Books, Special Issues by Lidia K.C. Manzo
Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa, 2021
Why are ethnographers so interested in understanding how relationships work?
During periods of ac... more Why are ethnographers so interested in understanding how relationships work?
During periods of accelerated social change, researchers usually wish to determine
if individuals are isolated or receive care and support from others, what
kinds of resources they have access to and under which conditions, or if others
influence their life course. They might wish to know which types of people are in
such networks (for instance, whether they are composed mostly of kin, friends,
neighbors or acquaintances) and analyze the changes in their roles. By studying
relationships, they are also able to understand the qualities of such ties, their
composition, and their contextual diversity. However, the question remains: why
are ethnographers so obsessed with configurations of relations more generally?
One possible answer is that interpersonal relations and social circles that
constitute the fabric of society are not simply the result of practices of sociability
(Bidart et al., 2020). Rather, they form the very basis of those relational, transactional,
and processual social worlds (Desmond, 2014) that are a key focus of
ethnographic research. If we understand ties to be ontologically real entities
(Small et al., forthcoming in 2021) that bring social actors together in a state
of mutual dependence and struggle, then the goal of fieldwork «is to show how
things hang together in a web of mutual influence or support or interdependence
[and] to describe the connections between the specifics the ethnographer knows
by virtue of being there» (Becker, 1996, p. 56, quoted in Desmond, 2014, p. 554).
Although an emphasis on relational thinking goes back to the earliest
days of ethnography, the last two decades have witnessed a «relational turn»
(Desmond, 2014) across the social sciences, which has produced a series of
exciting methodological and theoretical developments. Recent years have seen
a rapid expansion of research focused specifically on personal (egocentric) networks,
as demonstrated by publications such as Egocentric Network Analysis
(Perry et al., 2018), Conducting Personal Networks Research (McCarty et al.,
2019) and Personal Networks: Classic Readings and New Directions in Egocentric
Analysis (Small et al., forthcoming in 2021) as well as numerous sessions
devoted to the topic at the annual Sunbelt Conferences of the International Network
of Social Network Analysis.
This special issue makes the case for a more sustained ethnographic examination
of social ties in network analysis, as there is still a gap in the knowledge
about how ethnography might enable us to reveal, unveil and classify personal
networks. While researchers from various disciplines have started to recognize
these analytical and empirical lacunae, there has yet to be an in-depth, multidimensional
discussion in sociological and anthropological research about social
connections and their significance for both network analysis and qualitative
research more generally.
Personal networks are practiced every day (Wellman, 2007). Personal networks
are complex, dynamic entities that change over time: they get reconfigured,
they dissolve, become diluted or remain dormant; they are partly coordinated
with other ties and are partly in isolation (McCarty et al., 2019). Personal
networks offer an in-depth view into the social world of research participants,
including contacts from any possible social circle and setting. Personal networks
are a tool to analyze relationships that cross-cut social and spatio-temporal
configurations.
This special issue, therefore, aims to contribute to the literature in two main
ways. First, it combines a range of novel approaches to conceptualizing personal
networks in different urban contexts across the Global North and Global South.
The articles in this special issue all draw on the interdisciplinary field of qualitative
social network analysis in order to understand a variety of micro- and
meso-level phenomena, such as migration and mobility, health and well-being,
entrepreneurship and livelihood strategies, and, in doing so, to highlight similarities
and differences from various geographical contexts.
Second, the contributors’ plural approaches illustrate diverse ways in
which personal networks are formed, employed and shaped by social capital
and support strategies, and delineate the central role of urban space in these
relational mechanisms. The articles highlight the ways in which specialized
ties promote social support and network capital (see Bruck; Cirillo; Lilius and
Hewidy); the role of communities as networks with a focus on the social inclusion
and mobility of marginalized groups (see D’Ingeo; Volpini); as well as
linkages over time between life stage experiences, relationships and changes
in social contacts (see Manzo). As the contributions show, personal networks
rely on specific patterns of social interactions that provide ethnographers with
the opportunity to systematically collect necessary information on relationships and their characteristics. At the same time, such networks can act as a conduit
for individual agency or channels for the reproduction of inequalities.
This book is a collection of essays that brings together researchers working on power relations w... more This book is a collection of essays that brings together researchers working on power relations with visual methods. The text is epistemologically radical in attracting authors who look at culture as a field of struggle, constructed by different points of view. Today, culture can be seen as a specific field in which “power” is exercised. In particular, questions about the nature of power are addressed. The editors suggest two points in the discussion: how is reality constructed, and how is it connected with power? What is the real space for subject freedom? Foucault’s idea of “power” is that it is not a thing, but a relation. Power is not merely repressive (like the use of violent control mechanisms in the pre-modern era), but it is productive as well as an everyday disciplinary practice. Starting from this perspective, we ask whether visual methodology can be used to describe and analyze different forms of power.
These diverse contributions demonstrate how in a time of extensive social change, culture is always a space for resistance. By examining cases in which visual sociology is used as action research, the authors show the affect of visual emergence in grass-roots social activism in the southeast Australian mainland. For instance photography is used to analyze the perceptions natives from a rural community have of their own territory, as in the case of the Huarpe in Argentina. Incorporating comparative analysis from different parts of the Global South, such as the performance of two groups of photographers in Brazil and Bangladesh, they discover images are in tension between “the dominant and the residual” in the critique of design in Latin America. Subjectivities and video-based methodology are also used to explore the intercourse between Roma and Italian culture and expressions of resistance in the form of dance.
This book explores the evolution of social and urban theory starting from the classic debate in t... more This book explores the evolution of social and urban theory starting from the classic debate in the 19th century. Far from being a “mere” exploration of different definition of City and Urbanism, the aim of this essay is to focus on a multidimensional understanding of Urbanism as a means to see how different disciplines have faced the relationship between people and place. The conceptual starting point is Lefebvre’s idea of the urban as a universal condition not “simply” or “specifically” related to the city, as the privileged form of sociospatial settlement space. According to this perspective, urbanism cannot be considered as a self-evident object: it is the outcome of different socio-spatial processes, involving multiple levels and dimensions. After defining the conceptual categories of the theoretical field, the essay proposes a reflection on the contemporary challenges in the theoretical construction of the neighborhood concept. A particular attention is to be paid to the practices as an euristic tool to understand the relationship between this three concepts: “structure”, “human” and “practice” which constituted the idea of neighborhood.
![Research paper thumbnail of MI GENERATION Il Piano di Governance delle Politiche Giovanili della Città di Milano (2013-2014) [The Governance Programme for Youth Policies of the City of Milan (2013-2014)]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/40513377/thumbnails/1.jpg)
The recent widespread tendency to approach youth policies as an emergency matter within the conte... more The recent widespread tendency to approach youth policies as an emergency matter within the context of the economic crisis has undermined the attempt to build policies to strengthen the autonomy of young citizens. This attempt consists of cross-policies that are able to spur innovation, networking and opportunities to ease the transition to adult life.
These are the preconditions on which the Youth Department of the Municipality of Milan has participated to the tender promoted by the Regional Government of Lombardy for the creation of a youth policy plan aimed at testing new governance methods, which would both promote participation and representation.
What follows is an analysis of this first experimental governance model, for the years 2013 to 2014, and the result of the joint efforts of the Municipality offices and the four main Universities in Milan. The authors, whilst maintaining a critical point of view on the contemporary youth condition, invite the reader to consider the fundamental role of public institutions in converting the potential of new generations in the city of Milan into positive action within new urban contexts.
A very contemporary analysis, touching upon different relevant areas – studying, working, living, new participation networking forms- and encouraging the debate on new governance models aimed at promoting full participation and community activism in young people.
Book Chapter (co-authored with Raffaele Monteleone): UN QUARTIERE STORICO IN FUGA DAL PRESENTE [An historic neighborhood escaping from the present], 2010
Negli ultimi vent’anni, i processi di trasformazione e di crescita insediativa che hanno caratter... more Negli ultimi vent’anni, i processi di trasformazione e di crescita insediativa che hanno caratterizzato il mutamento del paesaggio dell’abitare in Italia mostrano come il ruolo di guida pubblica sia stato fragile e inefficace. Tali trasformazioni hanno spesso seguito impulsi e razionalità proprie della promozioneimmobiliare, connotate da un’offerta molto conservativa e da una forte dissipazione di suolo. Ma quali forme di governo hanno legittimato tali orientamenti e quali effetti hanno prodotto nei contesti urbani?
I luoghi della città, infatti, sono impregnati tanto dell’uso che se ne fa quanto dell’azione pubblica che li produce e vi si deposita. Indagare e descrivere esperienze concrete è una mossa pragmatica che permette di formulare delle ipotesi circa le metamorfosi dell’azione pubblica e del governo del territorio.
