APROSDÓKITOS - La città inaspettata

Self-managed Social Centers or Self-managed Occupied Social Centers arise from occupations and self-management of urban spaces that have been disused or abandoned for years: former industrial buildings, schools and offices, workshops and warehouses are occupied and transformed into public spaces where it is possible to organize social, cultural and political activities. Born in the 1970s, today there are about 250 in Italy, and more than 50 are in Rome. In more than 40 years of life they have proved to be a strategic backbone of social and urban struggle movements. This is why they are seen both as promoters of social, cultural, solidarity activities or as a problem of public order. Rome was the first municipality to recognize this use of the abandoned heritage by the citizens (1995); since 2015, however, it has no regulations in order to deal with new situations that have remained without administrative references, or situations that have existed for over ten years. After a brief passage on the history of social centers and on the relationship with the issue of common goods, a mapping of the social centers in Rome and an analysis of the various activities that are carried out are presented. The work tries to bring out how, due to their particularity, a dispute is played out over social centers that refers to larger and more general logics of urban development, on the meaning of the city and democracy.