Innovazioni concrete testate e abbandonate

In the economic crisis, Italian municipalities have more duties and fewer resources. This fact creates tension in public organizational structures; they are stretched between the niches of innovation and the persistence of forms of administrative and bureaucratic entrenchment. The article invites the contemporary action from top (European and Italian Urban agenda) and bottom-up (partnership public-private-people) to consider some local practices tested in the 90s that had experimented with success real form of interactions, fertile co-design, innovative themes of intervention and learning opportunities. At the same time the article invites to consider if some of these innovations are able to become ordinary practices and procedures. Urban time policies are an example. In particular, as part of the re-start of the Territorial Timetable Plan of Milan, the implementation of the “Agile working day”, are presented. The article is an opportunity to present an evaluation not very reassuring about the development of urban time policies in Italy and UE.