ABSTRACT
Habitability in an urban context makes it easier to promote new and innovative economic activities and to facilitate connections with global networks. This interpretation highlights the relationship between the capacity to produce innovation and development and the overall quality of a city and the community. An urban region is more habitable if it facilitates altruistic practices and voluntary activities, if it encourages civic commitment and advertises and favours access to social services. This interpretation underlines the importance of a habitable city's ability to radically rethink its community welfare strategies, by enhancing the variety and quality of voluntary activities in the third sector and in private sector social services. The term habitability is used therefore to refer to a more general interpretation of emerging demands for development, quality of life, social equality in contemporary cities, which are also clearly recognisable in the urban region of Milan.
