Nápoles, ciudad democrática: la construcción del centro histórico como un espacio público

This paper analyses the process of urban regeneration that has occurred in the historic centre of Naples over the last decade. My thesis is that this process has arisen from a mixture of differentiated forms of collective action and social mobilisation. In particular, I want to put forward a double-level framework of analysis which takes into consideration two perspectives on the process of urban change: from above and from below. In my case-study, the former has been led by the local political elites and the judges, while the latter by the civil society and the social movements. This sheds light on the current complexity of urban change processes and on the multiplicity of sources of social power at the urban scale. Indeed, the very purpose of this paper is to discuss the idea of a multiplex city and to propose an active approach to post-modern urbanism, which challenges pessimistic visions on the future of cities.