Reloading city: a new systemic approach to urban and territorial regeneration

The research topic is urban regeneration as a development strategy for Italy in its various territorial components and as a tool for post-pandemic recovery. Special attention will be paid to thee conomic-social objectives that distinguish regeneration from a mere urban reuse and redevelopment. The potential which, despite its centrality in the recent urban planning debate, still remains largely unexpressed will be investigated, too. The research is focused on three different issues: 1. to restore the role of the public actors in managing regeneration, as they have to be subjects able to plan and direct private initiatives 2. to rethink regeneration starting from the public city considered as a space and as a residential area 3. to recover the systemic nature of a urban project, overcoming the dichotomies between centres and outskirts and the ineffectiveness of some technical, legal and regulatory instruments on the matter. 

In conformity with goal no. 11 of Agenda2030, the NGEU programme concerning Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion and, as far as Italy is concerned, the Mission 5 of the NRP (Cohesion and Inclusion), this research aims to build paths able to (re)direct the approach to urban regeneration, adopting a multi-disciplinary and multi-scale perspective, taking into consideration the complexity of the social events and relationships that exist in the physical space of a city and its territory. It is part of the intervention area "Social transformations and society of inclusion", articulations "Inequalities and inclusion" and "Strategies and tools for urban regeneration and territorial governance" of the NRP. This project is divided into two steps. 

The first, a macro and structural one, has three goals: a. synoptic reconstruction of the theoretical matrices and recent developments of the matter; b. development of an updated framework relating to the problems and needs coming from the city and its inhabitants, about the conditions of discomfort; c. preparation of future scenarios considering the kinds and dimensions of urban and housing discomfort in a post-pandemic perspective. Finally, the definition of a set of principles is pursued as acting as a framework for the regulatory assets of practices and regeneration actions better anchored to a background that has profoundly changed compared with the past. 

The second step, both strategic and tactical, aims to redirect regeneration practices, enhancing their unexplored potential and introducing elements in line with the emerging questions. The revision of the theoretical-empirical paradigms underlying the custom will be based on the critical recognition of the most significant experiences implemented in Europe. The final goal is to offer a set of theoretical-practical and regulatory instruments useful to administrations and a continuous system of interactions with the different stakeholders, based on the reciprocity of learning, both in research and in the dissemination of results.

Research units:

• Università degli Studi di Perugia, Principal Investigator Annalisa Giusti
• Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Associated Investigator Marco Calabro'
• Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, Associated Investigator Roberto Giovanni, Basile
• Politecnico di Bari, Associated Investigator Sergio Bisciglia
• Università degli Studi di Sassari, Associated Investigator Gianfranco Sanna

Call
PRIN 2022

Project duration:
24 months

Main ERC field:
SH - Social Sciences and Humanities

ERC subfields

• SH7_7 Cities; urban, regional and rural studies
• SH7_8 Land use and planning
• SH3_4 Social integration, exclusion, prosocial behavior

Keywords
urban regeneration, land use regulation, inclusion and cohesion, sustainable development, public city