Cities that change

The Industrial Revolution, the Paris Commune, the growing demand for housing for the urbanised working-class population, the bombardments and destruction caused by the Second World War, the impact of the spread of new technologies... great historical events have always brought…

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Let’s not call them suburbs…

One of the great themes underlying city development is that of the suburbs. The centre/suburb juxtaposition has for decades characterised the functions, urban quality and value of city spaces, and the term suburb has almost always had a negative connotation:…

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New life for small villages?

In many countries, the COVID-19 emergency has led to a greater propensity on the part of companies and workers to remote smart working. This phenomenon, together with the search for a slower pace of life and more affordable living costs, has…

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When welfare is collaborative

In order to respond with new services to meet people’s need for well-being and a social life, one of the contemporary solutions is ‘collaborative welfare’. The name reflects the fact that services are based on reciprocity. The giver and the…

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From the “Social Street” to Communal Landings 2.0

In contexts where impoverished social relations combine with the economic difficulties of welfare, solutions to problems often come from the bottom up. This is what has happened, for example, with the “Social Street” experiment, in which people, based on principles…

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Sustainability and social cohesion

When we talk about sustainability and the three pillars that support it (economic, social and environmental), we tend to emphasize environmental sustainability. There are many reasons for this, not least the centrality that the climate crisis has assumed in our…

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Listening to the Planet

Interview with Isabella Pratesi*, WWF International Conservation Director The WWF has long argued that there is a significant link between climate change, deforestation, hygiene and epidemics: can you summarise your organisation’s thinking? Climate and ecosystems are closely linked to our…

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