Partendo dall’analisi di cinque quartieri (Pompeo Leoni, Santa Giulia, Canonica-Sarpi, via Padova, Gratosoglio), gli autori di questo libro tracciano un quadro selettivo, ma molto rappresentativo delle più recenti forme di governo sperimentate a Milano e delle loro implicazioni più contraddittorie.
Il tema è di cruciale importanza e di grande attualità, perché proprio dalla capacità di generare progetti al servizio della nuova domanda abitativa, e di integrarli con il paesaggio urbano già esistente, dipenderanno la riuscita e la sostenibilità dei modelli di sviluppo oggi in uso in molte città europee.
Lidia Manzo's book is an excited and informed invitation to engage into different methods of part... more Lidia Manzo's book is an excited and informed invitation to engage into different methods of participative social research. The book cannot properly be defined as a methodological account for urban studies. It is rich in theoretical and conceptual material and it is consistently oriented to frame urban research within the established field of urban sociology. Nonetheless its main achievement is not theoretical per se; it is rather its capacity to transmit the passion for active research and fieldwork in urban studies.
Book Chapter: PAESAGGI IBRIDI DELLA (NELLA) CITTÀ DIFFUSA: VIA (da) PAOLO SARPI. UNA RICERCA ETNOGRAFICA NELLA CHINATOWN DI MILANO [Hybrid landscapes of the diffused city. An ethnographic research in the Milan’s Chinatown]., 2012
This book came out from the work of the Research Unit 'Urban Hybridization International Research... more This book came out from the work of the Research Unit 'Urban Hybridization International Research Group - UHIRG' born in 2010 at the Department of Architecture and Planning of the Politecnico di Milano University - School of Architecture and Society, Milano, Italy.
Theme of the book:
- Exploring theories, methodologies, application case studies of urban design in contemporary forms of our sprawled cities and metropolitan landscapes.
- Urban Hybridization, that are directly related to the urban and architectural design.
Topics:
• Hybrid landscapes of the sprawled (diffused) city
• Urban landscapes around the roads (highways-scape)
• Hybrid typologies of public urban spaces
• Morphologies of the urban grounds (ground-scapes)
• Typologies and textures of urban edges
• Hybridization design strategies and case-studies in urban,
landscape or architectural design
• In-between design strategies
• Urban Pore/Porosity
Keywords: urban hybridization; hybrid Landscape; hybrid design.
Book Chapter: NUOVI MODELLI PER L'ABITARE DEI GIOVANI [New Housing Models for Youth in Trento], 2011
Probabilmente da sempre il progetto dell’abitare insegue il tentativo di adeguare gli spazi del v... more Probabilmente da sempre il progetto dell’abitare insegue il tentativo di adeguare gli spazi del vivere quotidiano alle necessità sia funzionali che relative alla qualità della vita sociale nel contesto in cui si è inseriti.
Spazio fisico e spazio sociale, la casa è funzione, intenzione, esperienza e tecnologia. La casa è tetto, mura (Amendola 1984:18), da un lato risponde ad un bisogno di protezione e dall’altro delimita la sfera pubblica esterna da quella privata e familiare. È, inoltre, un simbolo della propria identità e sistema di segni che si comunicano agli altri. Al contempo, anche un’analisi dei bisogni connessi all’habitat si articola su due piani interconnessi: l’aspetto progettuale-architettonico e quello simbolico. Da una parte i bisogni fisici connessi alle funzioni di relazione e di riproduzione della famiglia, dall’altra i bisogni di autorappresentazione e di interazione simbolica con gli altri (Amendola 1984).
La predisposizione di interventi per rispondere al bisogno di abitazioni adeguate e accessibili in base alle risorse di cui individui e famiglie dispongono, attraversa ormai da tempo le politiche pubbliche, da intendersi – spiega Bosco (2008) – come strumenti per risolvere in modo razionale problemi oggettivamente presenti in un determinato contesto sociale. Il campo delle politiche abitative abbraccia questioni complesse che fanno riferimento sia alla progettualità, e quindi alla materialità della casa, sia ad aspetti simbolici o relazionali dell’abitazione o del quartiere, della comunità in cui si inserisce, sia ad aspetti legati alle classi sociali, al sistema di welfare, ai bisogni che gli abitanti affrontano nelle diverse fasi del ciclo della vita. “La parola abitare presuppone l’esistenza di nessi di congruenza tali da regolare e “armonizzare” il più possibile il rapporto tra abitanti/alloggio/territorio” (Olagnero 2008:22).
Ed è proprio con la consapevolezza che la questione casa vada affrontata esplorando i vari elementi di cui è composta, che sociologia, ingegneria, giurisprudenza ed economia cercheranno, attraverso questa guida, di offrirne un’analisi in rapporto al territorio trentino e ai bisogni dei giovani. All’interno di questo quadro, il capitolo si pone tre obiettivi principali. Il primo è quello di presentare l’abitazione come una dimensione importante del benessere individuale, soprattutto in relazione alle risorse che occorrono per il suo accesso, sia esso in termini di proprietà che di locazione. Il secondo obiettivo è quello di documentare le esigenze abitative dei giovani nel contesto d’analisi presentando alcuni aspetti estratti da interviste in profondità realizzate nella città di Trento. Infine, il terzo è quello di cogliere gli elementi che caratterizzano alcuni progetti abitativi di eccellenza realizzati in Europa in epoca recente, discutendone le possibilità per le politiche abitative trentine. Si spera che questo contributo costituisca un incentivo per porre l’edilizia sociale rivolta alle necessità dei giovani al centro degli interessi di urbanisti, architetti e amministratori pubblici, affinché vengano proposte progettazioni innovative idonee a incoraggiare la sperimentazione, la sostenibilità e la qualità architettonica. Un obiettivo per il quale occorre ripensare l’alloggio, il tipo di casa, il quartiere e la città.
Book Chapter: EMERGENT SPACES, CONTEMPORARY URBAN CONFLICTS. EXPERIENCES OF SOCIAL MIX IN CHANGING NEIGHBORHOODS: THE CASE STUDY MILAN’s CHINATOWN, 2012
Few of the spaces of Milan are so strongly loaded with cultural and political baggage as 'Chinato... more Few of the spaces of Milan are so strongly loaded with cultural and political baggage as 'Chinatown' – the ethnic neighborhood on Paolo Sarpi Street – where a handful of roads, the global flow of Chinese goods, and the daily routines of elderly people and families are merged. The complexity of the 'Sarpi question' is precisely determined by the discussion of social dimensions, space and ethnoracial, economic and political, all at once.
In order to come to a deeper understanding of the economic mechanism of development of a city, this chapter begins by examining the causes that led to the break of an apparent balance in the practices of local cohabitation of the Chinese District in Milan. This chapter will also examine the relationship of power and conflict between the local government and the social groups, from the point of view of an urban change process. This framework deals with reclaiming urban space and the requalification processes aimed at improving the physical context of the Sarpi area, and especially at starting up processes of financial revitalization.
'No buses, no taxis, no cars and no trading. Why don't you just build a wall around us?' reads a banner displayed by traders on Sarpi Street in the 2008 Christmas season, the first month of controlled traffic flow. Ethnographic research attempts to explain how this result was reached.
The voice of Italian residents is only one of those emerging from the results of this research, along with those of business owners, city users, and local politicians. It is an interplay between antagonism and juxtaposition in which I have tried to highlight the existing conflict with the aim of understanding and explaining the tension in this urban space. Most importantly, this case demonstrates that the problem of cohabitation in a socially mixed neighborhood is a problem of representation and perception, which is essentially political.
The opening conclusions deal with the paradox of the urban safety policies promoted by the Milan local government as a place of decompression in the face of strong social pressure on immigration, precariousness, and insecurity. Strategies aimed at places to act on people.
Book chapter: THE ‘ASIAN BETWEENERS'. CULTURAL IDENTITIES AND THE NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES, 2011
Today, many transnational migrants live 'dual', even 'multiple', lives transcending national bord... more Today, many transnational migrants live 'dual', even 'multiple', lives transcending national borders and across diverse worlds of experience, often sustained by their communities and compatriots locally and from a distance. Fernando Ortiz's construct of transculturation, in acknowledging the intertwined processes of acculturation, deculturation and neoculturation, provides a useful framework for examining cross-cultural adaptation. At the same time, the exponential growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs) over the last few decades has shaped these contemporary trends in migration and cultural adaptation.
A growing number of scientists and researchers have begun to examine the social impact of these new technologies interacting with the increased geographical mobility related to global migration. The burgeoning of initiatives, studies, journals and forums has created a dynamic infrastructure for migration studies scholars. Once viewed as a marginal topic, global migration and its implications for the world at large is now a central concern in the social sciences, economic and political debates and dialogues.
This scintillating collection of nonfiction writings by authors around the world contributes to these ongoing conversations across borders and disciplines through thoughtful and thought-provoking articles, empirical and theoretical, situated within an interdisciplinary framework. Readers will acquire a balanced, nuanced and in-depth understanding of the constellation of circumstances and processes associated in large-scale migration that affect a significant portion of the world's population today and which will continue to have a significant global impact on millions of people in the decades ahead.
