Urban marginality

Urban marginalityDifferent points of view on

and different ways to plan in “deprived” neighbourhoods

Piacenza, 26/10/15 Course Analysis of Temporary Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof. Citroni - 4cfu

Course Analysis of Temporary Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof. Citroni - 4cfu

Outline

• 2 dominant interpretations:a) A general social theory: Post-Fordism, Globalization, Neoliberalism and the new regime of urban marginality;b) A middle-range social theory: Neighbourhood effects, segregation and social exclusion;• Following the 2 dominant interpretations, one

dominant approach in urban policy: the spatialization of social problems (Renewal, Demolition, Social Mix);

• Re-orienteering our gaze: theory & practice;

Piacenza, 26/10/15


URBAN OUTCASTSA general social theory on the formation of a new regime of

urban marginality

Wacquant L. (2007), Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality, Cambridge: Polity Press

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«A person who has no place in their society or in a particular group, because the society or group refuses to accept them» (Definition of outcast from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)


The New Regime of Urban Marginality – coordinates

• What? Socio-spatial Polarization of Societies;• Where? Advanced Societies of the Capitalist West;• When? The turn of the XX century;• Why? Macro social dynamic (Occupational dualization and exclusion)Economic dynamic (Desocialization of the wage labour)Political dynamic (Recoiling of the Social State);Spatial dynamic (Concentration, segregation and defamation);

Piacenza, 26/10/15


Urban marginalityBefore

• Poverty;

• Residual or cyclical;

• Embedded in working class communities;

• Geographically diffuse;

• Remediable with the economic growth;

Now• Social Exclusion;

• Persistent and permanent;

• Social isolation ;

• Spatial concentration;

• Disconnected from macro-economic cycles;

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City is the site and the fount of the new regime,Which is not a residue from the past or a transitional

phenomenon


Spatial dynamic• Concentration in urban

infernos, ghettos, neighbourhoods of relegation;

• Stigma;

• Empty space of competition and conflict;

• Negative social and symbolic capital;

• Crime, dealers, poverty, etc.

Piacenza, 26/10/15


NEIGHBOURHOOD EFFECTS

The supposed role of the spatial dimension in deprived neighbourhoods

Piacenza, 26/10/15


Neighbourhood effects: a definition

• The independent, separable effects on life chances that arise from living in a particular neighbourhood

• In deprived neighbourhoods:All conditions being equal, the main issue at stake is to understand whether the fact of living in areas of higher marginality concentration is a condition reinforcing social exclusion

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Living in deprived neighbourhoods: Only Negative Effects

• Isolation, lack of accessibility and connectivity Spatial mismatch

• Social homogeneity, strong ties, social immobility Segregation, neighbourhood as a cage

• Deviant culture, norms, and values (i.e. underclass) Negative socialization

Piacenza, 26/10/15

Living in a deprived neighbourhoods has the effect of worsening the residents’ social conditions (Reinforcing effect)

Daconto (2014), Living in deprived neighbourhoods: only negative effects? The role of the spatial dimension in the French urban sensible areas,«Sociologia urbana e rurale», 103, pp.81-97


SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND URBAN POLICY

The spatialization of social problems

Social exclusion, Large scale urban renewal, demolition, social mix

Piacenza, 26/10/15

The spatialization of social problems:the French Politique de la Ville

Demolition and re-housing effects

• 50% rehousing within 1 km; 73% within 5 km → mobility of proximity

• Re-housing in other deprived neighbourhoods;

• Destabilization of individual life and tactic;


REORIENTEREEING OUR GAZE, SETTING-UP A

DIFFERENCE De Biase A., Replacer le regard, créer des écarts, tr. it.

Riorientare lo sguardo, ricercare un’intimità, in Sociologia Urbana e Rurale, n.95, 2011

Avoiding both, the utopia of the Tabula Rasa and the God-architect in the estate of “4000 South” at La Courneuve (Seine

Saint Denis – Paris metropolitan area)

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• Observing the neighbourhood from the inside (familiarity);

• Observing the neighbourhood at the present (simultaneity not current events);

• Working with the unexpected;

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Re-enchanting the neighbourhood

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The scale of “approximately”

“If in your neighbourhood tourists arrived, what would you show to them?”

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https://laacourneuve.wordpress.com/


The project

Piacenza, 26/10/15https://laacourneuve.wordpress.com/

Education

Urban marginality