Chiara Agnoletti, Paolo Pinarelli, INU Toscana
Urban regeneration is currently at the heart of territorial policies, which must address increasingly complex challenges: the housing crisis, an aging population, emerging social vulnerabilities, and growing inequalities. Following a first session dedicated to the degenerative dynamics of urban transformation and a second session focused on culture as a catalyst for change, this third seminar organized by INU Toscana shifts the perspective to examine who ultimately owns and benefits from these urban processes.
Urban regeneration cannot be reduced to physical interventions on buildings or public spaces. It gains true value and meaning when it tangibly improves people’s living conditions, strengthens local proximity networks, promotes inclusion and accessibility, and counters marginalization. From this perspective, urban quality and social quality are not separate goals but inseparable facets of the same urban vision: effective regeneration cannot exist without cohesion, nor can lasting cohesion be achieved without spaces, services, and opportunities accessible to all.
The seminar aims to explore practices, policies, and instruments that prioritize housing rights, community welfare, and the creation of social capital within neighborhoods. Particular attention will be paid to the capacity of regeneration projects to deliver broad and lasting benefits while preventing social displacement, gentrification, and urban polarization—dynamics that can actually turn regeneration into a privilege rather than a right.
By engaging scholars, administrators, practitioners, and third-sector stakeholders, the initiative seeks to contribute to a shared dialogue on how the physical transformation of urban places can advance alongside the strengthening of active citizenship, ultimately building genuinely regenerated cities.
The program of the event is in development.
Italiano
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