Published by Lindenwood University Press, 2011
Ph.D. Dissertation by Lidia K.C. Manzo
The University of Trento, Unitn-eprints PhD, Apr 14, 2014
In an attempt to make concrete linkages between neighborhood change and the boundary-making parad... more In an attempt to make concrete linkages between neighborhood change and the boundary-making paradigm, this field and historical study of a New York City's neighborhood, addresses the influences of displacement, housing- abandonment and resettlement in Super-gentrification processes on 1) the types of institutions that emerged to represent different class interests; 2) the types of social groups that came to inhabit the neighborhood; 3) the pattern of that evolution over time; 4) the particular goals, values, and morals that such community organizations evolved; and 5) the social status displays carried out in cultured consumption in housing and leisure.
(Read more here https://wp.me/pVzvi-eG)
Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa, 2021
This paper questions the belief that intercultural romantic relationships are the primary path to... more This paper questions the belief that intercultural romantic relationships are the primary path to integration in Italy. I use the paradigm of intergenerational solidarity-bonds of affection, association and mutual assistance that bind different generations of a family-as a heuristic device for ascertaining a broader understanding of intercultural couples' lives and their family relationships in everyday settings. Drawing on narratives collected from ethnographic interviews and hand-drawn personal networks in the metropolitan area of Milan (2018-2020), this paper explores intercultural couples struggling with families' prejudices and expectations, in contrast to their own feelings of true love. Social discrimination and a lack of support from one's social network-especially parental rejection-are among the factors that explain why friendship bonds are becoming more important than relationships to (nuclear) families for both well-being and lifelong support in Italian mixed couples. Establishing distance from unsympathetic families functions to reclaim the intimate and independent dimension of intercultural loving. The article considers how agency comes into play as the couples take risks and venture beyond their given families for a public affirmation of «families of choice».
Polis, 2021
Mixed couples are considered a key indicator of the (diminished) social distance
between intermar... more Mixed couples are considered a key indicator of the (diminished) social distance
between intermarrying groups. However, this study examines whether
it still makes sense to think about intermarriage and integration a further generation
down: the young people living in multicultural societies increasingly
characterized by cultural diversity and social change. Through 13 focus groups
conducted between 2018 and 2019 with 102 young people aged 18-34 in the
metropolitan area of Milan, the research explores how young people represent
intercultural affective relationships in Italy and the meanings of cultural difference
when the beloved is a «stranger». We highlight four main results: 1) the
difference in emotional ties is perceived as an enrichment; 2) the significance
of the partner’s social status for parental approval; 3) the values that affect a
relationship negatively, particularly when it comes to religious and gender differences;
4) the forms that latent racial prejudice take in young people attitudes.
The conclusions confirm the perception of «normality» of intercultural love:
experiencing diversity if on the one hand becomes a resource, on the other is
still problematic when older generations disapprove.
EUROPEAN SOCIETIES, 2020
Gender differences in academia are well-known. Women publish less, achieve higher positions less ... more Gender differences in academia are well-known. Women publish less, achieve higher positions less frequently, and have more interrupted careers. Mothers, more than fathers or childless men and women, suffer these disadvantages. Women academics have to deal with the work-family conflict, the participation in both work and family roles are incompatibly demanding. The closure of childcare services and the impossibility to benefit from informal care (mainly via grandparents) made the pandemic a potential accelerator of these drawbacks for academic mothers. Academic work is basically incompatible with the everyday care of children. Analyzing in-depth interviews, in this article we show how mothers of young children had to reorganize their job priorities during the Covid-19 global pandemic. Moreover, we describe the perceived effects of the pandemic on their future career. We showed that the pandemic changed the priorities of academic mothers in a direction that is unfavorable to their careers: mothers devoted most of their time to teaching duties and stopped research. Moreover, they felt an increased gap in their relative competitiveness with male and childless colleagues.
Dialogues in Human Geography, 2020
Drawing on a virtual ethnography, we explore how the increase in remote working has created unequ... more Drawing on a virtual ethnography, we explore how the increase in remote working has created unequal domestic rearrangements of parenting duties with respect to gender relations during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. We also discuss the resources that mothers have mobilized to create a network of social support in the organization of care.
The Sociological Review, 2020
One of the most profound effects of globalization is that people from everywhere are falling in l... more One of the most profound effects of globalization is that people from everywhere are falling in love with people from everywhere else. Increasing migration worldwide has facilitated the unions of people from different countries, religions, ethnicities and, presumably, cultural backgrounds. Particularly in urban areas of super-diversity, there is a growing likelihood that multiple and overlapping forms of mixedness will characterize many romantic relationships and it may be that while some ethnocultural boundaries and negative attitudes will remain shaped by societal structures, others will become more blurred and of diminishing social significance (Song 2016).
Irish Geography, 2019
In this paper I will use a community organising approach to sketch out a model whereby women-cent... more In this paper I will use a community organising approach to sketch out a model whereby women-centred organisations can achieve a form of “co-active power” (Stall & Stoecker 2008, p. 244), a “communal democracy” (Garber 2008, p. 295) to sustain their support in academia over the long haul. I will use the Supporting Women in Geography (SWIG) Ireland group as a case to make this argument. I contend that women’s work in academia, as well as in community organising, can both be considered invisible, devalued labour (Daniels 1987). Building on this, I aim to show that the potential ability of communities to achieve representation and gain resources, to actualize goals (intellectual, professional, and personal) and to provide collective goods, might support women in academia in addressing this severe oversight. In the current academic climate of structural change and funding cuts, ensuring the full participation of all genders in consultative processes is more important than ever. It is time now to recognise the gendered nature of academic citizenship whose membership to the community also implies duties deriving from kinship in reciprocation of the benefits that membership brings. To this end, I will outline the women-centred community organising model, the social capital that is involved, and the range of activities for empowering women to alter the efforts in Irish academia to making this change.
This article analyses practices of intergenerational support for homeownership among different ge... more This article analyses practices of intergenerational support for homeownership among different generations of families in Milan, Italy, highlighting the role of housing in family welfare relations and life-course transitions. It makes use of an original dataset of qualitative interviews investigating homeownership pathways and the negotiations of support that they presuppose. The article explores the meanings and moral reasoning behind the decision to accept (or not) support in context of contemporary discourses surrounding the liquidity and availability of housing and finance. It highlights the moral compromises and emotional negotiations inherent in the giving and receiving of support for housing, contributing to a body of literature concerned with the reproduction of home and family. Furthermore, it stresses the importance of homes and housing assets in mediating dependence and reaffirming family bonds within a family-oriented welfare context, despite conflict, resistance and frustrated aspirations.
This ossue of Quaderni focuses on anti-gentrification practices and challenges which have been on... more This ossue of Quaderni focuses on anti-gentrification practices and challenges which have been on the rise in public debates in many cities of the European South in recent years. It presents a variety of practices carried out in several European cities and presented by activists and/or by academics who met and engaged in a collective dialogue on the topic In the first part of the Quaderni, activists highlight their experience of involvement in practices against evictions, austerity, commodification of urban space for touristic uses and speculation in various cities. In particular, they were asked to
share their experience, repertoire of practices and proposals for action. In
the second part of the issue, scholars stress the theoretical epistemological challenges, spotlight the ambiguities, contradictions and conflicts that this subject presents. In some cases, the researchers locate themselves halfway between academia and activism, critically engaging in conversation with activists, or directly involved in housing protest and/or alternative housing policy design. The result is a polysemy of voices, a collective effort, that enrich our understanding of what it means to resist gentrification.
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Books, Special Issues by Lidia K.C. Manzo
During periods of accelerated social change, researchers usually wish to determine
if individuals are isolated or receive care and support from others, what
kinds of resources they have access to and under which conditions, or if others
influence their life course. They might wish to know which types of people are in
such networks (for instance, whether they are composed mostly of kin, friends,
neighbors or acquaintances) and analyze the changes in their roles. By studying
relationships, they are also able to understand the qualities of such ties, their
composition, and their contextual diversity. However, the question remains: why
are ethnographers so obsessed with configurations of relations more generally?
One possible answer is that interpersonal relations and social circles that
constitute the fabric of society are not simply the result of practices of sociability
(Bidart et al., 2020). Rather, they form the very basis of those relational, transactional,
and processual social worlds (Desmond, 2014) that are a key focus of
ethnographic research. If we understand ties to be ontologically real entities
(Small et al., forthcoming in 2021) that bring social actors together in a state
of mutual dependence and struggle, then the goal of fieldwork «is to show how
things hang together in a web of mutual influence or support or interdependence
[and] to describe the connections between the specifics the ethnographer knows
by virtue of being there» (Becker, 1996, p. 56, quoted in Desmond, 2014, p. 554).
