Towards a reflexive model of collaborative urban governance: Exploring the Italian ‘shared administration of common goods’

Abstract

This chapter discusses the Italian experience of the ‘shared administration of common goods’ as a governance model that implements the shared city concept while incorporating reflexivity. In recent years, hundreds of municipalities across Italy have been experimenting with cooperative forms of urban governance by adopting the Regulation of collaboration between citizens and the city for the care and regeneration of urban commons. This niche innovation has become a consolidated practice and a concrete perspective to realize a reflexive mode of governance. Based on the principle of horizontal subsidiarity, the thousands of collaboration pacts signed constitute a policy instrument intentionally designed and implemented to trigger reflexivity in the governance process. This chapter focuses on the specific features of this urban governance approach, its outcomes in terms of reflexivity, and whether it leads to effective learning and true reflection. The chapter also examines and critically discusses some paradigmatic case studies.