The Role of the Social Entrepreneur in Bottom-up Enhancement of Italian Public Real-Estate Properties

Recently in Italy, new enhancement forms of real-estate property based on grass-roots participation came to light. The development of these initiatives enabled bottom-up valorization to become a viable alternative to the current forms of reuse of the public assets promoted by the public authorities. On closer look, some experiences are more successful than others that fail in a short time. This seems to depend on the presence of the social entrepreneur, a specific actor able to efficiently coordinate and manage the bottom-up, value-creation process. The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of the social entrepreneur and the way in which he/she promotes the public real-estate properties’ enhancement through grass-roots participation. Comparing two emblematic case studies in Italy, distinguished by the presence-absence of the social entrepreneur, the paper points out the role and the importance of this actor, a catalyst able to seize the economic and the social opportunities gathering around the initiative; to design an overall business strategy; and to involve the citizenry to strengthen these bottom-up initiatives.