Milano – Città Metropolitana : entre conservatisme et innovation incrémentale au-delà du politique

National political impasse on metropolitan question can be interpreted as the symbol of conservatism characterizing Italian society during the last two decades. However, according to local societies, it is possible to observe a variety of local responses and specific processes, of both resistance and institutional change. The objective of the article is to question the institutional processes of metropolitan construction, by looking at the case of Milan metropolis, historically characterized by a strong conservatism and fragmentation of public action, which may lead to validate the hypothesis of the ungovernability of the metropolis. Indeed, Milanese society turns out to be very resistant towards any attempts to implement metropolitan institutional reform trough the classical instruments of public action. Despite this, discrete processes and mechanisms of change emerge during the analysis. These results allow questioning the bases of metropolitan construction and change, by highlighting the endogenous processes supported mainly by non-political actors, and unfolding in specific segments of public action and urban regulation