Urban regeneration. A multifaceted reality based on the inclusive participation of the community

Urban regeneration is a multiform reality, capable of embracing different sectors and experiences, ranging from civic participation to the management of assets of social relevance, from the transformation and restoration of areas in the urban fabric to the fight against phenomena of social exclusion. Despite the uncertain boundaries, the context finds its common denominator in the need to recover, transform and in general innovate in a better sense the assets or common spaces of a city, through initiatives that start from the participation of the community that inhabits the territories to be regenerated. In this framework, urban art, on which, not by chance, many contemporary methods, experiments and case studies are based, is a fundamental tool for initiating redevelopment preparatory to regeneration. However, art cannot act alone as an activator of change. When placed extemporaneously in a context, it could cause negative impacts on various aspects of the territorial fabric, having the opposite effect than intended. We must revalue its role in the regeneration process by redefining it as a useful means to support a programme of wide-ranging actions carried out within a framework of normative interventions for new models of managing common assets operating in the territory. Moreover, in order to build a common efficiency space, the regenerative phenomenon must follow the community's evolution, opening up to diversity in all its forms. In fact, it is only through promoting an inclusive participation of the community that the process can truly expand the sense of place and integrate the different segments of citizenship, not only modifying the perception of the space, but also promoting the beginning of new paths of socio-economic development. This paper addresses three different areas of the regenerative phenomenon, all linked to the principles of participation and autonomy: the management of urban commons, public - or rather, common - art, and the rights of persons with disabilities. To sum up, the regenerative path must look at the civic community that inhabits a territory as a sort of ecosystem where innovation processes arise in a way that is not directly attributable to public power and from which the administration could and should draw inspiration.