The planning and governance of the Expo 2015 and the post-event : the growth of a new awareness-overcoming the state of exception

Planning and governing mega-events such as the World’s Fairs represent an ambitious and challenging task: not only for the required urban, infrastructural, and logistic implications, but also for the multiplicity of actors, powers, and interests at stake. Therefore, extraordinary policy measures are often introduced to deal with this complexity, as well as to satisfy goals and demands of the international governing bodies such as the Expo’s BIE. This chapter tries to retrace the governance and procedural aspects of the Milan Expo 2015. Indeed, this is a useful case study to critically discuss also the institutional mechanisms adopted during the organizational process of the mega-events in the framework of the current debate about the frequent use—and risks—of an extraordinary approach to planning decisions.