Rethinking Institutions in the Era of Polycrisis to Achieve an Integral Local Development
Inti Bertocchi

In the era of Polycrisis (Lände, 2003) we observe an increasing polarization between insitutional actions (top-down) and self-organized initiatives (bottom-up), with the emergence of new forms of informal production of urbanity that shape the image of a "do-it-yourself city" (Cellamare, 2019).
Traditional participatory mechanisms have proven to be a failure (Ostanel, 2017) and, despite the proliferation of “new” participatory approaches, empirical and academic evidence shows that they often reproduce the pre-existing distribution of power (De Gregorio Hurtado, 2025). Urban studies emphasize the need for a paradigm shift, centered on a revisitation of the participative territorial governance to address the complexity of the city.
Moreover, institutions are incapable of developing alternative and meaningful future visions and must be “looked after”. The transition towards an institutional change involves the creation of a ‘grand alliance’ between political and administrative institutions and civil society organisations to support prospects for change (Cellamare, b2025), by establishing a circular platform for mutual learning and joint action. It is possible to develop a draft methodology by observing European and Latin American experiences that place people's lives at the centre of public action (Rodríguez,
2023) to achieve an integrated local development (Cellamare, a2025).
Main actions are as follows: - mapping of residents’ professional skills and abilities to develop a proximity economy based on “collaborative ecosystems”; – mapping of disused spaces for reuse; - creation of a hub of local economies at city-level, to provide legal and technical support, connect the local initiatives and link the local dimension to the global one. The training of civil servants and local organizations is a crucial issue, starting with the definition of a common narrative and shared objectives, remembering Dewey’s conception of ‘collective intelligence’.