at Università Bocconi

1. OPEN POLICY MAKING
ENABLING STAKEHOLDERS AT THE CITY LEVEL
27.11.2017
TOMMASO GOISIS - CITY OF MILAN
PUBLIC GOVERNANCE_UNIBOCCONI

2. TODAY’S AGENDA
1. Introduction
2. What is Policy Making?
3. “Open Schools”
4. “Gratobowl”
5. “Ponte Lab”
6. Take away points

3. WHO I AM
▸ BA in Psychology (Università di Pavia) in Jul 2011
▸ MA in Government and International Organisations (Bocconi University) in July 2013,
with an exchange in Singapore + final thesis on European 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
▸ Policy Maker and 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 (Senegol NGO, RENA association), storytelling.
1. INTRODUCTION

4. 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.

5. THE CYCLE OF POLICY MAKING
1. Agenda setting. Identifying problems that require government attention, deciding which issues
deserve the most attention and defining the nature of the problem.
2. Policy formulation. Setting objectives, identifying the cost and estimating the effect of solutions,
choosing from a list of solutions and selecting policy instruments.
3. Legitimation. Ensuring that the chosen policy instruments have support. It can involve one or a
combination of: legislative approval, executive approval, seeking consent through consultation
with interest groups, and referenda.
4. Implementation. Establishing or employing an organisation to take responsibility for
implementation, ensuring that the organisation has the resources (such as staffing, money and
legal authority) to do so, and making sure that policy decisions are carried out as planned.
5. Evaluation. Assessing the extent to which the policy was successful or the policy decision was the
correct one; if it was implemented correctly and, if so, had the desired effect.
6. Policy maintenance, succession or termination. Considering if the policy should be continued,
modified or discontinued.
SOURCE https://paulcairney.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/policy-concepts-in-1000-words-the-policy-cycle-and-its-stages/
2. WHAT IS POLICY MAKING

6. PERSONAL VIEWS (BASED ON EXPERIENCE)
▸ (my) Vision: Policy making as a way to produce effective
and sustainable increase in the life’s qualities of
residents&city users + tending to my inutility in the process.
▸ (my) Mission: make things happen | our office is the city:
go&see first | best is enemy to the good | look for the
snowball effect | to some extent, conflict is necessary.
▸ When policy making, the biggest mistake we could do is
putting ourselves in a condition where no mistakes can be
done.
2. WHAT IS POLICY MAKING

7. EXAMPLES OF POLICY MAKING_VELODROMO VIGORELLI

8. EXAMPLES OF POLICY MAKING_STRA FESTIVAL

9. EXAMPLES OF POLICY MAKINGEXAMPLES OF POLICY MAKING_1ST URBAN HIGHLINE

10. EXAMPLES OF POLICY MAKING_GRANDE PARCO FORLANINI 1

11. 2EXAMPLES OF POLICY MAKING_GRANDE PARCO FORLANINI

12. 3EXAMPLES OF POLICY MAKING_GRANDE PARCO FORLANINI

13. OPEN SCHOOLS
connecting demand with underexploited space supply
3.

14. 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)
3. OPEN SCHOOLS

15. 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.
3. OPEN SCHOOLS

16. 3. OPEN SCHOOLS
WHAT A “WORKING TABLE” LOOKS LIKE

17. 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.
3. OPEN SCHOOLS

18. 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
3. OPEN SCHOOLS

19. OPEN SCHOOLS - SUMMARY (IT)
3. OPEN SCHOOLS

20. 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-886981
36/
▸ 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. OPEN SCHOOLS

21. GRATOBOWL
urban regeneration through community’s enabling
4.

22. 4. GRATOBOWL
GRATOBOWL
▸ 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 (start from the bottom):
https://skateparkgratosoglio.wordpress.com/

36. PONTE LAB
urban regeneration through private&public partnership
(hopefully)
5.

40. TAKE AWAY POINTS / 1
▸ Be a policy and photocopy maker if you want to be an
effective policy maker;
▸ Never underestimate the human factor when analysing the
change drivers;
▸ You can change your content while running, but try never
to betray your method and especially your policy’s
principles;
▸ Have fun and do not fall in love too much with ‘your’ policy.
6.

41. TAKE AWAY POINTS /2
▸ 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.
▸ Figure out when to ‘do’, when to ‘enable’, and even when ‘not to do’.
6.

42. THANK YOU + CONTACTS
TOMMASO.GOISIS@COMUNE.MILANO.IT
TOMMASO.GOISIS@GMAIL.COM
MOB. +39 3491650902