ABSTRACT
Contemporary cities are increasingly characterized by highly fragmented decision-making processes, a complex and pluralist distribution of power and a crisis in the traditional forms of social and political representation; in such contexts, it is very difficult to find ways for a general public discussion about the spatial and economic strategies for city development. While in the past decades, in many European cities, issues concerning urban development and some distinctive urban themes have been the object of extensive mobilization, due to their highly conflictual nature, more recently there has been a sort of appeasement.
