Conviviality and commoning in urban regeneration. Conflict, empowerment, and legitimacy in Caserta (Italy)

This article investigates the dialectical relationship between conviviality and commoning in the management of public spaces whose accessibility has been compromised. Through commoning, new relationships are established or re-established among individuals who collaborate in collective actions aimed at enhancing the conviviality of a neighbourhood despite lacking strong pre-existing social ties. Conviviality, meant as the festive and relational dimension of space, is based on mutual recognition among participants and is intrinsically connected to the capacity to decommodify spaces. This process of decommodification and conviviality liberates public space from purely economic and commercial logics and promotes collective use of space, reflected in models of collaborative governance. The article draws on qualitative data gathered over three years of participant observation and 30 semi-structured interviews. The case of Villa Giaquinto, a public park in Caserta (Italy), which was initially occupied, became subject of the collaboration agreement between citizens and the public administration. The analysis reveals how effective governance enables these spaces to fulfil their role as forums for discussion, participation and social interaction by encouraging and sustaining collective initiatives for the reuse of spaces. This dynamic can succeed even when formal agreements with public authorities are not effectively implemented in practice, potentially reducing the agreement to a mere instrument for delegating public functions to citizens.