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In the broader framework of Living Labs and participatory planning, the essay proposes socially-oriented Urban Living Labs (ULLs) as a possible way of understanding and experimenting with participation in marginalized contexts. It does so by applying a focus on individual/collective capacities and enabling processes to support them. Drawing on the literature and the observation and implementation of concrete cases, the essay proposes a reflection on ULLs as situated environments in which “everyone’s” capacities are formed and tested, thus challenging the functioning of local democracy. This implies a focus as much on residents and local agents as on institutions. The essay proposes a shift from Living Labs to socially oriented Urban Living Labs, in order to foster the social dimension of planning, questioning the mechanisms of involvement and support of the most fragile profiles, often excluded from the political process. The perspective is the implementation of an enabling and mutual learning process through devices to reinforce organizations and people’s ability to reflect on, aspire to, and take action for the transformation of their life context, becoming real agents of change.

This paper brings to light a depiction of Milan made of small areas connected with the theme of urban agriculture and ‘spaces to care for' within the city. They are projects of different types which have in common the idea of connecting the practice of cultivation with the construction of shared life paths. Thinking which interprets horticulture as a device for ‘cultivating others' is therefore central here. It is a system for social promotion and inclusion, an instrument to practice forms of dissent, a platform for strengthening bonds, a common space for everyday life. In this sense the English community gardens defi nition, which although it places a perhaps excessive emphasis on community aspects, seems apparently more appropriate for referring to this type of experience connected with forms of social participation and a new relationship with the local community.