Embracing the Liminality of Common Spaces: A Proposal for an Analytical Framework to Interpret Temporary Uses

In the recent academic debate, common spaces have been conceptualised as threshold and liminal spaces where proximity acts as an enabler for people to co‐manage local resources and reclaim the right to the city. Within this debate, temporary uses can be seen as a mechanism to co‐create common spaces by testing solutions based on local needs assessment in a way to reconcile a multiplicity of stakeholders’ values. Temporary uses can aggregate networks of stakeholders towards the transformation of abandoned real estate assets, contributing to the sharing of a duty of care. Even though they are time‐bounded, temporary uses leave urban spaces on the threshold of transformation. They can generate social values for participants and communities; however, these values are hard to capture in traditional evaluation metrics and might be susceptible to co‐option to increase market values over social values. This article aims to provide empirical evidence—based on a case study in Forlì, Italy—about the role of temporary uses as a device to aggregate communities and to negotiate a shared identity of the re‐use intervention on real estate abandoned assets. We propose an interpretative analytical framework to understand the effects generated by temporary uses for the involved stakeholders, understanding how social values are co‐created through temporary uses processes and distributed at the community level.