Magic Promenades: Rethinking the Street in Theory and Practice Between the U.S. and Italy in the Seventies

The contribution analyzes some aspects of a wide-ranging debate that unfolded in the Seventies, centered on the “battle against the automobile” and the re-appropriation of urban streets by citizens. In this discourse, the emerging environmentalist sensibility was amalgamated with trust in actions promoted at the grassroots level. Special attention is devoted to the role of ephemeral events – artistic, cultural, and commercial – as a means of promoting pedestrian zones both prior to and following their implementation.