The emerging civil society. Governing through leisure activism in Milan

ABSTRACT

The paper discusses the emerging forms of civil society in the NoLo area of Milan that have acquired political relevance by deploying a combination of leisure and activism. The heterogeneous set of initiatives and events that, using the NoLo label, animate the urban space have two distinct traits: firstly, they exert a subtle political action which is played out at a cultural level, in particular in their ability to draw on and influence common sense and taken-for-granted perceptions; and secondly, the chosen initiatives effectively influence local policy-making processes, in line with the neoliberal governance of the city and the authorities’ promise to govern not just for the citizens but with them. The case study provides an empirical illustration of an emerging urban civil society, with specific attention on its functioning, how certain situated events were set up and unfolded, and two specific episodes of involvement in local policy-making. The proposed research findings - including the exclusionary/inclusive pattern that shapes citizens’ involvement, the consensus-building strategy enacted by the studied civil society and the increasing political relevance of bottom-up urban initiatives - illustrate the meaning of governing through leisure activism in Milan.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil Society
• Events
• Urban
• Neo-liberalism
• Governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. All interviewees are cited according to their occupation and the year during which they were interviewed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sebastiano Citroni

Sebastiano Citroni teaches Sociology of  Cultures and Sociology of Communication & Tourism at the Department of Law, Economics and Cultures at University of Insubria, Como (Italy). His research interests include civil society, ethnography, social theory, events and group styles. His most recent  publications include: “Civil Society Events” (European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 2020), “Gramsci’s Civil Society and the Implicit Dimension of Politics (PArtecipazione & COnflitto, 2019), “Non-Obvious Discoveries. An Interview with Randall Collins” (Etnografia & Ricerca Qualitativa, 2018), “The contradictions of Creative Activism” (City, Culture & Society, 2017), “Inclusive Togetherness” (La Scuola, 2015).

Alessandro Coppola

Alessandro Coppola teaches urban planning and urban policy at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. His research interests include urban shrinkage, urban informality, neighborhood policies and politics, international urban networks. His most recent publications include: “Projects of becoming in a right sizing city”, Urban Geography, 40, Issue 2, 2019; “Climate governance in transnational municipal networks: advancing a potential agenda for analysis and typology”, International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 11 (2), 2019 (with Wolfgang Haupt); “The production of informal space: A critical atlas of housing informalities in Italy between public institutions and political strategies”, Progress in Planning, available online, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progress.2020.100495 (with Francesco Chiodelli and others).