Local Policies that Recognise the Commons: The Case of Naples

Abstract

"This paper explores specific policies put in place by the municipality of Naples, in Italy, in between 2011 and 2017, which demonstrate the high attention paid to the commons at social and political level. In particular the paper focuses on the interaction between local municipality and the commons movement and struggles and the role played by these two forces towards the recognition of the value of the commons as a tool towards social justice. It also explores the link between water as commons, in the plan for the remunicipalisation of the water supply in 2011, and the recognition of occupied urban spaces social squats as commons in 2016. It presents the differences in the approach in the two cases as well as the consistency with the general framework of the debate about the commons."