Where Is Culture in Rome? - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 228

16

where is Culture in Rome?

Self-Managed Social Centers and the Right
to Urban Space

pierpaolo mudu

would not specific urban needs be those of qualified places, places of simulta-
neity and encounters, places where exchange would not go through exchange
value, commerce and profit?
—lefebvre (1996, 148)
i in Rome, the construction of political spaces has changed significantly due to
transformations in the social composition of the population and the develop-
ment of the city. During the last twenty-five years, many abandoned buildings
have been converted to self-managed social centers by leftist activists and other
diverse groups. a social center is a space which originates through squatting an
abandoned place, within which people experiment with forms of noninstitu-
tional action and association through self-management ( autogestione ). self-man-
agement means opting for a form of decision making which keeps out racism,
sexism, social hierarchies, and all forms of oppression.
This definition provides only a partial picture of the complex political and
organizational patterns of social centers, though. The characteristics of social
centers are far from easy to define, but their history does reveal a number of fea-
tures that are worth exploring. most italian ones are located in big cities such as
milan, Naples, Rome, and turin, although some are also present in small towns
in the north and center (mudu 2004). positioned outside the framework of main-
stream institutions, social centers are significant and sophisticated grassroots
initiatives, particularly when most of the people participating in their activities
are “simply” there “to be with others” and to be part of a process of cultural pro-
duction from below. Gathering together in a squatted place generates challenges
and debates on various topics such as decision-making processes, local opposi-

246