Milanese districts. Roles, opportunities, and limits in the exchange between 'hyperlocal' institutions and citizenship

Abstract

This contribution reflects on the role of districts (municipi) in relation to forms of mutual learning between institutions, citizens, and associations. The considerations are primarily based on the writer's direct experience as an elected councilor, assessor, and vice-president of a Milanese district. What forms of learning are in the administrative activity of a city hall? How are they articulated, and in what directions do they move? What role does the city hall play? What are the limits of this learning, and how can it be facilitated and made effective? Starting from projects and processes on which the writer has had responsibility and practiced participant observation, the paper reflects on three roles of the municipality in the relationship between citizens and administration in the governance of the territory at the ‘hyperlocal’ scale. Three roles – intermediary, knowledge keeper, and activator of forms of care – contextually illuminate potentials and limits of public action and the learning process.