At the Italian Chamber of Deputies, the lower House of the Parliament, took place a conference, organized by Censis to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the foundation of RUR (Network of  Urban Representatives). With remarks by professionals that work on city-related issues, there has been a definite effort to set forth new paramaters, that can help in building a social and urban fabric, capable of answering the needs of an everchanging society.

by Paolo Balduzzi - Rome

On December 16th 2009 at Palazzo Marino in Rome, one of the buildings used by the Italian Chamber of Deputies, took place a conference titled "For the recovery, give ideas to metropolis", organized by Censis. Censis is an Italian Foudation, that has been working on issues related to  work, welfare, education, environment, territorial networks for forty years. All these activities go along with work on economy and human development. Thanks to a continuous research and consultant activity, Censis sets forth proposals aimed at different vital sectors of society.
Six speakers presented their remark, and each of them is presently active in a specific life or study sphere: from the mayor to the anthropologist, from the architect to the university professor. Their speeches did not give specific answers, but mostly raised questions, offering hints for a wide range speculation on life in cities, focusing on its formal structures, its places, the persons that live therein, the surrounding environment.

Here below we publish the remarks presented by Giuseppe Roma, who is general director of Censis and secretary of Rur. He is a sociologist, journalist and professor; in his speech, Roma urged the discussion on what is necessary for global cities today.

“Cities need proposals and projects” whose main focus should not exclusively be on "major events", that usually have a large impact on large urban areas. It is necessary to understand what is the structure of cities today, at least of Italian cities, as they put together different urban facts,  thanks to relations, territorial mobility, exchange of knowledge production, goods and services.  Nowadays 61% of the Italian population lives in “megacities”, whose main functions, however, have got out of these same cities in an uncontrolled way, giving life to phenomena that generate identity and relationship problems.

The task to understand what the new identity of cities can be, and walk along the path that brings it about, can be a possibility to make contemporary society more human; urban areas all live and grow in the same way, but have peculiar features that depend on history, culture, geography, and can offer unique contributions to social thinking and action.

Click here to download the file in italian language