Slides used for the third lecture of the course "Analysis of Temporary Inhabitants in Public Spaces" - Prof. Citroni - 4cfu - Polimi Polo Piacenza

1. Urban marginality
Different 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

2. 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
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu

3. URBAN OUTCASTS
A 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
Piacenza, 26/10/15
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu
«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)

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

5. Urban marginality
Before
• 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;
Piacenza, 26/10/15
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu
City is the site and the fount of the new regime,
Which is not a residue from the past or a transitional phenomenon

6. 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
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu

7. NEIGHBOURHOOD
EFFECTS
The supposed role of the spatial dimension in deprived
neighbourhoods
Piacenza, 26/10/15
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu

8. 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
Piacenza, 26/10/15
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu

9. 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
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu
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

10. SOCIAL EXCLUSION
AND URBAN POLICY
The spatialization of social problems
Social exclusion, Large scale urban renewal, demolition, social
mix
Piacenza, 26/10/15
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu

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

12. 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;

13. 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)
Piacenza, 26/10/15
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu

14. • Observing the neighbourhood from the inside
(familiarity);
• Observing the neighbourhood at the present
(simultaneity not current events);
• Working with the unexpected;
Piacenza, 26/10/15
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu

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

16. The scale of “approximately”
“If in your neighbourhood tourists arrived, what
would you show to them?”
Piacenza, 26/10/15
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu
https://laacourneuve.wordpress.com/

17. The project
Piacenza, 26/10/15
Course Analysis of Temporary
Inhabitants in Public Spaces - Prof.
Citroni - 4cfu
https://laacourneuve.wordpress.com/