Abstract
The whole development of the Italian commons implied since the early stages some kind of dialogue between communities of activists who have at heart the future of public property and local administrations experimenting with varied forms of dialogue with citizens. As elsewhere, the Italian commons movements do not come out of nowhere. They are instead deeply rooted in a context and history of civic and political activism within social movements and the third sector. Also dialog with institutions take place in the wake of a highly institutionalized tradition of interactions between state and civil society, which in Italy dates back to the early 1980s. Through two case studies – in Bologna and Naples – the paper shows two different ways of conceiving the commons. The first on the outcomes of the convergence between public administrations and commons movements in terms of services delivered, the second on the political process through which the commons is realised.