Processi partecipativi per favorire la transizione verso la neutralità climatica. Il caso di Bologna / Participatory processes to facilitate the transition to climate neutrality. The case of Bologna

The present paper focuses on the “City as a Commons” approach that considers the city as a set of urban commons (i.e., municipal buildings, cultural assets, urban green areas) that everyone cares about to support regeneration actions. In this perspective, local actors collaborate to promote participatory processes, such as co-creating, co-designing, and co-governing, to respond to the inhabitants’ needs. Then, the city becomes able to adapt and transform. The stakeholders’ network is essential to realize effective regeneration actions considering cultural, social, governance, environmental, and economic aspects for the cities’ transition to climate neutrality. Bologna could be considered the first experimentation of the “City as a Commons” approach and has a long-lasting experience in collaborative policies and initiatives. Some of the main outcomes are: (i) the implementation of the “co-city protocol” elaborated by LabGov with the project “COBologna” (2014-2016), developed in synergy with the municipal policy “Collaborare è Bologna” (2014) and the “Regulation on Collaboration Between Citizens and the City for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons” (2014), (ii) the launching of the platform “Partecipa” to propose, participate, and vote collaboration pacts between citizens, the municipal administration and other stakeholders, and (iii) the participatory path for the drafting of the Climate City Contract (CCC) for Bologna (2022). Starting from a critical reading of the Bologna experience in terms of collaborative governance and participatory processes, the final objectives of the paper are: (a) to emphasise the elements that should be considered in the transition towards climate neutrality following the values of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) within the European project “Creating Actionable Futures – CrAFt”; and (b) to provide a protocol, e.g. a list of principles to be used to facilitate the cities’ transition to climate neutrality and the adoption of CCCs.