After a long absence from national political debate, the housing issue has forcefully returned following the protracted economic crisis of the past decade. In general, the significant impoverishment of housing policies in the wake of welfare restructuring decisions has deeply impacted the geography of social inequality. Moreover, the renewed questioning of the role of the State as a provider of universal social protection has contributed to the re-emergence of a source of insecurity that was thought to have been overcome. The consequences of the housing crisis thus fuel a true challenge for the citizenship, with cases of urban segmentation and polarisation that have recently intensified, triggering the disarticulation of the inclusive fabric of Italian cities and dramatically reminding us that the housing issue always holds a central role in the construction of society. The present study analyses the housing issue in Milan in order to account both for the ways in which national austerity policies and the specific welfare model have influenced possible answers to such a crisis and for the specific local initiatives that have been or are being experimented (e.g. social housing, cohousing, urban regeneration). The inquiry confirms the hypothesis of the third sector’s leading role in the management of new social risks in this southern European metropolis, along with all of the questions that such a role entails in terms of a possible emphasis on the local territorial imbalances that could stem from it. The study is mainly based on qualitative inquiry (participant observation, non-structured interviews, discourse and representation analyses). In this manner, it was possible to inquire into the spatial outcomes of housing and the ways in which housing, in turn, is influenced by ongoing territorial contexts and urban processes.
Dopo una lunga assenza dal dibattito pubblico nazionale, la questione abitativa è tornata a manifestarsi con forza in seguito alla protratta crisi economica dell’ultimo decennio. In generale, l’importante impoverimento delle politiche abitative conseguente alle scelte di welfare restructuring ha inciso profondamente sulla geografia delle disparità sociali; inoltre, la rimessa in discussione del ruolo dello stato come erogatore di protezione sociale generalizzata ha contribuito a far riemergere un’insicurezza che si pensava superata. Le conseguenze della crisi abitativa alimentano pertanto una vera e propria sfida per la cittadinanza, con fenomeni di segmentazione e di polarizzazione urbana che si sono recentemente acuiti innescando dei processi di disarticolazione del tessuto inclusivo delle città italiane e facendoci drammaticamente ricordare che il tema della casa è sempre centrale per la costruzione di società. Il presente lavoro analizza la questione abitativa a Milano per dare conto sia di come le politiche di austerità nazionali e il modello specifico di welfare abbiano condizionato le possibili risposte a tale crisi, sia quali specifiche iniziative locali siano state o si stiano sperimentando (social housing, cohousing, rigenerazione urbana). Dall’indagine effettuata emerge che anche in questa metropoli dell’Europa del Sud si conferma l’ipotesi di un protagonismo del terzo settore nella gestione dei nuovi rischi sociali (Castel, 2003), con tutti gli interrogativi che tale protagonismo pone in termini di possibile accentuazione degli squilibri territoriali locali che ne possono derivare. Nello studio condotto si è fatto ricorso principalmente a indagini qualitative (osservazione partecipante, interviste non strutturate, analisi dei discorsi e delle rappresentazioni). In questo modo è stato possibile indagare gli esiti spaziali legati all’abitare (housing) e le modalità con le quali l’abitare, a sua volta, è condizionato dai contesti territoriali e dai processi urbani in atto.
Molinari, P., Living in Milan. Housing Policies, Austerity, and Urban Regeneration, Mimesis International, Milano -- ITA 2020:<<SOCIAL SCIENCE>>,3 128 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/151943]
Living in Milan. Housing Policies, Austerity, and Urban Regeneration
Molinari, Paolo
2020
Abstract
After a long absence from national political debate, the housing issue has forcefully returned following the protracted economic crisis of the past decade. In general, the significant impoverishment of housing policies in the wake of welfare restructuring decisions has deeply impacted the geography of social inequality. Moreover, the renewed questioning of the role of the State as a provider of universal social protection has contributed to the re-emergence of a source of insecurity that was thought to have been overcome. The consequences of the housing crisis thus fuel a true challenge for the citizenship, with cases of urban segmentation and polarisation that have recently intensified, triggering the disarticulation of the inclusive fabric of Italian cities and dramatically reminding us that the housing issue always holds a central role in the construction of society. The present study analyses the housing issue in Milan in order to account both for the ways in which national austerity policies and the specific welfare model have influenced possible answers to such a crisis and for the specific local initiatives that have been or are being experimented (e.g. social housing, cohousing, urban regeneration). The inquiry confirms the hypothesis of the third sector’s leading role in the management of new social risks in this southern European metropolis, along with all of the questions that such a role entails in terms of a possible emphasis on the local territorial imbalances that could stem from it. The study is mainly based on qualitative inquiry (participant observation, non-structured interviews, discourse and representation analyses). In this manner, it was possible to inquire into the spatial outcomes of housing and the ways in which housing, in turn, is influenced by ongoing territorial contexts and urban processes.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.