Although an emphasis on relational thinking goes back to the earliest
days of ethnography, the last two decades have witnessed a «relational turn»
(Desmond, 2014) across the social sciences, which has produced a series of
exciting methodological and theoretical developments. Recent years have seen
a rapid expansion of research focused specifically on personal (egocentric) networks,
as demonstrated by publications such as Egocentric Network Analysis
(Perry et al., 2018), Conducting Personal Networks Research (McCarty et al.,
2019) and Personal Networks: Classic Readings and New Directions in Egocentric
Analysis (Small et al., forthcoming in 2021) as well as numerous sessions
devoted to the topic at the annual Sunbelt Conferences of the International Network
of Social Network Analysis.
This special issue makes the case for a more sustained ethnographic examination
of social ties in network analysis, as there is still a gap in the knowledge
about how ethnography might enable us to reveal, unveil and classify personal
networks. While researchers from various disciplines have started to recognize
these analytical and empirical lacunae, there has yet to be an in-depth, multidimensional
discussion in sociological and anthropological research about social
connections and their significance for both network analysis and qualitative
research more generally.
Personal networks are practiced every day (Wellman, 2007). Personal networks
are complex, dynamic entities that change over time: they get reconfigured,
they dissolve, become diluted or remain dormant; they are partly coordinated
with other ties and are partly in isolation (McCarty et al., 2019). Personal
networks offer an in-depth view into the social world of research participants,
including contacts from any possible social circle and setting. Personal networks
are a tool to analyze relationships that cross-cut social and spatio-temporal
configurations.
This special issue, therefore, aims to contribute to the literature in two main
ways. First, it combines a range of novel approaches to conceptualizing personal
networks in different urban contexts across the Global North and Global South.
The articles in this special issue all draw on the interdisciplinary field of qualitative
social network analysis in order to understand a variety of micro- and
meso-level phenomena, such as migration and mobility, health and well-being,
entrepreneurship and livelihood strategies, and, in doing so, to highlight similarities
and differences from various geographical contexts.
Second, the contributors’ plural approaches illustrate diverse ways in
which personal networks are formed, employed and shaped by social capital
and support strategies, and delineate the central role of urban space in these
relational mechanisms. The articles highlight the ways in which specialized
ties promote social support and network capital (see Bruck; Cirillo; Lilius and
Hewidy); the role of communities as networks with a focus on the social inclusion
and mobility of marginalized groups (see D’Ingeo; Volpini); as well as
linkages over time between life stage experiences, relationships and changes
in social contacts (see Manzo). As the contributions show, personal networks
rely on specific patterns of social interactions that provide ethnographers with
the opportunity to systematically collect necessary information on relationships and their characteristics. At the same time, such networks can act as a conduit
for individual agency or channels for the reproduction of inequalities.
These diverse contributions demonstrate how in a time of extensive social change, culture is always a space for resistance. By examining cases in which visual sociology is used as action research, the authors show the affect of visual emergence in grass-roots social activism in the southeast Australian mainland. For instance photography is used to analyze the perceptions natives from a rural community have of their own territory, as in the case of the Huarpe in Argentina. Incorporating comparative analysis from different parts of the Global South, such as the performance of two groups of photographers in Brazil and Bangladesh, they discover images are in tension between “the dominant and the residual” in the critique of design in Latin America. Subjectivities and video-based methodology are also used to explore the intercourse between Roma and Italian culture and expressions of resistance in the form of dance.
These are the preconditions on which the Youth Department of the Municipality of Milan has participated to the tender promoted by the Regional Government of Lombardy for the creation of a youth policy plan aimed at testing new governance methods, which would both promote participation and representation.
What follows is an analysis of this first experimental governance model, for the years 2013 to 2014, and the result of the joint efforts of the Municipality offices and the four main Universities in Milan. The authors, whilst maintaining a critical point of view on the contemporary youth condition, invite the reader to consider the fundamental role of public institutions in converting the potential of new generations in the city of Milan into positive action within new urban contexts.
A very contemporary analysis, touching upon different relevant areas – studying, working, living, new participation networking forms- and encouraging the debate on new governance models aimed at promoting full participation and community activism in young people.
I luoghi della città, infatti, sono impregnati tanto dell’uso che se ne fa quanto dell’azione pubblica che li produce e vi si deposita. Indagare e descrivere esperienze concrete è una mossa pragmatica che permette di formulare delle ipotesi circa le metamorfosi dell’azione pubblica e del governo del territorio.
Partendo dall’analisi di cinque quartieri (Pompeo Leoni, Santa Giulia, Canonica-Sarpi, via Padova, Gratosoglio), gli autori di questo libro tracciano un quadro selettivo, ma molto rappresentativo delle più recenti forme di governo sperimentate a Milano e delle loro implicazioni più contraddittorie.
Il tema è di cruciale importanza e di grande attualità, perché proprio dalla capacità di generare progetti al servizio della nuova domanda abitativa, e di integrarli con il paesaggio urbano già esistente, dipenderanno la riuscita e la sostenibilità dei modelli di sviluppo oggi in uso in molte città europee.
Theme of the book:
- Exploring theories, methodologies, application case studies of urban design in contemporary forms of our sprawled cities and metropolitan landscapes.
- Urban Hybridization, that are directly related to the urban and architectural design.
Topics:
• Hybrid landscapes of the sprawled (diffused) city
• Urban landscapes around the roads (highways-scape)
• Hybrid typologies of public urban spaces
• Morphologies of the urban grounds (ground-scapes)
• Typologies and textures of urban edges
• Hybridization design strategies and case-studies in urban,
landscape or architectural design
• In-between design strategies
• Urban Pore/Porosity
Keywords: urban hybridization; hybrid Landscape; hybrid design.
Spazio fisico e spazio sociale, la casa è funzione, intenzione, esperienza e tecnologia. La casa è tetto, mura (Amendola 1984:18), da un lato risponde ad un bisogno di protezione e dall’altro delimita la sfera pubblica esterna da quella privata e familiare. È, inoltre, un simbolo della propria identità e sistema di segni che si comunicano agli altri. Al contempo, anche un’analisi dei bisogni connessi all’habitat si articola su due piani interconnessi: l’aspetto progettuale-architettonico e quello simbolico. Da una parte i bisogni fisici connessi alle funzioni di relazione e di riproduzione della famiglia, dall’altra i bisogni di autorappresentazione e di interazione simbolica con gli altri (Amendola 1984).
La predisposizione di interventi per rispondere al bisogno di abitazioni adeguate e accessibili in base alle risorse di cui individui e famiglie dispongono, attraversa ormai da tempo le politiche pubbliche, da intendersi – spiega Bosco (2008) – come strumenti per risolvere in modo razionale problemi oggettivamente presenti in un determinato contesto sociale. Il campo delle politiche abitative abbraccia questioni complesse che fanno riferimento sia alla progettualità, e quindi alla materialità della casa, sia ad aspetti simbolici o relazionali dell’abitazione o del quartiere, della comunità in cui si inserisce, sia ad aspetti legati alle classi sociali, al sistema di welfare, ai bisogni che gli abitanti affrontano nelle diverse fasi del ciclo della vita. “La parola abitare presuppone l’esistenza di nessi di congruenza tali da regolare e “armonizzare” il più possibile il rapporto tra abitanti/alloggio/territorio” (Olagnero 2008:22).
Ed è proprio con la consapevolezza che la questione casa vada affrontata esplorando i vari elementi di cui è composta, che sociologia, ingegneria, giurisprudenza ed economia cercheranno, attraverso questa guida, di offrirne un’analisi in rapporto al territorio trentino e ai bisogni dei giovani. All’interno di questo quadro, il capitolo si pone tre obiettivi principali. Il primo è quello di presentare l’abitazione come una dimensione importante del benessere individuale, soprattutto in relazione alle risorse che occorrono per il suo accesso, sia esso in termini di proprietà che di locazione. Il secondo obiettivo è quello di documentare le esigenze abitative dei giovani nel contesto d’analisi presentando alcuni aspetti estratti da interviste in profondità realizzate nella città di Trento. Infine, il terzo è quello di cogliere gli elementi che caratterizzano alcuni progetti abitativi di eccellenza realizzati in Europa in epoca recente, discutendone le possibilità per le politiche abitative trentine. Si spera che questo contributo costituisca un incentivo per porre l’edilizia sociale rivolta alle necessità dei giovani al centro degli interessi di urbanisti, architetti e amministratori pubblici, affinché vengano proposte progettazioni innovative idonee a incoraggiare la sperimentazione, la sostenibilità e la qualità architettonica. Un obiettivo per il quale occorre ripensare l’alloggio, il tipo di casa, il quartiere e la città.
In order to come to a deeper understanding of the economic mechanism of development of a city, this chapter begins by examining the causes that led to the break of an apparent balance in the practices of local cohabitation of the Chinese District in Milan. This chapter will also examine the relationship of power and conflict between the local government and the social groups, from the point of view of an urban change process. This framework deals with reclaiming urban space and the requalification processes aimed at improving the physical context of the Sarpi area, and especially at starting up processes of financial revitalization.
