Civic peri-urban: repositioning peri-urban urbanization in new forms of inter-generational co-ownership

Abstract

The essay investigates the regenerative potential of peri-urban areas by examining the relationship between in-between spaces and civic uses, moving beyond functionalist perspectives toward an ecocentric and collective understanding of space. Reinterpreted as practices of “living uses,” collective uses emerge as a lever for establishing metropolitan eco-public networks and reconstructing a public fabric of rights and relationships. Detached from proprietary and extractive logics, the peri-urban is framed as a plural civic space of care and co-production, where common goods are held in diffuse ownership and constitute a form of spatial capital. Through regulated and inclusive practices, a process of “re-landscaping” is envisioned—reassembling existing elements into qualitative relationships—thus countering the commodification of space and advancing access to fundamental rights in both urban and peri-urban contexts.