Self-produced Territorial Democracy

Abstract

Contemporary cities are dealing with practices and processes that mark not only a radical physical transformation, but also a profound anthropological, cultural, and political transformation of living. In this sense, we are witnessing some transformations in government and political life that are strictly connected to the affirmation of the neoliberal model of development.

On the other hand, we are witnessing a progressive development not only of active citizenship, but of forms of mutualism and self-organization. In some cases, they are dictated by the need to respond to social needs and aspirations for a better quality of urban life, which are not answered by the appointed subjects. In others, they are the expression of the effort to build alternative models of development and collective life, becoming nowadays the place where to produce political culture. It is interesting to notice the recent evolution both towards structured and supra-local cooperative and mutualism networks, and towards collaborative forms of self-management in some neighborhoods. Interesting possibilities for innovation also seem to emerge for politics, including collaborative forms that envisage the constitution of substantive informal democracy, a sort of self-produced territorial democracy.

The contribution intends to discuss the complex of these problems, referring above all to experiences in the Roman context and critically evaluating the possible effective conditions for the development of forms of self-produced territorial democracy.