'No buses, no taxis, no cars and no trading. Why don't you just build a wall around us?' reads a banner displayed by traders on Sarpi Street in the 2008 Christmas season, the first month of controlled traffic flow. Ethnographic research attempts to explain how this result was reached.
The voice of Italian residents is only one of those emerging from the results of this research, along with those of business owners, city users, and local politicians. It is an interplay between antagonism and juxtaposition in which I have tried to highlight the existing conflict with the aim of understanding and explaining the tension in this urban space. Most importantly, this case demonstrates that the problem of cohabitation in a socially mixed neighborhood is a problem of representation and perception, which is essentially political.
The opening conclusions deal with the paradox of the urban safety policies promoted by the Milan local government as a place of decompression in the face of strong social pressure on immigration, precariousness, and insecurity. Strategies aimed at places to act on people.
A growing number of scientists and researchers have begun to examine the social impact of these new technologies interacting with the increased geographical mobility related to global migration. The burgeoning of initiatives, studies, journals and forums has created a dynamic infrastructure for migration studies scholars. Once viewed as a marginal topic, global migration and its implications for the world at large is now a central concern in the social sciences, economic and political debates and dialogues.
This scintillating collection of nonfiction writings by authors around the world contributes to these ongoing conversations across borders and disciplines through thoughtful and thought-provoking articles, empirical and theoretical, situated within an interdisciplinary framework. Readers will acquire a balanced, nuanced and in-depth understanding of the constellation of circumstances and processes associated in large-scale migration that affect a significant portion of the world's population today and which will continue to have a significant global impact on millions of people in the decades ahead.
Ph.D. Dissertation by Lidia K.C. Manzo
(Read more here https://wp.me/pVzvi-eG)
Papers, Commentaries by Lidia K.C. Manzo
between intermarrying groups. However, this study examines whether
it still makes sense to think about intermarriage and integration a further generation
down: the young people living in multicultural societies increasingly
characterized by cultural diversity and social change. Through 13 focus groups
conducted between 2018 and 2019 with 102 young people aged 18-34 in the
metropolitan area of Milan, the research explores how young people represent
intercultural affective relationships in Italy and the meanings of cultural difference
when the beloved is a «stranger». We highlight four main results: 1) the
difference in emotional ties is perceived as an enrichment; 2) the significance
of the partner’s social status for parental approval; 3) the values that affect a
relationship negatively, particularly when it comes to religious and gender differences;
4) the forms that latent racial prejudice take in young people attitudes.
The conclusions confirm the perception of «normality» of intercultural love:
experiencing diversity if on the one hand becomes a resource, on the other is
still problematic when older generations disapprove.
share their experience, repertoire of practices and proposals for action. In
the second part of the issue, scholars stress the theoretical epistemological challenges, spotlight the ambiguities, contradictions and conflicts that this subject presents. In some cases, the researchers locate themselves halfway between academia and activism, critically engaging in conversation with activists, or directly involved in housing protest and/or alternative housing policy design. The result is a polysemy of voices, a collective effort, that enrich our understanding of what it means to resist gentrification.
During periods of accelerated social change, researchers usually wish to determine
if individuals are isolated or receive care and support from others, what
kinds of resources they have access to and under which conditions, or if others
influence their life course. They might wish to know which types of people are in
such networks (for instance, whether they are composed mostly of kin, friends,
neighbors or acquaintances) and analyze the changes in their roles. By studying
relationships, they are also able to understand the qualities of such ties, their
composition, and their contextual diversity. However, the question remains: why
are ethnographers so obsessed with configurations of relations more generally?
One possible answer is that interpersonal relations and social circles that
constitute the fabric of society are not simply the result of practices of sociability
(Bidart et al., 2020). Rather, they form the very basis of those relational, transactional,
and processual social worlds (Desmond, 2014) that are a key focus of
ethnographic research. If we understand ties to be ontologically real entities
(Small et al., forthcoming in 2021) that bring social actors together in a state
of mutual dependence and struggle, then the goal of fieldwork «is to show how
things hang together in a web of mutual influence or support or interdependence
[and] to describe the connections between the specifics the ethnographer knows
by virtue of being there» (Becker, 1996, p. 56, quoted in Desmond, 2014, p. 554).
Although an emphasis on relational thinking goes back to the earliest
days of ethnography, the last two decades have witnessed a «relational turn»
(Desmond, 2014) across the social sciences, which has produced a series of
exciting methodological and theoretical developments. Recent years have seen
a rapid expansion of research focused specifically on personal (egocentric) networks,
as demonstrated by publications such as Egocentric Network Analysis
(Perry et al., 2018), Conducting Personal Networks Research (McCarty et al.,
2019) and Personal Networks: Classic Readings and New Directions in Egocentric
Analysis (Small et al., forthcoming in 2021) as well as numerous sessions
devoted to the topic at the annual Sunbelt Conferences of the International Network
of Social Network Analysis.
This special issue makes the case for a more sustained ethnographic examination
of social ties in network analysis, as there is still a gap in the knowledge
about how ethnography might enable us to reveal, unveil and classify personal
networks. While researchers from various disciplines have started to recognize
these analytical and empirical lacunae, there has yet to be an in-depth, multidimensional
discussion in sociological and anthropological research about social
connections and their significance for both network analysis and qualitative
research more generally.
Personal networks are practiced every day (Wellman, 2007). Personal networks
are complex, dynamic entities that change over time: they get reconfigured,
they dissolve, become diluted or remain dormant; they are partly coordinated
with other ties and are partly in isolation (McCarty et al., 2019). Personal
networks offer an in-depth view into the social world of research participants,
including contacts from any possible social circle and setting. Personal networks
are a tool to analyze relationships that cross-cut social and spatio-temporal
configurations.
This special issue, therefore, aims to contribute to the literature in two main
ways. First, it combines a range of novel approaches to conceptualizing personal
networks in different urban contexts across the Global North and Global South.
The articles in this special issue all draw on the interdisciplinary field of qualitative
social network analysis in order to understand a variety of micro- and
meso-level phenomena, such as migration and mobility, health and well-being,
entrepreneurship and livelihood strategies, and, in doing so, to highlight similarities
and differences from various geographical contexts.
Second, the contributors’ plural approaches illustrate diverse ways in
which personal networks are formed, employed and shaped by social capital
and support strategies, and delineate the central role of urban space in these
relational mechanisms. The articles highlight the ways in which specialized
ties promote social support and network capital (see Bruck; Cirillo; Lilius and
Hewidy); the role of communities as networks with a focus on the social inclusion
and mobility of marginalized groups (see D’Ingeo; Volpini); as well as
linkages over time between life stage experiences, relationships and changes
in social contacts (see Manzo). As the contributions show, personal networks
rely on specific patterns of social interactions that provide ethnographers with
the opportunity to systematically collect necessary information on relationships and their characteristics. At the same time, such networks can act as a conduit
for individual agency or channels for the reproduction of inequalities.
These diverse contributions demonstrate how in a time of extensive social change, culture is always a space for resistance. By examining cases in which visual sociology is used as action research, the authors show the affect of visual emergence in grass-roots social activism in the southeast Australian mainland. For instance photography is used to analyze the perceptions natives from a rural community have of their own territory, as in the case of the Huarpe in Argentina. Incorporating comparative analysis from different parts of the Global South, such as the performance of two groups of photographers in Brazil and Bangladesh, they discover images are in tension between “the dominant and the residual” in the critique of design in Latin America. Subjectivities and video-based methodology are also used to explore the intercourse between Roma and Italian culture and expressions of resistance in the form of dance.
These are the preconditions on which the Youth Department of the Municipality of Milan has participated to the tender promoted by the Regional Government of Lombardy for the creation of a youth policy plan aimed at testing new governance methods, which would both promote participation and representation.
What follows is an analysis of this first experimental governance model, for the years 2013 to 2014, and the result of the joint efforts of the Municipality offices and the four main Universities in Milan. The authors, whilst maintaining a critical point of view on the contemporary youth condition, invite the reader to consider the fundamental role of public institutions in converting the potential of new generations in the city of Milan into positive action within new urban contexts.
A very contemporary analysis, touching upon different relevant areas – studying, working, living, new participation networking forms- and encouraging the debate on new governance models aimed at promoting full participation and community activism in young people.
I luoghi della città, infatti, sono impregnati tanto dell’uso che se ne fa quanto dell’azione pubblica che li produce e vi si deposita. Indagare e descrivere esperienze concrete è una mossa pragmatica che permette di formulare delle ipotesi circa le metamorfosi dell’azione pubblica e del governo del territorio.
