INSTITUTIONAL AND NON INSTITUTIONAL ACTORS IN PUBLIC POLICY: 2 CASE STUDIES

26.9.2016TOMMASO GOISIS - MUNICIPALITY OF MILAN POLITICS AND POLICY MAKING - GIO, UNIBOCCONI

TODAY’S AGENDA

1. Introduction

2. ‘Open schools’: relationship between institutional & non-institutional actors in a public policy

3. ‘Skatepark Gratosoglio’: relationship between institutional & non-institutional actors in a project (within a public policy)

4. Take-away points

5. Questions (appreciated also during the first 4 parts)

1. INTRODUCTION

WHO I AM

▸ BA in Psychology (Università di Pavia) in Jul 2011

▸ MA in GIO in Jul 2013, with a thesis on Structural Funds expenditure implementation gap

▸ Consultant in EY from Sep to Dec 2013

▸ Staff of the Deputy Mayor for Sport, Green Areas, Leisure and Life Quality in the Municipality of Milan from Jan 2014 to Jun 2016

▸ Staff of the Deputy Major for Housing Policies and Public Works in the Municipality of Milan from Aug 2016

▸ Favourite movie: Forrest Gump. Favourite writer: Tiziano Terzani

▸ Travelling, sports, volunteering etc.

1. INTRODUCTION

THE MUNICIPALITY OF MILAN

▸ 15k employees (30k with subsidiaries companies)

▸ When a Mayor is elected (every 5 years, with 48 city councillors) He appoints 12 Deputy Mayors and ~20 ‘staff members’. Each Deputy Mayor appoints 1 or 2 staff members.

▸ No spoil system for the 23 top bureaucrats, except for the GM

▸ Impressive ‘path depending’ attitude.

▸ Less than 50 people have to change the daily work of 15k, if We want (new) policies to be implemented.

2. OPEN SCHOOLS

OPEN SCHOOLS - PREMISES

▸ Government program of candidate (then elected Mayor) Giuliano Pisapia in 2011: The school of each and everybody: We want schools open all the day, every day, all year long, so that they’ll become the center of neighbourhoods’ social and cultural life. link: http://www.pisapiaxmilano.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/programma-coalizione.pdf

▸ First attempt done in 2012-2013: adoption of a Regulation (responsible: City Council with 48 elected members) that failed due to the opposition of schools principals for what concerned the legal responsibilities of activities beyond lesson hours, ref. school autonomy law (n.59/1999)

2. OPEN SCHOOLS

OPEN SCHOOLS - A NEW APPROACH

▸ March 2014: shift from a top-down approach, to a bottom up one -> need of new actors and new interaction ways.

▸ Involvement of a retired professor (former principal of the ‘most open school’ of Milan and leader of the open schools network), Giovanni del Bene, as the ‘responsible’ of the Open School office.

▸ Creation of a Working Table composed of 15 members coming from parents association, NGOs, companies (Microsoft, Bosch and Randstad), Education Ministry local office, professional orders and schools principals with the task of creating the ‘Open School vademecum’.

▸ Allocation of resources (coming from regional and central government) to finance call of proposals for the co-financing of projects in ‘closed’ school.

2. OPEN SCHOOL

WHAT A “WORKING TABLE” LOOKS LIKE

2. OPEN SCHOOLS

OPEN SCHOOLS - POLICY CONTENT

▸ Objective: increase the use of school facilities beyond lesson hours, with activities open also to the neighborhood.

▸ Principles: schools building as ‘common good’ & bringing communities together (stimulate the creation of territorial agreements)

▸ Procedures: collaborative networks, bottom-up approach

▸ Instruments: information sharing and financial support for the start-up of projects in (so far) close schools.

2. OPEN SCHOOLS

OPEN SCHOOLS - POLICY PROCESS

▸ Agenda (re) setting: june 2014 - opening of the first ‘open schools office’ in Italy: http://www.vita.it/it/article/2014/06/12/nasce-a-milano-il-primo-ufficio-scuole-aperte/127232/

▸ Formulation - internal meeting from may 2014 to may 2015.

▸ Adoption - City Government act, Jul 2014 and Sep 2014.

▸ Implementation - from september 2015 (starting of projects co-financed by the call of proposals)

▸ Evaluation - (still) missing

2. OPEN SCHOOLS

OPEN SCHOOLS - SUMMARY (IT)

2. OPEN SCHOOLS

OPEN SCHOOLS - REFERENCES

▸ http://www.comune.milano.it/vademecumscuoleaperte

▸ http://bit.ly/mappa-scuoleaperte

▸ http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2014/06/11/news/giovanni_del_bene_con_i_corsi_diecimila_euro_da_reinvestire_in_lavagne_e_pc-88698136/

▸ http://www.forumscuoleaperte.it/it/news/intervista-a-giovanni-del-bene/2996d194-bf78-40aa-8e67-887844df2aa3/

▸ http://www.anci.it/Contenuti/Allegati/Scuole%20aperte%20a%20confronto2.pdf

▸ http://hubmiur.pubblica.istruzione.it/web/ministero/cs160916

▸ https://labuonascuola.gov.it/costruiamo-insieme/manuale-delle-scuole-aperte/

▸ http://www.forumscuoleaperte.it/it/

3. SKATEPARK GRATOSOGLIO

SKATEPARK GRATOSOGLIO

▸ Project included in the ‘Milano Palestra a Cielo Aperto’ policy (Milan as an open air gym)

▸ A 150k€ skatepark (with prefabricated modules) was planned to be built 1km far from historic ‘skatepark Gratosoglio’

▸ Then a Facebook post from a non-institutional actor made this happen: https://skateparkgratosoglio.wordpress.com/

TAKE AWAY POINTS

▸ Be creative: transform a non-institutional actor, in an institutional actor, if You think this can help.

▸ If you don’t have the time, or the political condition for doing so, and You are the institution, take what non-institutional actors say and say it yourself to make it an institutional issue (don’t fear politics, use politics as a key factor for success of a policy/project).

▸ The best is the enemy of the good. It is very hard to structure a ‘perfect public policy’, but keep in mind where you aren’t being perfect, so that You always have room for improvement.

4. TAKE AWAY POINTS

HINT

▸ For italian students: take a look at RENA association website -> http://www.progetto-rena.it/

▸ Consider proposing yourself for the RENA Summer School (4 days, end of august), a very useful formative experience for those who are fond of public policies.

4. TAKE AWAY POINTS

QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION

▸ (that’s your turn)

THANK YOU (AND CONTACTS)

TOMMASO.GOISIS@COMUNE.MILANO.IT TOMMASO.GOISIS@GMAIL.COM