ADAPTIVE GOVERNANCE OR ADJUSTMENT FOR PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT THE URBAN GREEN SPACES? THE CASE OF COMMUNAL AND COMMUNITY GARDENS IN TURIN

Urban gardens take on different forms and meanings, which vary depending on the socio‐ economic context where they located/used and how it evolves over time. This makes a garden comparable to a micro‐social ecosystem, different from other gardens and ever changing. Starting from the analysis of two gardens in Turin, the article investigates the plurality of meanings and representations related to the “urban garden” and offers insights about the relative processes of governance and integration with the many features of the current urban agriculture. Despite being all areas with a limited extension, the complex nature of the relationship between gardener and the assigned plot and within peers and with the citizenship, makes it clear that the attempt to govern/manage the phenomenon by the local government / promoting associations, often represents a real challenge in terms of adaptability and response/adjustment to a phenomenon in constant evolution and fully inserted in the processes of the urban transition, characterized both by internal and conservative resistance  and pressures asking for change and innovation from the outside.