Articles | Volume 80, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-80-409-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-80-409-2025
Standard article
 | 
14 Nov 2025
Standard article |  | 14 Nov 2025

Marginal urbanities in Rome – or how to revive urbanity through self-management

Simone Ranocchiari

Cited articles

Aceska, A., Heer, B., and Kaiser-Grolimund, A.: Doing the City from the Margins: Critical Perspectives on Urban Marginality, Anthropolog. Forum, 29, 1–11, https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2019.1588100, 2019. 
Alia, A.: Il ciclo breve dei Csoa, tra spontaneità e organizzazione, Infoaut, https://infoaut.org/approfondimenti/il-ciclo-breve-dei-csoa-tra-spontaneita-e-organizzazione/ (last access: 20 March 2025), 29 April 2024. 
ANSA: Salvini, chiudere i centri sociali occupati dai comunisti, https://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/topnews/2024/11/10/salvini-chiudere-i-centri-sociali-occupati-dai-comunisti_21a97caf-f8eb-4309-90f9-95c38508cf88.html (last access: 20 March 2025), 2025. 
Archibugi, C.: I centri sociali a Roma come “spazi comuni”, L'esemplarità come prassi istituente, Memorie Geografiche, Commons/Comune: geografie, luoghi, spazi, città, https://ssg2015commons.wordpress.com/pubblicazione/ (last access: 15 March 2024), 157–163, 2016. 
Bailey, M. M.: Engendering Space: Ballroom Culture and the Spatial Practice of Possibility in Detroit, Gender Place Cult., 21, 489–507, https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.786688, 2014. 
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Short summary
This article explores how activists in Rome transform abandoned buildings into community spaces. Based on fieldwork from 2017 to 2022, it shows that these self-managed initiatives, despite their challenges, create services, foster collaboration, and strengthen local life. By reactivating neglected areas, they challenge conventional urban development and inspire more inclusive and resilient ways of living together.
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