Partendo dall’analisi di cinque quartieri (Pompeo Leoni, Santa Giulia, Canonica-Sarpi, via Padova, Gratosoglio), gli autori di questo libro tracciano un quadro selettivo, ma molto rappresentativo delle più recenti forme di governo sperimentate a Milano e delle loro implicazioni più contraddittorie.
Il tema è di cruciale importanza e di grande attualità, perché proprio dalla capacità di generare progetti al servizio della nuova domanda abitativa, e di integrarli con il paesaggio urbano già esistente, dipenderanno la riuscita e la sostenibilità dei modelli di sviluppo oggi in uso in molte città europee.
Theme of the book:
- Exploring theories, methodologies, application case studies of urban design in contemporary forms of our sprawled cities and metropolitan landscapes.
- Urban Hybridization, that are directly related to the urban and architectural design.
Topics:
• Hybrid landscapes of the sprawled (diffused) city
• Urban landscapes around the roads (highways-scape)
• Hybrid typologies of public urban spaces
• Morphologies of the urban grounds (ground-scapes)
• Typologies and textures of urban edges
• Hybridization design strategies and case-studies in urban,
landscape or architectural design
• In-between design strategies
• Urban Pore/Porosity
Keywords: urban hybridization; hybrid Landscape; hybrid design.
Spazio fisico e spazio sociale, la casa è funzione, intenzione, esperienza e tecnologia. La casa è tetto, mura (Amendola 1984:18), da un lato risponde ad un bisogno di protezione e dall’altro delimita la sfera pubblica esterna da quella privata e familiare. È, inoltre, un simbolo della propria identità e sistema di segni che si comunicano agli altri. Al contempo, anche un’analisi dei bisogni connessi all’habitat si articola su due piani interconnessi: l’aspetto progettuale-architettonico e quello simbolico. Da una parte i bisogni fisici connessi alle funzioni di relazione e di riproduzione della famiglia, dall’altra i bisogni di autorappresentazione e di interazione simbolica con gli altri (Amendola 1984).
La predisposizione di interventi per rispondere al bisogno di abitazioni adeguate e accessibili in base alle risorse di cui individui e famiglie dispongono, attraversa ormai da tempo le politiche pubbliche, da intendersi – spiega Bosco (2008) – come strumenti per risolvere in modo razionale problemi oggettivamente presenti in un determinato contesto sociale. Il campo delle politiche abitative abbraccia questioni complesse che fanno riferimento sia alla progettualità, e quindi alla materialità della casa, sia ad aspetti simbolici o relazionali dell’abitazione o del quartiere, della comunità in cui si inserisce, sia ad aspetti legati alle classi sociali, al sistema di welfare, ai bisogni che gli abitanti affrontano nelle diverse fasi del ciclo della vita. “La parola abitare presuppone l’esistenza di nessi di congruenza tali da regolare e “armonizzare” il più possibile il rapporto tra abitanti/alloggio/territorio” (Olagnero 2008:22).
Ed è proprio con la consapevolezza che la questione casa vada affrontata esplorando i vari elementi di cui è composta, che sociologia, ingegneria, giurisprudenza ed economia cercheranno, attraverso questa guida, di offrirne un’analisi in rapporto al territorio trentino e ai bisogni dei giovani. All’interno di questo quadro, il capitolo si pone tre obiettivi principali. Il primo è quello di presentare l’abitazione come una dimensione importante del benessere individuale, soprattutto in relazione alle risorse che occorrono per il suo accesso, sia esso in termini di proprietà che di locazione. Il secondo obiettivo è quello di documentare le esigenze abitative dei giovani nel contesto d’analisi presentando alcuni aspetti estratti da interviste in profondità realizzate nella città di Trento. Infine, il terzo è quello di cogliere gli elementi che caratterizzano alcuni progetti abitativi di eccellenza realizzati in Europa in epoca recente, discutendone le possibilità per le politiche abitative trentine. Si spera che questo contributo costituisca un incentivo per porre l’edilizia sociale rivolta alle necessità dei giovani al centro degli interessi di urbanisti, architetti e amministratori pubblici, affinché vengano proposte progettazioni innovative idonee a incoraggiare la sperimentazione, la sostenibilità e la qualità architettonica. Un obiettivo per il quale occorre ripensare l’alloggio, il tipo di casa, il quartiere e la città.
In order to come to a deeper understanding of the economic mechanism of development of a city, this chapter begins by examining the causes that led to the break of an apparent balance in the practices of local cohabitation of the Chinese District in Milan. This chapter will also examine the relationship of power and conflict between the local government and the social groups, from the point of view of an urban change process. This framework deals with reclaiming urban space and the requalification processes aimed at improving the physical context of the Sarpi area, and especially at starting up processes of financial revitalization.
'No buses, no taxis, no cars and no trading. Why don't you just build a wall around us?' reads a banner displayed by traders on Sarpi Street in the 2008 Christmas season, the first month of controlled traffic flow. Ethnographic research attempts to explain how this result was reached.
The voice of Italian residents is only one of those emerging from the results of this research, along with those of business owners, city users, and local politicians. It is an interplay between antagonism and juxtaposition in which I have tried to highlight the existing conflict with the aim of understanding and explaining the tension in this urban space. Most importantly, this case demonstrates that the problem of cohabitation in a socially mixed neighborhood is a problem of representation and perception, which is essentially political.
The opening conclusions deal with the paradox of the urban safety policies promoted by the Milan local government as a place of decompression in the face of strong social pressure on immigration, precariousness, and insecurity. Strategies aimed at places to act on people.
A growing number of scientists and researchers have begun to examine the social impact of these new technologies interacting with the increased geographical mobility related to global migration. The burgeoning of initiatives, studies, journals and forums has created a dynamic infrastructure for migration studies scholars. Once viewed as a marginal topic, global migration and its implications for the world at large is now a central concern in the social sciences, economic and political debates and dialogues.
This scintillating collection of nonfiction writings by authors around the world contributes to these ongoing conversations across borders and disciplines through thoughtful and thought-provoking articles, empirical and theoretical, situated within an interdisciplinary framework. Readers will acquire a balanced, nuanced and in-depth understanding of the constellation of circumstances and processes associated in large-scale migration that affect a significant portion of the world's population today and which will continue to have a significant global impact on millions of people in the decades ahead.
(Read more here https://wp.me/pVzvi-eG)
between intermarrying groups. However, this study examines whether
it still makes sense to think about intermarriage and integration a further generation
down: the young people living in multicultural societies increasingly
characterized by cultural diversity and social change. Through 13 focus groups
conducted between 2018 and 2019 with 102 young people aged 18-34 in the
metropolitan area of Milan, the research explores how young people represent
intercultural affective relationships in Italy and the meanings of cultural difference
when the beloved is a «stranger». We highlight four main results: 1) the
difference in emotional ties is perceived as an enrichment; 2) the significance
of the partner’s social status for parental approval; 3) the values that affect a
relationship negatively, particularly when it comes to religious and gender differences;
4) the forms that latent racial prejudice take in young people attitudes.
The conclusions confirm the perception of «normality» of intercultural love:
experiencing diversity if on the one hand becomes a resource, on the other is
still problematic when older generations disapprove.
share their experience, repertoire of practices and proposals for action. In
the second part of the issue, scholars stress the theoretical epistemological challenges, spotlight the ambiguities, contradictions and conflicts that this subject presents. In some cases, the researchers locate themselves halfway between academia and activism, critically engaging in conversation with activists, or directly involved in housing protest and/or alternative housing policy design. The result is a polysemy of voices, a collective effort, that enrich our understanding of what it means to resist gentrification.
The paper explores the meanings and moral reasonings behind the decision to accept (or not) support in context of contemporary discourses surrounding the liquidity and availability of housing and finance. It highlights the moral compromises and emotional negotiations inherent in the giving and receiving of support for housing, contributing to a body of literature concerned with the reproduction of homeownership in Italy. Furthermore, it stresses the importance of homes and housing assets in mediating dependence and re-affirming family bonds within a family oriented welfare context, despite conflict, resistance, and frustrated aspirations.
Parole chiave: gentrificazione; valorizzazione; diversità; Chinatown; Milano
A critical discussion of Milan Chinatown’s gentrification eight years after the Chinese riot in Paolo Sarpi Street means engaging with a longitudinal analysis of its physical, economic, and social change. The final remarks on the failure of the local governance and the speculative market interests examine the “perverse” impact of the aestheticization of diversity in valorization processes of predominantly Chinese multiethnic neighborhoods.
[1] See the appendix for the methodology.
Este artículo examina cómo la producción de 'autenticidad urbana' para los usuarios cada vez más prósperos (Hackworth, 2002) puede ocultar los mecanismos de poder y de clase en el contexto de la gentrificación y el desplazamiento. Se sugiere un tratamiento relacionado de algunos de los principios teóricos y metodológicos relativos a la gentrificación, el diseño urbano y el proceso de creación de límites. La forma Super-gentrificación que se discutirá en el texto, se enmarca como un proceso relacionado con los conceptos arquitectónicos de límites, umbrales y transición. Yo sostengo que el modo distintivo en el que los gentrificadores perciben los problemas estéticos y de diseño urbano se asocia con la forma en que ejercen el poder, se construyen significados diversos y se construye la sociabilidad. Esto es lo que finalmente se define como 'el aburguesamiento de las sensibilidades'.
