Addressing the Problem of Private Abandoned Buildings in Italy. A Neo-Institutional Approach to Multiple Causes and Potential Solutions

The problem of having abandoned buildings in urban contexts is animating policy debates at various institutional levels (e.g., local, regional, and national). In Italy, as elsewhere, the often concerned tones concerning issues of “vacancy” or “decay” of buildings tend to overlap with “abandonment” problem. However, public discussions are not always able to identify and separate truly problematic states of built assets from totally legitimate states of affairs. In order to design viable policy strategies to tackle abandonment problem at various scales, it is important to understand: (i) Why private owners opt for the abandonment of their assets instead of using or selling them, and (ii) What can be done to bring properties back onto the regular market. The aim of this chapter is to explore the various causes and solutions to the abandonment problem in reference to Italian urban contexts and institutional settings. The study adopts a neo-institutional approach to address the problem of abandoned private buildings in Italy. The methods used for the investigation are mainly qualitative and based on (a) an extensive literature review, (b) official data found in official documents and reports from national and international agencies, (c) eleven interviews with relevant actors, (d) an analysis of local normative records and national regulations, and (e) on-site investigations in various Italian urban contexts. This paper intends to enlarge the analytical focus on urban abandonment processes, questioning how this empirical phenomenon is influenced by institutional and public policy settings at various levels of governance.