Communities and common consciousness: exploring commonalities for Pionta Park

This chapter examines the commons in undesirable urban areas, the challenges of heritage conservation and the lack of common interests among communities, based on the case study of Pionta Park in Arezzo, Italy. While urban parks are generally regarded as valuable resources, Pionta Park presents a challenge due to its historical association with mental illness and its current state, characterised by the presence of drug trafficking and insecurity. Despite the presence of a potential commoner community comprising citizens, including more than 50 associations, universities, public schools, students and migrants who could collectively preserve this cultural landscape, they are still in the process of developing a common consciousness. Pionta Park embodies the essential components of urban commons, yet it has not fully achieved this status. Notwithstanding the existing empirical research on transition, communities and urban commons, further studies are warranted. The authors employed the metaphor of ‘cooking’ to describe the urban ingredients in Pionta Park, as they evolve according to their environment and require different kinds of preparation times or conditions, with each practitioner adapting to specific requirements. The authors demonstrate that commoning involves transforming the lack of recognition and understanding of common resources, which are influenced by sociocultural relationships that develop over time.