El caso que se desarrolla remite al paisaje urbano de Nueva York y, más concretamente, a la estética de los brownstones Brooklyn de Park Slope. El enfoque metodológico se basa en un diseño de estudio etnográfico de caso. Los elementos visuales (en forma de diagramas, contenido, información gráfica y fotografías) contribuyen a una mejor comprensión tanto de la declaración del problema y el campo de la investigación espacial.
Palabras clave: Super-Gentrification, diseño urbano, límites sociales, autenticidad, Brooklyn.
English Abstract
The Gentrification of Sensibilities: Politics and Aesthetics in a NYC changing neighborhood
This article examines how the production of 'urban authenticity' for progressively more affluent users (Hackworth, 2002) may uncover the mechanism of power and class in the context of gentrification and displacement. It is suggested that addressing some theoretical and methodological principles that can be related to gentrification, urban design and the process of boundary-making can be studied in reference to each other. Accordingly, as it will be discussed, the way Super-gentrification evolves during the time is framed as a process related with the architectural concepts of boundaries, thresholds, and transition. I argue that the distinctive mode in which gentrifiers perceive aesthetic issues and urban design is associated with the way they exert power, construct diverse meanings and enact sociality. This is what I finally defined as 'gentrification of sensibilities,' which come together to secure the ground for a 'cultural claim' on gentrification literature.
The setting comes from the New York urban scenery and, more specifically, from the aesthetic of brownstones and row houses in Brooklyn’s neighborhood of Park Slope. The methodological approach is based upon an ethnographic/case study design, and done so for all analyzed scales (neighborhood urban area; out-group forms of relationship; many different and geographically spread out community institutions as in neighborhood private settings; in-group lifestyle; residence housing unit). The visual elements (in the form of diagrams, info-graphic contents, and photographs) contribute to a better understanding of both the problem statement and the spatial research field.
Key Words: Super-Gentrification, urban design, Social boundaries, authenticity, Brooklyn.
first-hand experiences and results from the field research as in a sort of dialogue with the academic reader. Reflections on how do they see and problematize gentrification and diversity, the social effects of displacement and the role of planning conclude the paper.
However, Santa Giulia-Montecity, rather than a model of ideal city, has remained an ideal type, or rather virtual, because today the neighborhood sadly lives only in the project of its famous architect, Norman Foster. Like avatars, the renderings appear from the parallel world of internet to stress a paradoxical reality; virtually created images that become real objects themselves when they are photographed. Surreal representations that mingle with the images taken from the field and become both, imaginaries and imagined projection of the city, the same that appears in the suspended glances of those who 'really' live in Milan Montecity.
Far from being just a symbolic opposition, the enclosed social documentary represents an important part of this work, which is about another miserable real estate and financial scandal in the recent history of Milan.
See the video here: https://vimeo.com/55980822
In the first part, we develop our theoretical framework, describing a number of factors that can influence the form and content of the neighbourly relationship, citing some results. In the second part, we use data from the Indagine Multiscopo Istat conducted in the year 2003. Regarding the level of neighbours perception, results from binomial logistic regression models indicate that, within the same socio-demographic characteristics and place of residence, there is an effect exerted by urban dimension and level of education. Urban dimension appears to have a negative effect on positive neighbours perception. However, we also found that the higher the level of education, the more likely to have a positive perception of neighbours, and this effect is higher in metropolitan areas compared to other urban areas.
Interestingly, supportive relationships among Italian families who experience housing proximity, represent not only an undemanding attitude, but also an infrequent one.
Inoltre, l'isolamento ha portato a forti cambiamenti nei ruoli di relazione. In molti casi uno dei partner si è improvvisamente ritrovato a doversi occupare da solo dei bambini a casa da scuola, oppure è diventato l'unico a sostenere finanziariamente la famiglia perché il suo partner è stato licenziato. Inevitabilmente questa situazione ha aumentato le occasioni di conflitto. La fotografia che emerge dagli epicentri del Covid-19, anche se preliminare, è drammatica. A Wuhan, le richieste di divorzio sono raddoppiate rispetto ai livelli precedenti al lockdown. Ma anche per i matrimoni che non stanno crollando, questa inedita convivenza 24 ore su 24-7 giorni su 7, ha aumentato la pressione relazionale.
Quali sono, quindi, le strategie che le coppie italiane hanno messo in campo per alleviare e navigare questo genere di conflitti durante la quarantena? Si sa molto poco sugli effetti sociali futuri della crisi Covid-19, ma una cosa è quasi certa: "there’s going to be a lot more distress for couples — less money, less time, more mess and, with no break from the kids for school or summer camp, probably a lot less sex."
In che modo, quindi, l'autoisolamento del Coronavirus potrebbe influire sulla gestione del lavoro domestico, dei figli, delle finanze, della comunicazione, della sessualità e su altri aspetti del vissuto di una relazione romantica?
Come questi problemi differiscono a seconda che la coppia abbia una relazione a distanza, che non viva insieme o che sia sposata/coabitante?
Attraverso le narrazioni raccolte online da coppie di adulti (25-55 anni) già impegnati in una relazione stabile al tempo della pandemia e dall’analisi di alcune comunità di pratiche online, questo contributo tratta delle diverse esperienze ed emozioni vissute dalle coppie ai tempi del Coronavirus, evidenziando le strategie messe in campo per navigare l’isolamento durante la fase del lockdown, in Italia.
Come meglio verrà spiegato lungo le pagine di questa introduzione, il forum delle politiche giovanili, organizzato nel settembre 2013, ha fatto emergere l’asso- luta importanza di rendere accessibili non solo i contenuti del Piano Giovani, ma anche gli strumenti e le pratiche messe in atto nel sistema di governance. Dal suc-
7
cessivo coordinamento del gruppo multidisciplinare di studiosi, che si è occupato del monitoraggio del Piano, è nata la curatela di questo volume, interrogandosi primariamente su una questione di fondo: come si interviene a supporto dei percorsi di autonomia dei giovani? Come operare strategicamente senza nascondersi dietro l’ombra allarmante della crisi e dell’emergenza riforme? In altri termini, come pos- siamo ragionare - a livello urbano, o meglio metropolitano - su spazi di welfare che sottendano una nuova idea di cittadinanza e di protagonismo giovanile? L’Ammi- nistrazione Comunale è partita da una intenzione di base: tessere relazioni forti, arrivando a coordinare una rete di trentuno partner sul territorio. Queste, in sin- tesi, le premesse che hanno portato alla co-progettazione di “Mi Generation”, un sistema di politiche multi-level volte alla costruzione di un welfare metropolitano, costituito da servizi, opportunità, sinergie e soprattutto da spazi pubblici: luoghi attivi e costitutivi del protagonismo giovanile a Milano.
Forse non ci siamo riusciti appieno, non tutto è andato come si sarebbe desi- derato - scrive Alessandro Capelli in apertura - ma abbiamo comunque provato a ricostruire quel rapporto con le istituzioni e tra le generazioni che, a Milano, non funzionava. Abbiamo esplorato la messa in rete di risorse sociali, istituzionali e umane a favore di una programmazione partecipata che coinvolgesse in primo luogo i giovani e le formazioni sociali nelle quali esprimono il loro protagonismo, urbano. Mi Generation, allora, non è un libro che presenta un Piano Giovani di grande successo, bensì racconta la grande portata di un progetto che ha generato innovazione, mettendo i giovani in testa alle priorità di questa città - come affer- merà Giuliano Pisapia nelle note in chiusura.
(in Manzo 2015: page 1).
A significant area for investigation is the double-sided nature of ‘food quarters’ and the questions these raise for planning research that delves into their real character. While the emergence of new kinds of food spaces and practices may underpin positive sustainability, food-centred regeneration may also lead to either the increasing commodification of space based on food and design improvements, or to gentrification, where food is part of the place marketing strategy. These discrepancies between convivial intentions and its paradoxical effects have become subjects of heated debate among planners and policymakers. For example, how is it that food quarters have operated simultaneously as zones of gentrification that may have excluded some, yet equally appeared to defy dominant spatial trends that are producing food related sprawl and ‘obesegenic’ environments (Lake and Townshend 2006)? How is it that they have developed in a more convivial, gastronomically rich and sustainable way than some other areas? Can the benefits they offer involve people of all classes or are they for gentrification’s winners?
