Commons as Antidote to Turistification of Historical Centre? The Case of “Santa Fede Liberata” in Naples

Abstract

In the historic center of cities, initiatives for the regeneration and management of “new” public goods are gradually emerging. These neo-commons are founded on accessibility, care of public spaces and participation in decision-making processes, through the involvement of active groups able to thematize the public space understood as the place that unfolds the function of equipment or services produced by the State. This dimension is flanked and overlapped in historical centers by other processes, not contemplated in the repertoire of urban management, which complexify the classic definition of "urban public good": privatized and commodified public spaces, quasi-public spaces, tourist spaces. Today the aspirations of many local communities - including that of migrants - are concentrated on these assets in order to start a democratic and sustainable management of the ancient center. Specifically, the paper shows the results of a field research carried out in the former Convent of Santa Fede Liberata, a structure "liberated" from by a group of inhabitants of the area made up of artists, migrants, wayfarers, homeless. The analysis shows not only how the management of this structure produces a "creative" use of common goods, but also an ability to create new institutions from below.