Social perspectives of urban regeneration on neighbourhood-scale: the case of Spanish Quarters in Naples

Urban regeneration processes can be defined not only by urban design and planning but also considering an approach more focused on the social issues. In a deprived urban area due to marginality, vulnerability, poverty and social exclusion is used to cope with its urban regeneration looking at the local welfare system that can be developed in order to generate well-being towards new forms of policy. This approach – based on local welfare – implies a new conceptualization of city: from a top-down viewpoint of the policy-making processes, where the priority is a purely architectural requalification, to an interpretation of the city as an active and dynamic space where to build local welfare systems oriented to social inclusion, citizens’ participation and inter-institutional relationships, working on the neighbourhood-scale of urban regeneration. This perspective is focused on taking care of the citizens’ needs, understanding and identifying the most critical problems that afflict a specific urban area, starting from the voice of its inhabitants. According to this perspective, the local welfare approach gives a fundamental role to the territory, seen as the best field to enhance the inhabitants’ capabilities in the regeneration processes and projects. The development of a local welfare system provides a deep understanding of the main problems of an urban area, looking for the possible resources that can be activated for its urban renewal within a combined empowerment of places and people. The paper aims to discuss the main strengths of this perspective analysing the peculiarities of a European Programme developed during the ‘90s in a deprived urban area of Naples: Quartieri Spagnoli. The case takes into account the implementation of URBAN Programme (1st edition, 1996-2000) for the urban renewal of Quartieri Spagnoli, showing with an ex-post qualitative analysis, how the Programme did not generate the expected results, related to social inclusion and social cohesion. The only urban regeneration process that took place was the one of Objective n. 1, aimed to the renewal of the typical handcraft activities of the area (such as carpentry, leather shops, hairdressing…). The other fourth Objectives, even the one dedicated to the architectural renewal of two open spaces, have proved ineffective. Only one out of five Objectives worked, thanks to the important role of a non-profit organisation in the governance of the 1st Objective. This association, called Associazione Quartieri Spagnoli (QSA), provides street-level welfare services to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood since the ‘70s, with a particular attention to the NEET. During the URBAN implementation, QSA had an important role in the 1st Objective, working for the inclusion of artisans and citizens’ voices in the policy-making dedicated to the renovation of their activities. The approach of QSA was strongly based on the capability-building (Sen, 1992) processes, and it shows how the urban regeneration of a neighbourhood can take place if related to the possible development of its local welfare system. This process can be inscribed in the territorialisation of social policies perspective, that is a key concept of the local welfare approach. The paper grounds its reflection in the social aspects of urban regeneration with a case study that underlines the importance of the local scale of urban regeneration, for the well-being of a deprived urban area.