Urban regeneration ‘from the bottom up’: Critique or co-optation? Notes from Milan, Italy

In the last decade, urban studies scholars have been studying a wide variety of urban regeneration strategies formulated by social movements and civic networks. These initiatives range from physical interventions to social and cultural activities that also serve to appropriate urban space, according to an alternative logic to neo-liberal redevelopment plans. The aim of this paper is to participate in this debate by focusing on urban interventions that arise from self-organised local civic networks, to which I refer to as urban regeneration ‘from the bottom up’. The term includes proposals, projects or effective actions that are not yet framed by a public policy implemented by governments. Drawing on empirical research in the Navigli area of Milan, Italy, civic network initiatives are contrasted to municipal strategies of regeneration. By focusing on two different experiences I show how civic networks’ actions respond to neo-liberalism ambiguously: they challenge it, but at the same time they are consistent with its logic. In the conclusion, it is claimed that urban regeneration ‘from the bottom up’ suggests that the urban civic substratum of contemporary cities is still thriving. However, it is urgent that the contradictions these strategies entail are critically appropriated in order to develop a stronger answer to austerity urbanism.