naples were adopted as a case in reflecting on what lies at the urban–suburban intersection, and the conceptual observation was extended from the famed Scampia to the urban outskirts, which are currently undergoing uneven social fragilisation as they have been left behind in the regeneration processes of places such as Scampia. La proliferazione di studi e programmi di rigenerazione urbana su scala locale, ma anche gli stereotipi e le stigmatizzazioni che caratterizzano le periferie, inducono verso il bisogno di definire una comprensione analitica pi profonda di cosa oggi rappresentato con il termine “periferia urbana”, in un’epoca in cui il processo di urbanizzazione procede incessante. Con un approfondimento sulle periferie di Napoli nord, l’articolo discute le modalit con cui possibile ridefinire l’oggetto “periferia urbana” attraverso una duplice osservazione: uno sguardo “dalla citt ”, che prende in considerazione la valorizzazione della conoscenza, delle competenze e delle questioni chiave radicate nel tema che comunemente noto come rigenerazione urbana, ed uno sguardo “dalla periferia”, dove le modalit di vita tipicamente sub-urbane sollevano complessit e condizioni periferiche emergenti che spingono verso una ri-concettualizzazione del quartiere urbano periferico. L’area periferica di Scampia viene adottata come campo di ricerca da cui far partire alcune riflessioni per questo esercizio di ri-concettualizzazione. In tal senso, l’articolo utilizza l’esempio delle periferie a nord di Napoli per una riflessione all’intersezione tra l’urbano e il suburbano, estendendo l’osservazione dalla ben nota Scampia al suo intorno, coinvolto in disordinati processi di fragilit sociali, in quanto lasciati indietro dai processi di rigenerazione che interessano luoghi come Scampia.

Il presente contributo intende descrivere l’impatto che la pandemia da Covid-19 ha avuto su alcuni aspetti socioeconomici delle ci&à, discutendo su possibili risposte place-based per un rilancio economico basate sul conce&o di economia di prossimità. Con questo obiettivo l’articolo fornisce un quadro interpretativo utile a comprendere l’impatto sull’economia urbana con particolare riferimento all’Italia e Milano, osservando l’emersione della prospettiva di prossimità nel dibattito per riorganizzare le ci&à in seguito alla crisi sanitaria indo&a dalla pandemia. Su questa base concettuale, nell’articolo vengono discussi alcuni esempi per un’agenda di sviluppo urbano di prossimità, con un quadro conclusivo di policy recommendations relative all’implementazione di queste politiche.

COVID-19 proliferates in extended forms of urbanization. Traditionally a metaphor of escape, the global suburb has become the epicentre of zoonotic transmission, infection through travel, and community spread. Against this background, we point out that where the virus is, you find the peripheral, in the city and in society. In this reflection, we sketch the challenges and potentialities of the landscape of care in the urban periphery in Toronto, Canada and Milan/Lombardy, Italy during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, we need to ask multi-scalar, cross-disciplinary questions and focus on inequities in our social and spatial peripheries.

Il volume Community Energy Map è il risultato di una ricerca, condotta da RSE e Luiss Business School, sullo stato dell’arte delle comunità dell’energia in Italia. Nel volume sono presenti diverse chiavi di lettura del fenomeno, a partire dall’anali- si del quadro normativo nazionale e regionale italiano. Tramite diversi metodi di ricerca (mappature, desk analysis, clusterizzazioni, focus group e interviste), il volume presenta una serie di riflessioni sugli elementi di innovazione delle iniziative, con attenzione ai contesti territoriali e alle caratteristiche organizzative. Nel capitolo conclusivo, sono infine elaborate alcune raccomandazioni indirizzate ai policy makers e ai progettisti, orientate allo sviluppo di comunità dell’energia capaci di innescare virtuosi pro- cessi di sviluppo economico locale con attenzione all’impatto sociale e ambientale pro- dotto nei territori.

