“Serpentone Reload” an Experience of Citizens Involvement in Regeneration of Peripheral Urban Spaces

Abstract

Suburbs are often very contradictory places. Despite great part of urban population live there, these parts of cities are mostly considered as degradation places. The topic of suburbs regeneration is relevant today. Nevertheless, often expensive interventions implemented by local authorities fail to regenerate their public spaces. This paper presents the experience of “Serpentone reload”, a workshop based on participatory reactivation of abandoned or underused spaces and buildings in “Cocuzzo/Serpentone” neighbourhood in Potenza (Basilicata, Italy). The workshop particularly focused on the reuse of the “Ship”, an underground building, completed in 2010, never used, because it has been perceived as an extraneous element, the result of an imposition and not the outcome of shared choices. The experience is particularly significant, because it shows how low cost interventions, realized with citizens involvement, could contribute to the regeneration of peripheral urban areas more than expensive and complex imposed interventions

Increasing Urban Walkability through Citizens’ Participation Processes

“…The participatory process involved several stakeholders: cultural associations, citizens, some decision makers and technical staff of Potenza municipality, and volunteers [51]. Moreover, the participatory planning workshop was an example of implementation of forms of inclusive smart planning, since it was supported by ICT tools, thus attracting the interest of the local community and public administration [67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74]. Various experiences of participatory processes have been developed in Potenza, the capital of Basilicata region, Southern Italy, and in neighboring towns.…”

“…Various experiences of participatory processes have been developed in Potenza, the capital of Basilicata region, Southern Italy, and in neighboring towns. Most of these have been directly incentivized by citizens with a bottom-up approach [71][72][73][74] and in other cases promoted by local authorities [75].…”

“…The case study is located in the West urban area of the city of Potenza, the County Seat of the Basilicata region, located in the mountains (900m above sea level), with about Various experiences of participatory processes have been developed in Potenza, the capital of Basilicata region, Southern Italy, and in neighboring towns. Most of these have been directly incentivized by citizens with a bottom-up approach [71][72][73][74] and in other cases promoted by local authorities [75].…”

Demonstration of public participation and communication through social media in the network society within Shanghai

“…In line with the above-mentioned possible impacts, many scholars have encouraged wider participation and a less top-down approach in the decision-making processes for urban and territorial planning (Amato et al, 2015;Dijk and Ubels, 2016;Scorza and Pontrandolfi, 2015;Voss, 2014). Communication in the participation process is helpful in building trust and social capital between stakeholders (Chandrasekhar et al, 2014;Koontz and Newig, 2014).…”