Milan: A City Lost in the Transition from the Growth Machine Paradigm Towards a Social Innovation Approach

Abstract

the aim of this chapter is to fill a gap in the existing literature by describing some developments of the governance system in the field of social policies between 2011–2014. It focuses on the housing sector because of the importance of the problems related to housing affordability in Milan and to the shortage of public housing provision. In the next section, we describe the transition period that the welfare governance system is now undergoing, especially as far as values and policy discourse are concerned. We will concentrate on the previous social policies governance system in the city, the values and objectives characterizing the political coalition's welfare program, and the governance system between 2011–2014. We will argue that the current situation represents a compromise be- tween new values and plans for municipal welfare and the legacy of the past (especially in terms of financial budget constraints), and we will highlight continuities and discontinuities with previous administrations. In the third section, we will focus on trends in Milan's housing policies in terms of governance and problematic issues, the purpose being to show why and how Milan is, according to the title given to this chapter, a city "lost in transition". In the concluding section, we will discuss how the current municipal government is dealing with the heavy financial legacy of the past and the barriers to promoting social innovation in housing and social policies according to the values that characterized the electoral campaign and its underlying political program.