‘Inhabited networks’ | Perceptive changes in the use of public urban spaces

This paper is a comparative analysis of the original (and innovative) features of multidisciplinary participative networks of the Italian province, through the study of graphic-communicational languages. The methodological novelty doesn’t yet allow the monitoring of the effects on local realities. The action of ‘inhabited networks’ aims at reactivating – from a functional, economical and socio-cultural point of view – disused industrial estates, dwellings and trading areas either abandoned or in decline as per the case studies [Romagna, Province of Trieste] examined accordingly. In a moment of radical and expensive institutional and territorial reorganizations, the vitality of suburban communities emerges through the flourishing of initiatives, i.e. the promotion of events, the aim of which is to modify the self-referential of decision-makers with respect to city and territory (Porter, Shaw, 2008). The revitalization of open and built spaces lays in the perspective of social innovation (de Certeau, 1990). ‘Interconnection’ is a primary rela-tional action that implies changes in the layout and in the mental, cognitive and physical models (Scocco, 2008). It has become a key word in the ‘urban innovation’ context. The production of sensory maps (Mc Leans, 2012) has encouraged the action of independent groups that are active in the internet and especially in social networks. This phenomenon has proved to be particularly meaningful in the Italian scenario, where it overlapped solid identity layers that did not prevent the birth of progressive or transitional hypothesis. Such actions do not necessarily imply radically alternative visions in planning design and in local governance and can be efficiently disseminated. The playful provocation of images and events underlies the supply of ‘molecules’ of organ-ized thought in ‘Metapolis’ (Ascher, 1995) – spread through digital networks and blogs – produces daily critiques and heated discussions. The potential of this informative tool (Colavitti, Usai, 2009), which in Italy has several historical roots, has also revealed objective limits. From the foretold direct management in the 1970’s (De Carlo, 1973) to the complex forms elaborated in the protests of 2011 [Puerta del Sol, Madrid; Zuccotti Park, NY], where ‘anti-globalization’ claims merge; the deep modifications and evolutions occurred after the cybernetic revolution appear in practical participative processes.