Course held in English

Understanding the functioning of the “state in action” constitutes an essential field of research for a non-naive analysis of political and administrative processes at local and supra-local level: public policy-making organizes peculiar resources, presents specific obstacles, and requires particular intervention techniques and theoretical and methodological tools. With a broad reflection on the progressive change of paradigms in the structure of decision-making models and public management, the course focuses in particular on the theme of commons, which entered social, economic and political science areas in particular with Elinor Ostrom’s studies.

Students will learn principles, meanings and practices of modern commons goods public management, and the fundamental skills to outline and implement sustainable, collaborative and polycentric strategies of urban co-governance, increasingly necessary to compose the plurality of voices and interests in the contemporary society.

The program aims to give space to the collective action and civic initiative of city dwellers, who today appear central in the processes of social innovation and participatory planning, in urban regeneration, community development and ecological resilience.

Bibliographical references:

– HOWLETT M., RAMESH M., PERL A., Studying Public Policy, Oxford University Press, 2009.

Other documents will be indicated during the course.