Citizens Committees and Civic Participatory Tools in Urban Governance in Rome: Before and After the New Urban Agenda

The theme of urban governance has been affirmed both in sociopolitical studies and in local political practices more and more over the last few years. Beyond its relevance in urban studies, the very concept of urban governance has performed as a fundamental tool for innovating many city areas: the planning of management of urban spaces, the democratization of local policies and the establishment of a new relationship between local political elites and the other city stakeholders. In 2016, the UN New Urban Agenda (NUA) codified urban governance principles, models, formats and practices, emerging in the scientific literature and in the local political management experiences of the world cities. This chapter aims to highlight the impact of urban governance in the context of the city of Rome. With reference to the real and virtual instruments for citizen participation in the collective choices of the city, the text highlights how, before the NUA codification of 2016, civic committees and the few and seldom-used tools for direct democracy constituted the exclusive resources available to citizens for providing their opinion on the collective choices of the city. Implementing the opportunities provided by digital revolution and following recent political choices, just after the release of NUA, new models and tools of digital civic participation affirmed in the Roman context. By an analysis on the action of civic committees on Roman territory and through a repertoire of new digital and real participation tools developed by the Roman administration, the chapter aims to reconstruct the phases and steps of the complex - and still partial - application in Rome of the civic participatory models of urban governance proposed by the NUA