Tattiche urbane, un concetto sfocato

This work aims to contribute to the contemporary debate on the potential role of grassroots interventions, referred as ‘urban tactics’, in the innovation of the tools of urban governance. Crucially, while the concept of tactical urbanism is gaining an increasing popularity, the current scientific literature on the topic denounces a significant inaccuracy on its meaning. The purpose of this paper is to problematize the label urban tactics and to highlight the theoretical stances it implies, in order to better understand what is on stake regarding this way of impacting urban spaces. The meaning of the concept ‘tactic’ is deeply investigated and there is an attempt to locate such practices into a tradition. It is argued that urban tactics represent not a continuation, but a disruption to the participatory discourse and practice, while they have much more in common with the Situationists and the radical movements of the ‘60s. Finally, the controversial political power of such practices is investigated in light of their modest scale and of the ambiguous relationship between the individual and collective dimensions, mobilizing issues of self-entitlement and legitimacy. All these unresolved issues make the integration of such practices into the official planning policies a very slippery field.