Whose and what right to the city? Insights from Lisbon

In the last few decades, urban regeneration initiatives have growingly promoted citizen participation to build a wider consensus on future interventions. In some cases, regeneration takes place in highly contended areas, as in the case of the Martim Moniz Square in Lisbon. In fact, the Lisbon city council initiated a participatory process at the end of 2020 that raises key questions related to the agencies and objects of regeneration claimed by different actors. Focus on the interplay between a new social movement advocating the creation of a new garden and the city council is supported by the conceptual framework of the ”right to the city”, which sheds light on emerging socio-political dynamics within and at the border of the participatory setting. Findings contribute to advance knowledge on whether and how the results of this participatory process can be understood as an achievement of the right to the city in Lisbon.