Public Policies and Community Practices of Co-Governance of Urban Commons. Lessons from Italy

The development of collaborative practices in the field of urban commons might represents an observation point for the study of democratic innovations. This issue shall be considered particularly interesting because it arises from the intersection of different fields of study: in addition to studies on democracy, the theory of the commons, studies on local co-governance, active citizenship. The open government framework, of which collaboration is one of the constitutive dimensions (Lathrop and Ruma 2010; De Blasio and Sorice 2017) also provide the creation of public-private-civic partnership (Foster and Iaione 2016) as a component of this variable. Finally, the body of scientific knowledge focused on cities is extensive and rapidly expanding, stressing the role and power that cities will exercise in the 21st century, and the challenges that the urban context pose for democracy (UN Habitat 2016; Sassen 2014). The analysis of practices of sharing and collaborative governance of urban commons, involving different actors that aim at building long-term forms of public-private-civic partnerships for the co-governance of urban commons might sheld lights This topic is also taken into account because it implies the government's action to be directed to the development of a culture of collaboration with citizens, aimed at enhancing their contribution to the general interest, which is not uniformly spread across and within cities. The study of democratic innovations and the quality of democracy has highlighted the role of equality concerns in the institutional design (Font 2014) and the impact of institutional design itself on the dimensions of the quality of democracy, such as responsiveness and equality (Pogrebinsci 2013). The article focuses on the analysis of hybrid spaces (Cornwall 2004) of co- governance of urban commons in a set of Italian cities, considering both public policies and innovative institutional-led process ((Regulations for the public governance of urban commons; Collaboratories; governance Labs) promoted at the urban level, where the institutions act as an enabling actor, and community-led practices conceptualized as claimed spaces (Gaventa 2006) where civic actors takes a proactive role. The analysis of the cases in a comparative perspective is focused on highlighting the process of institutional genesis, stressing the features of integration between them, and how those processes have different capacity in terms of equality/solidarity and participation.