Thesis title: Dissoluzione di un progetto pubblico. Analisi critica del modello Bologna.
The dissertation Dissolution of a Public Project. A Critical Analysis of the Bologna Model reconstructs, from a diachronic perspective, the evolution of the so-called “Bologna Model,” examining the transformations in the role of public government in shaping urban development. Grounded in critical urban studies, the research conceptualizes the development model as a historically situated configuration of objectives, instruments, and power relations that orient the production of space. The analysis highlights the shift from a phase in which public planning and a social-democratic pact constituted the backbone of urban policies, to a framework marked by the flexibilization of planning tools, the opening of decision-making arenas to public–private coalitions, and the growing centrality of urban regeneration and competitive valorization strategies.
While tracing this dissolutive trajectory of the public government’s role, the study also underscores the persistence of ambivalences, conflicts, and spaces of negotiation, particularly in the relationship between institutions and grassroots practices. The “public” thus emerges as a tension-filled field whose configuration remains open and historically contingent.