Against the backdrop of these questions and debates, Market Place: Food Quarters, Design and Urban Renewal in London critically examines the renewal of three food-centred spaces in formerly rundown areas of London – Borough, Broadway and Exmouth Markets – and questions why food quarters have emerged in each place, becoming paradoxically the loci for food-led gentrification. In exploring these quarters, the book has also reflected and drawn theoretically upon an increasing interest in food, the body and everyday life within sociology (Amin and Thrift 2002, 2004; Beardsworth and Keil 1997; Lupton 1996; Zukin 1995).
This workshop brings together the latest theories and empirical findings in the research field surrounding contemporary cities and late-neoliberalism, taking into account the ‘aftermath’ of the global economic crisis and its different implications – from political-economic arrangements to more micro consequences for urban communities, such as housing accessibility crises, marginalized citizenries and raising socio-spatial segregation. It does so with a multi-disciplinary approach that seeks to better unify geographical, economic, political, sociological and anthropological understandings of the intertwining of global processes of financialisation of housing and gentrification with neoliberal urban policies at different scales.
Nella prima parte del lavoro viene discussa la letteratura sul tema, collocandosi all’interno dell’approccio di costruzione sociale della realtà e tracciando le caratteristiche dei contemporanei processi di riqualificazione dei quartieri popolari. La seconda parte esplora e interpreta le memorie passate sul quartiere da parte dei suoi abitanti di lunga data, i ricordi del mondo operaio, le tracce simboliche lasciate dal lavoro in fabbrica e l’impatto della dismissione Michelin. Nella terza parte vengono, infine, discussi gli aspetti relativi a timori e pericoli sulla futura trasformazione del quartiere, le tensioni percettive all’annunciato cambiamento e le specifiche proiezioni sulla coabitazione fra residenti radicati e nuovi arrivati. Il tema dell’invecchiamento della popolazione sarà uno dei punti nevralgici delle conclusioni di questo resoconto, assieme al timore per la presenza di migranti e a una più generale paura per l’aumento delle disuguaglianze.
PAROLE CHIAVE: trasformazioni urbane, quartieri popolari, etnografia, gentrification, studi di comunità"
More pictures can be seen in a slide show format on my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcgx5Wigt8Q
The author/director has recently won a Student Award by presenting her work at the Visual Sociology section of the American Sociological Association - ASA Annual Conference, in Denver Colorado, where the documentary was screened (August 2012).
https://youtu.be/EIFi9jST0ZQ
This was the claim of the Zunino Real Estate, selling a dream: a passage to a modern life at the outskirts of Milan on the great Promenade boulevard.
There is a great buzz around the Sarpi neighborhood in the context of the outlook regarding the next 2015 Expo Fair. Many initiatives are being considered, and these are aimed at transforming and giving value to the surrounding area in the direction of Fiera City. This certainly is whetting the appetite of both residents, who would see an increase in the value of their homes, and speculators always have their ear to the ground too. In so doing, the redevelopment of the commercial strip is interweaving with the starting up process of a financial renaissance, a dynamics which is also engendering a change of skin and soul in an historical urban fabric. In short, a gentrification of the neighborhood is sought.
Thus, mixed unions may do more than reflect the nature of social boundaries. In urban areas of super-diversity, there is a growing likelihood that multiple and overlapping forms of mixedness will characterize many romantic relationships and it may be that while some ethnic and racial boundaries will remain persistent, others will become more blurred and of diminishing social significance. However, despite the centrality of sexuality to the conduct and continuation of urban life, investigations of intercultural love remain curiously absent from urban studies.
Cities can be seen as roiling maelstroms of affect, love styles and spatially contextualized romantic emotions. Mixed couples and their intimate lives are the focal point at which the different aspects of the globalized world literally become embodied. They define resistance against the state’s biopolitical power to control people and become a space of intimate citizenship. At the same time, these relationships may represent a ‘quiet revolution’ that holds for re-envisioning people’s idea of ‘us and them’, challenging what it means to inhabit multiculturalism in our everyday lives. But how are people inside a family to withstand, negotiate and survive pressures that separate whole worlds from one another?
This session examines how romantic relationships between native majorities and immigrant minorities are experienced and performed at the urban scale by inviting papers that address some of the following:
* first, in order for an intercultural couple to love one another, the two individuals need to meet. Which are their “places of the heart”? Where do they meet in the diverse city? Are these spaces permeable, opened, and available to the dating and mating between natives and migrants? We want to explore these emotional geographies of mixité by revealing the ways in which different kinds of places can elicit specific feelings of intercultural love;
* in romantic love, individuals are apt to encounter inequality within their relationships. Yet, how are these disparities experienced? What is the role of local communities? We point to the enduring inequities inherent in the experience of love and difference in our societies and the opportunities or the obstacles that may arise in the urban milieu;
* from a social network perspective, support or opposition from one’s social surrounding affect the course of love over its various developmental stages, including its initiation, maintenance, and termination. Thinking about young people, parental approval to an intercultural romantic relationship remains controversial and deserves more attention;
* what the political consequences of thinking more explicitly about these topics might be?
Keywords
Intercultural Love, Urban Diversity, Emotional Geographies of Mixité, Spatialities of Love, Everyday Multiculturalism
References
Alba, Richard, and Nancy Foner. 2015. ‘Mixed Unions and Immigrant- Group Integration in North America and Western Europe’. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciencehe ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 662 (1): 38–56.
Beck, Ulrich, and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim. 2013. Distant Love. Cambridge: Polity press.
Parisi, Rosa. 2015. ‘Practices and Rhetoric of Migrants’ Social Exclusion in Italy: Intermarriage , Work and Citizenship as Devices for the Production of Social Inequalities’. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 22 (6): 739–56.
Root, Maria P. 2001. Love’s Revolution: Interracial Marriage. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Song, Miri. 2016. ‘Multiracial People and Their Partners in Britain: Extending the Link between Intermarriage and Integration?’ Ethnicities 16 (4): 631–48.
Song, Miri, and David Parker. 1995. ‘Commonality, Difference and the Dynamics of Disclosure in in- Depth Interviewing’. Sociology 29 (2): 241–56.
Stets, Jan E., and Jonathan H. Turner, eds. n.d. Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions. New York: Sp.
Thrift, Nigel. 2008. Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect. The Dictionary Of Human Geography. New York: Routledge.
HOW TO PRESENT A PAPER FOR SESSION 52:
Abstracts (maximum 250 words) need to be submitted through the conference website via the following weblink: www.uantwerpen.be/en/conferences/rc21-sensing-the-city/call-for-papers/submit-your-abstract/ . Abstracts which were not submitted through our website cannot be selected for presentation at the conference.
DEADLINE
15 March 2020
General inquiries can also be directed to Lidia Manzo at [email protected]
Notification of abstract approval is expected to take place around 15 April 2020
- How pre-and post-crash processes of housing financialization are forged, governed, contested, experienced and performed?
- What is the role of local communities? How do they cope with everyday affordability problems in the current climate of welfare state retrenchments, predatory lending practices, displacement and eviction?
- What roles do state and financial actors play in promoting housing financialization? What are the impacts of the entrance of private-equity companies and REITs as the new asset owners and landlords in post-crash cities?
This session aims to bring together researchers working on power relations and visual methods. We are interested in attracting papers that look at 'the wider semantic fields of our culture' . Culture is a field of struggle constructed by different points of view. According to the anthropological definition, culture is a common code of practice by a group of people; we aim to implement a new method in order to understand and study culture, not with the scope of explaining the reality of a given society, but simply through its discourses. Nowadays, culture is the specific field in which 'power' is exercised.
(See more in the CFP)
This session visually focuses on the intersections of inequalities in urban worlds where the competition for living space has had perverse visual effects.
Sociologists have long described how as a consequence of different life chances, groups are distributed differently in space such as in segregation and gentrification. Inequality and social justice are made visible by spatial processes of change. Whether luxurious or humble, dwellings serve important symbolic and practical functions for residents of all social classes and cultural backgrounds. In this regard Ernest Burgess’s classical urban ecological paradigm of neighborhood invasion and succession has served almost a century (1925).
Contemporarily, for Sassen and many others it is contradictions of the globalization of capital that concentrate both the more and less disadvantaged in cities where even the marginalized make claims on "contested terrain" (2001). It is also ironic that the concentrations of mobile capital in global cities have simultaneously enhanced “the potential mobility of some, while detracting from the mobility potential of others” (Sheller 2011). In a way we can say the rich get not only richer but also more mobile as the poor get poorer and relatively less so.
This session seeks submissions that critically examine, through the use of innovative visual approaches, urban vernacular panoramas that range from homelessness to gentrification. Immediate contrasts, such as the displaced or the homeless in gentrified or upscale areas, the “slumming” or “poverty tourism” phenomena, and comparative analyses are especially welcome to critically dramatize issues of Social Justice and the City (Harvey 2010).
Presenters will be asked to send a draft of their full papers (of 6000 words, including references) to session organizers by 12 June 2014 (one month prior to the conference).
If you have questions about any specific session, please feel free to contact the Session Organizer for more information.
Session in English