City's Global Transitions. Among New Citizenships and Spaces of Democracy

Abstract

The article considers the city as a crucial space to understand and interpret the current material and symbolic restructuring of the world. In the context of the transformations that are changing its forms, its roles, its geographies in the era of globalization, the city is firstly framed within the transitions in act that are changing its landscape in respect to the modern metropolis. A disordered urban scenario is emerging, built up by global flows, rescaling processes, network models, neoliberal policies and technological and economical innovations. This is the scenario where the contemporary city seems to become matrix and crossroad of new political experiences. These are discussed here through a two trims framing: the redefinitions and the potentialities of the urban citizenship concept; the city as the privileged space for new practices of democracy.