Patti di Collaborazione — Bologna's Regulation for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons

On 19 May 2014, the Municipality of Bologna approved the 'Regulation on public collaboration between citizens and the city for the care and regeneration of urban commons,' the first measure of its kind in Italy, developed with the civic think-tank Labsus and based on the constitutional principle of subsidiarity.

To create a legal mechanism, the 'Patto di Collaborazione' (Pact of Collaboration), through which self-organised groups of residents could agree with the city on responsibilities for maintaining a garden, restoring a building, or running a community space.

Citizens propose care or regeneration projects for shared urban spaces — parks, walls, playgrounds, disused buildings — and the municipality supports them with technical assistance, materials, insurance cover or small grants, while retaining oversight through district-level administration.

More than 400 pacts have been signed since 2014, spanning environmental care, cultural programming, social services and neighbourhood regeneration. An independent academic evaluation coordinated by LabGov analysed 280 pacts signed between March 2014 and December 2016, combining qualitative and quantitative coding, participant surveys and focus groups. It found the mechanism built meaningful social capital and democratic responsiveness, but also flagged structural weaknesses: few pacts involved multi-actor partnerships (most were single-group agreements) and underlying economic models were often fragile, relying on volunteer time rather than durable funding. The city received the 2018 Cities of Service 'Engaged Cities Award'. By September 2015, 54 other Italian municipalities had adopted similar regulations, with 79 more under evaluation; by the mid-2020s that number had grown to roughly 280 municipalities, and the approach has been studied — though not directly replicated — by cities including Amsterdam, Ghent and Madrid.

Legal innovation alone does not guarantee balanced, well-resourced partnerships — sustained public investment and multi-actor engagement remain works in progress even in the mechanism's home city.