The Institutionalisation of Civic Initiatives Practices, Public Effects and Models of Direct Civic Action in Europe

This book examines two civic initiatives in Europe and analyses their evolution through the institutionalisation of their practices, local public effects, and established models for action at broader scales.

Drawing from the concepts of civic action, problematic situations, public problems, and experience, this book coins the concept of direct civic action to explore civic initiatives beyond sectorial categories. It draws from the histories, everyday activities, and encounters with new problematic situations of a Slovak and a French initiative. It analyses the institutionalisation of their internal practices, their public cultural services, the models for action they establish in broader networks of initiatives, and how institutionalisation affects their experimentation and innovation. This book uses two case studies of civic initiatives in France and Slovakia, examining how the experimental and institutionalised approaches to problematic situations of civic initiatives are associated with the generation and continuative reproduction of public goods and policies. It also explores how local initiatives establish national and international networks and models for direct civic action.

This book is aimed at scholars interested in civic initiatives, urban planning, public policies, innovation studies, and urban sociology. It is intended to engage members of civic initiatives by offering insights into organisational dynamics and their impact on public issues. Furthermore, it appeals to public officials and policy-makers who aim to establish policies that promote civic initiatives and encourage direct civic action.

Introduction

A puzzling observation

Exploring institutionalisation in civic initiatives

Approaching civic initiatives: conceptual cornerstones of research

Research methods: exploring two long-standing European civic initiatives

Book structure

Theorising civic initiatives: direct civic actions, public problems, and institutions

The limits of seeing civic initiatives as experimental generators of public effects

Rooting civic initiatives in action: the experience of public problems and direct civic action

Civic initiatives and institutions: introducing a dynamic conceptualisation

Encountering new problematic situations: experience and innovation

Institutionalising direct civic action in and beyond civic initiatives

Establishing practices based on friendship and autonomy: Stanica in Žilina, Slovakia

Mixing activism and professionalism: Mains d'œuvres in St-Ouen, France

Instituting practices, public services and models of direct civic action

Institutionalised civic initiatives and new problematic situations

The Nová Synagóga project: an experimental renovation of national heritage

The Espace Imaginaire project: co-managing an open field of possibilities

Trajectories of experimentation: blocked innovations and wider transformations

The evolutions of direct civic action

Approaching problematic situations through direct civic actions

Civic initiatives and public policy

Direct civic action as a model for intervention

Conclusion

Understanding the institutionalisation of civic initiatives

Suggestions for public policies and policy-making

Limits and future directions for research

Looking back, and looking forward

Francesco Campagnari is an urban scholar. He holds a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (EF-ST) at the Centre d‘étude des mouvements sociaux (Ehess, Paris, France), with a research project exploring the effects of supralocal and translocal relations on direct civic actions of urban transformation. He is also Adjunct professor in Urban and regional planning at Università Iuav di Venezia, Venice, Italy. His research focuses on
processes of experience and treatment of urban public problems by direct civic actions, with particular attention to their grammars of problematisation and publicisation and to their construction, institutionalisation, innovation and diffusion of intervention models, plans and policies. He is also interested in the use of pragmatist philosophy and ethnography in urban and planning research.