Equal treatment and enhancement of diversity: the role of urban regeneration practices

In Italy, the awareness of a renewed “territorial question” has converged in the debate on urban regeneration as a new approach to urban policies and a synthesis capable of unifying diverse needs. In fact, it has progressively become the key concept under which the emerging problems of the territories have been brought under: reducing land consumption, reusing buildings, redeveloping parts of cities that have lost their original function, and improving the quality of life of the inhabitants. Thus, many initiatives, sometimes very distant from each other, have been characterized as “urban regeneration”, from regulations to revive the construction sector, which has always been central in the Italian economy, to some experiments in civic engagement, promoted by communities of citizens who take care of their neighbourhoods. Such a wealth of content risks producing two effects: that urban regeneration becomes only a verbal synthesis and is incapable of directing urban regeneration processes toward goals of economic and social solidarity; that it is a cause of social segregation, generating further inequality. For this reason, the paper aims to describe what the Italian legal instruments for urban regeneration are and under what conditions these measures could improve equality and enhance diversities in the urban context.