The major transformations that have affected society since the neoliberal shift of recent decades have called into question the original concept of the right to the city , introduced by Henri Lefebvre in 1968 and recently reformulated by David Harvey. The conformation of spaces strongly influences identity , but similarly, social and cultural processes shape the spaces that, according to Lefebvre, must be reclaimed. Simmel interpreted spatiality as an attribute of social processes, as an intrinsic property of social phenomena, which exist only spatially.
In our cities, the unfolding of a series of extremely powerful processes is transforming their landscape. This is happening in Italian cities, rooted in their historical and cultural identity, but many European and non-European cities are not immune. On the one hand, we have rapid transformation processes, mostly linked to large-scale public interventions or major real estate and financial transactions; on the other, we have transformations that, while they may appear slow, nevertheless bring about radical change, not only in terms of urban planning and territorial development, but also in terms of society and culture. Among the seemingly slowest transformations are major processes of gentrification.
What is gentrification?
Gentrification , a neologism that has developed over the last fifty years, is translated into Italian as gentrificazione (gentrification), but could also be translated as the "aristocratization" of cities. It is the process by which decaying working-class neighborhoods in the city center are reclaimed through an influx of private capital. The renovation of buildings and the redevelopment of the area are followed by the settlement of a new type of middle-class tenant , the new gentry. The original inhabitants are "removed" (both in the broad and literal sense) and relocated to more peripheral areas. Gentrification affects not only historic city centers, but also vast, consolidated areas with a strong urban and social identity, such as some working-class neighborhoods or the inner-city neighborhoods.
After several years of stagnation, the study of the phenomenon gained new impetus, especially thanks to the work of Chris Hamnett , who studied London's population movements between 1961 and 2001. By the end of the period studied, Hamnett argues, the working class no longer existed. Gentrification thus began to be seen as a spatial and social manifestation of the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial economy. In this sense, it's no longer so much a question of people being relocated, but of displacement.
The “trickle down” effect
A school of thought, especially expressed in the work of the sociologist Peter Marcuse, holds that the process of relocation It can also manifest itself on a cultural level: when social relations and the urban, organizational, and social fabric change in an area, certain areas automatically become exclusive for certain segments of the population. There are also those who see gentrification as a positive process, because it would generate a positive effect. “trickle-down”In this sense, the habits and behaviors of the wealthier classes or specific geographic centers would progressively extend to the less wealthy classes and the suburbs. Gentrified areas are therefore equipped with cutting-edge commercial infrastructures and their promotion is meticulously managed.
The so-called "rebirth of the city" is touted as an event capable of benefiting all its inhabitants without distinction, but the reality is different. Uneven development characterizes the city's evolution, favoring those areas that, for historical and/or geographical reasons, possess greater cultural capital (what Bourdieu defines as "objective capital"). Identity-related issues explode precisely in those urban contexts where "identity is lost," where transformative tensions are strongest and translate into heated conflicts. So much so that the presence of important and significant urban movements and the formation of local committees and associations often seem, rather than (or not only) the expression of an active, consistent social fabric rooted in dynamic and pre-existing cultures, to be a sign of how much this fabric feels threatened and is reacting in some way to the transformations it perceives as increasingly pressing and unstoppable. Examples of these include the San Salvario neighborhood in Turin, the Isola neighborhood in Milan, the Monti district in Rome, San Berillo and the Fiera district in Catania, and the Brancaccio neighborhood in Palermo.
At the same time, the question of identity becomes risky when posed in terms of preserving/safeguarding an identity, of local policies (which then give rise, when taken to extremes, to racist attitudes that reject diversity), of designing the development of a territory starting from a predefined identity. It's a bit like talking about the urban spectacularization that Guy Debord discusses in " The Society of the Spectacle ," where the spectacle and the creation of a very specific collective image, the commodity as spectacle, the materialized ideology of the city, are responsible for this state of crisis in the urban dimension.
Anna DB
