In this interview Michel Bauwens explores the essence of professor Christian Iaione’s work on the city as a common. Based on the motto ‘if you want to change something, you have to change it from the inside out’ Iaione has started several urban projects to promote a new form of urban governance through a better collaboration between urban stakeholders. The result is a ‘Quintuple helix’ approach to governance where partnerships are extended to include universities, businesses, public authorities, social innovators and civil society organizations.

Christian Iaione’s projects on urban collaboration provide a very promising step towards real constructive change in the regulation of cities and commons in support of the development to a more sustainable world.

Coming Thursday Christian Iaione will join Antonije Eremut (manager of projects in sustainable urban development in Solin), Sjoerd Feitsma (Councilor of Culture in Leeuwarden), and Pedro Campos Ponce (policy advisor on the European Urban Agenda) to formulate and co-create recommendations of good urban governance for the EU Urban Agenda.