Our Story

LabGov (labgov.city) was founded in 2011 by Christian Iaione to pioneer urban co-governance research and practice. The early work in Bologna, Italy—where Sheila Foster and Iaione developed an award-winning regulation enabling residents to partner with the city on public space revitalization—proved that systematic co-governance could work at scale.

This success catalyzed global interest. Following convenings with international city leaders, LabGov initiatives spread to cities across Europe, Latin America, and Asia, each testing and refining the co-governance approach in diverse contexts. These global experiments, documented through the Co-Cities Project, helped extract the core principles and tools that define the Co-City Framework.

Today, LabGov focuses on direct implementation partnerships with U.S. cities, applying lessons from global practice to address local challenges. Led by Professor Sheila Foster, these projects—spanning housing, broadband access, and urban regeneration—demonstrate how co-governance structures can be adapted to American political and cultural contexts.