What happened
Mixed outcomes. More than 800 pacts were activated after 2014. By the 2026 assessment, governance and participation were more developed than environmental and economic implementation. The agreements created a durable way to organize collaboration, but their number alone did not show whether assets were maintained, benefits were distributed equally, or climate goals were achieved.
- The regulation defines collaboration between citizens and the municipality for the care and regeneration of tangible, intangible, and digital urban commons. Regulation on Collaboration between Citizens and the City for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons
- More than 800 pacts had been activated since 2014, and the collaboration arrangements had connections to Bologna's climate-contract work by 2026. The City as a Commons Approach and New Forms of Collaborative Governance Models: The Example of Bologna
- The qualitative and indicator-based assessment found environmental and economic implementation less developed than governance and participation; it identified a pattern rather than a causal effect of the pacts. The City as a Commons Approach and New Forms of Collaborative Governance Models: The Example of Bologna
What might explain it
Plausible
A recognized agreement framework plausibly reduces uncertainty about how officials and citizen groups can work together. Regulation on Collaboration between Citizens and the City for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons
Alternative explanation: Bologna's existing civic organizations and administrative capacity may explain much of the observed collaboration.
Supported in case
Participation infrastructure can expand faster than the money, technical capability, and maintenance needed for downstream outcomes. The City as a Commons Approach and New Forms of Collaborative Governance Models: The Example of Bologna
Alternative explanation: Some environmental effects may take longer to appear or may not be captured by the indicators used.
Understanding the outcome
City as a Commons and collaborative urban governance
Government provided a recognized framework for residents to share stewardship, rather than acting only as an owner or purchaser of services. The City as a Commons Approach and New Forms of Collaborative Governance Models: The Example of Bologna
Unpaid participation requires time and resources that residents possess unequally. A pact can add civic capacity, but it can also shift work onto residents that a public service would otherwise provide.
Questions to take into practice
- An agreement to begin work needs resources, maintenance responsibilities, and a way to handle withdrawal if it is to sustain a shared place.
- Signed pacts show that collaboration is taking place; completed and maintained outcomes reveal what it delivers.
- The distribution of unpaid work matters when judging whether collaboration adds capacity or transfers public obligations to residents.
What remains uncertain
- The persistence and quality of maintenance across individual pacts remain different questions from the number activated.
- Environmental changes may take longer to appear or fall outside the chosen indicators, complicating comparisons with participation outcomes.
- How unpaid labor, municipal support, and benefits are distributed across neighborhoods remains unresolved.