Urban welfare and regeneration – Sustainability and social inclusion for achieving the SDGs

Abstract

In the social inequality and climate crisis characterising the new urban issue, the need emerges to implement urban welfare policies that guarantee settled local communities the general right to the city. In this sense, urban regeneration, an urban strategy of social inclusion, economic development, and environmental sustainability, calls for cross-sectoral convergence and inter-institutional collaboration. In this thematic framework, the authors propose a reflection on the interconnections between urban welfare – understood as the right of settled communities to public cities – and the achievement of the SDGs, highlighting the complexity of the subject to the trade-offs that urban regeneration strategies are called upon to govern in order to reconcile the environmental and socio-economic dimensions of change, requiring an interdisciplinary and multi-level approach. This objective finds its expression in a critical reading of the interconnections between the various Goals of the 2030 Agenda, supported by examining an emblematic case study that promotes integrated governance as a tool to overcome urban fragmentation and systemic trade-offs that hinder the equitable development of contemporary cities.

Article info

Received: 25/03/2025; Revised: 27/04/2025; Accepted: 30/04/2025