Recensione di: Emerging urban spaces: a planetary perspective, edited by P. Horn., P. Alfaro d’Alençon and A. C. Cardoso, Berlin, Springer, 2018, 219 pp., € 124,79 (hardcover), ISBN: 970-3-319-57815-6

Over the last two decades, suburban studies have emerged from a call for a new conceptual order to go beyond the traditional dichotomies of the urban realm, namely, the centre‐ periphery division. Such an approach distinguishes the city and suburbs as two separate entities, which hampers a better understanding of urbanization overall. Previously, studies of suburban areas have been interested in urban growth and regional development, albeit peripheral to the core themes of the research field. Yet a continuity of studies focusing on suburbs is appearing, and a proliferation of concepts has been produced to describe the diverse suburban forms according to specific features. Furthermore, suburbanization has now assumed a global dimension, as demonstrated by several recent studies and different new urban theories including “post‐metropolis,” “planetary urbanization,” and “polycentric metropolis.” This article aims at pursuing a “suburban debate” by providing an overview of the current state of research while pointing out the main frictions and unsolved issues of this proliferating discussion. First, conceptual frictions that travel worldwide are addressed and discussed. Then, contemporary issues and challenges regarding the governance of areas at the “urban edges” are highlighted as fundamental aspects to cope with while observing the socio‐spatial and socio‐economic polarizations that are occurring in the constant (sub)urban expansion, as recently addressed by several scholars.

Urban regeneration processes can be defined not only by urban design and planning, but also considering an approach more focused on the social issues. In a deprived urban area due to marginality, vulnerability, poverty and social exclusion is useful to cope with its urban regeneration looking at the local welfare system that can be developed in order to generate well-being towards new forms of policy. This approach – based on local welfare (Bifulco, 2015) – implies a new conceptualization of city: from a top-down viewpoint of the policy-making processes, where the priority is a purely architectural requalification, to an interpretation of the city as an active and dynamic space where to build local welfare systems oriented to social inclusion, citizens’ participation and inter-institutional relationships, working on the neighbourhood-scale of urban regeneration. This perspectives is focused on taking care of the citizens’ needs, understanding and identifying the most critical problems that afflict a specific urban area, starting from the voice of its inhabitants. According to this perspective, the local welfare approach gives a fundamental role to the territory, seen as the best field to enhance the inhabitants’ capabilities in the regeneration processes and projects. The development of a local welfare system provides a deep understanding of the main problems of an urban area, looking for the possible resources that can be activated for its urban renewal within a combined empowerment of places and people. The paper aims to discuss the main strengths of this perspective analysing the peculiarities of an European Programme developed during the ‘90s in a deprived urban area of Naples: Quartieri Spagnoli. The case takes into account the implementation of URBAN Programme (1st edition, 1996-2000) for the urban renewal of Quartieri Spagnoli, showing with an ex-post qualitative analysis, how the Programme did not generated the expected results, related to social inclusion and social cohesion. The only urban regeneration process that took place was the one of Objective n. 1, aimed to the renewal of the typical handcraft activities of the area (such as carpentry, leather shops, hairdressing…). The other fourth Objectives, even the one dedicated to the architectural renewal of two open spaces, have proved ineffective. Only one out of five Objectives worked, thanks to the important role of a non-profit organisation in the governance of the 1st Objective. This association, called Associazione Quartieri Spagnoli (QSA), provides street-level welfare services to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood since the ‘70s, with a particular attention to the NEET. During the URBAN implementation, QSA had an important role in the 1st Objective, working for the inclusion of artisans and citizens’ voices in the policy-making dedicated to the renovation of their activities. The approach of QSA was strongly based on the capability-building (Sen, 1992) processes, and it shows how the urban regeneration of a neighbourhood can takes place if related to the possible development of its local welfare system. This process can be inscribed in the territorialisation of social policies perspective, that is a key concept of the local welfare approach. The paper grounds its reflection in the social aspects of urban regeneration with a case study that underlines the importance of the local scale of urban regeneration, for the well-being of a deprived urban area.