Can social innovation transform local governments? The experience of Naples

By analyzing the case study of Naples, Italy, the chapter aims at investigating the complex relationship between community-led initiatives and the local government, particularly in the process of regeneration of underused public buildings. I argue that social innovation is a highly contextual social and political process that has the potential to act in changing the relationship among different stakeholders involved in the policy making. Social innovation is a constant creation, transformation, and dynamism triggered by interactions by a diverse set of actors that together transform urban space and service provision. The chapter highlights how conflict and collaboration are more and more becoming mutually reinforcing elements of an ongoing political process, where conflict is not only an unavoidable but also a necessary aspect of participation and engagement. Spaces of regeneration of underused public building are perfect sites to assess how real-life scenarios of social innovation act both in changing institutions and the functioning of community-based activism. In this framework, the case of Naples seems to be particularly interesting due to the adoption of a specific “Declaration on Civic Uses” as a framework for the protection of urban commons. This framework has been adopted particularly due to the activism of squatting movements in a regenerated space named Ex Asilo Filangieri.