FEARSCAPES. SENTIMENTI DI PAURA, RETORICHE SULLA SICUREZZA E PIANIFICAZIONE URBANA NELLA CITTA' CONTEMPORANEA.

La ricerca Fearscapes affronta l’analisi delle relazioni tra sentimenti di paura – connessi al pericolo di essere vittime di crimine nello spazio urbano –, discorsi di paura – testi diretti alla generazione di sentimenti di paura –, politiche e pratiche urbane, forme spaziali della città contemporanea. A partire dagli anni ‘90, nelle città occidentali, ad una diminuzione dei volumi di criminalità corrispondono accresciute sensazioni di insicurezza. Nella convinzione che esista un uso strumentale dei discorsi di paura per giustificare politiche e pratiche, Fearscapes analizza, dal punto di vista della pianificazione urbana, questioni come le politiche urbane di sicurezza, processi di fortificazione, privatizzazione e militarizzazione dello spazio urbano

Social housing policy or social policy for housing? The role of the Programa Especial de Realojamento (PER) in the housing/planning nexus in Portugal

Recent (European) comparative studies in the fields of housing policy and spatial planning have been dominated by taxonomical approaches (attempts at categorising systems and temporal stages of state action) and measures of the ‘maturity’ of national systems. In this paper, we adopt a genealogical perspective and consider (national and local) cultures central to the shaping of policy (differences and convergence). We set out a long-term, in-depth exploration of the planning-housing nexus in Portugal – a case that helps adding nuances to mainstream theorisation – and focus on the Programa Especial de Relojamento (PER; Special Programme for Rehousing), a programme that has had changing roles (from a financial instrument to a core component of policies of urban regeneration) in connection with political and planning cultures changing in time and space. Our goal is contributing to making sense of the intersection between planning cultures in transition and changing housing policy, namely the generalised shift toward regeneration and concurrent retrenchment of state action – and the relation among housing as welfare (‘social housing policy’) and housing as urban policy (‘social policy for housing’).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comparative planning and housing studies beyond taxonomy: a genealogy of the special programme for rehousing (Portugal)

Recent European comparative studies in the fields of housing policy and spatial planning have been dominated by taxonomical and linear approaches, and by normative calls for convergence toward systems considered more ‘mature’ or ‘advanced’. In this article, we adopt a genealogical perspective and consider those cultures that are central to the shaping of policy. We set out a long-term exploration of the intersection between spatial planning and housing policy in Portugal and focus on the Special Programme for Rehousing (Programa Especial de Realojamento, PER), a programme that has had changing roles (from a financial instrument to a core component of policies of urban regeneration) in connection with political and planning cultures changing in time and space. In this way, we provide evidence of the limited capacity of taxonomic and linear approaches to describe planning and housing systems undergoing processes of change and, conversely, show the potential of genealogical research.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Planning amid crisis and austerity : in, against and beyond the contemporary conjuncture

This article introduces the special issue ‘Planning amid crisis and austerity: in, against and beyond the contemporary juncture’. It starts by acknowledging two limits of the existing body of literature on the planning/crisis/austerity nexus: on the one hand, the excessive reliance on cases at the ‘core’ of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, with impacts on the understanding of austerity as a response to economic crises; and, on the other, the limited attention given to the impacts of austerity on planning, and their implications for planning practice and research. Based on the contributions in the special issue, the article reflects on some lessons learned: first, the need for a more nuanced understanding of the multiple geographies and temporalities of crisis and austerity; second, the problematic standing of planning practice and research in the face of crisis and austerity; and, third, the potential and limitations of (local) responses and grassroots mobilizations in shaping alternatives

Outcomes of Urban Requalification Under Neoliberalism: A Critical Appraisal of the SRU Model

The context of crisis and austerity has provided a legitimate alibi for the inscription of neoliberal narratives grounded in the virtues of the market in Portugal. In 2004 the state enacted a new model of ‘urban requalification’, enabling the creation of Urban Requalification Societies (SRU in the Portuguese acronym) that initiated entrepreneurial and discretionary models of decision and delivery beyond existing state bureaucracies. Based on both quantitative and qualitative evidence from the cases of Lisbon and Porto, this paper offers a critical appraisal of the efficacy of these organizations to secure the provision of affordable rental housing in situ and to maintain less resourceful families in the city centres. Results show that the SRU model, combined with restrictive funding schemes and neoliberal politics, which have promoted the gradual liberalization of rent controls and real estate speculation, have reinforced processes of social and spatial inequality

Whose right to the city? An analysis of the mediatized politics of place surrounding alojamento local issues in Lisbon and Porto

In view of the proliferation of alojamento local (short-term vacation rentals) in the major Portuguese cities of Lisbon and Porto, along with the recent transformation of the historic city centre neighbourhoods, this study explores the mediatized politics of place by analysing data sets resulting from different, but interconnected, discursive practices. At the level of governance, we examine how legislation has enabled and facilitated this transformation. We then explore the media coverage of the issues surrounding these recent changes. Finally, we focus on individual and collective stakeholder voices by analysing the various rights claims and arguments found in social media communication channels. Framing our analysis initially in Lefebvre’s concept of ‘the right to the city’, often invoked as an argument for the promotion of justice, inclusion and sustainability in the face of urbanisation policies, we argue that a ‘rights in the city’ approach is better suited to gaining insight into the multiple tensions and conflicts brought about through the interlinking processes of regeneration, gentrification and touristification that affect neighbourhoods with high proportions of short-term rental accommodation, and conclude that there are many rights claimants within a seemingly unified group of stakeholders, invoking rights claims which are sometimes overlapping, but often conflicting.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Term to Exclude: Rom Populations as Immigrants/Nomads in (Southern) Italy

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate of the workshop \u201cImmigration and Gateway Cities\u201d through the analysis of a specific, \u201cside\u201d aspect of the whole thematic. The conditions of Rom populations in (southern) Italy present very (stereo)typical characteristics, nevertheless, I suggest they might be critical exemplifications of global issues which regard millions of people - immigrants but not just them \u2013, in the whole Europe: the so called \u201cblackening\u201d (Yiftachel, 2009) of insurgent informalities and citizenships. The presented cases \u2013 the \u201ctemporary\u201d nomad camp of Palermo and the stake of the camp of Ponticelli in Napoli \u2013 and the general Italian context will appear to be some kind of sharp declinations of global tendencies which keeps appearing, with their very specific local aspects, here and there in the whole Europe. At the same time, it will be discussed how the described processes are somehow entrenched in the European legislation and policies on immigration. From a general point of view, the paper will discuss some issues of urban exclusion within Europe, in the new and specific forms exclusion has been declined in the last decades. The aim is trying furnishing a critical reading on the concept of EU as \u201csingle market which want to offer opportunities to all\u201d (as termed by the call of paper). In a theoretical frame, building on \u201cextreme\u201d cases may be an opportunity to reflect on some growing global tendencies which might be already unrecognised - or just neglected - by institutional and academic politics and planning. In other words, and from the point of view of the planning discipline, I suggest that such kind of narratives dramatically evidences the need for the planning discipline to renew its tool-kit, which is, at the same time, stop assuming for itself a \u201ctechnical\u201d role, fully accepting its political one and fostering \u201cactivist\u201d (Young, 2001) attitudes