Speaker
Description
Many Southern European countries are characterised by a variety of inhabitation practices that, despite their extreme phenomenological diversity, can all be labelled as expressions of informality/illegality: the construction of unauthorised housing units by the middle class, informal inhabitation practices by marginalised or racialized subjects, the illegitimate occupation of public housing units. Around these practices, a series of public norms, policies and actions have been set up over the years. In some countries like Italy, these measures, despite being factually independent, nevertheless contribute to shape a precise politics, centred on the selective exploitation, guided mainly by politically mediated rationales, of the tolerance-repression binomial. Thanks to this politics, housing illegality/informality is made electorally, socially and economically productive and, at the same time, even when it is the subject of repressive campaigns, it is continually produced and reproduced. This happens because it is an extraordinary resource that allows a myriad of political, economic and bureaucratic actors to extract significant benefits. The present contribution analyses this politics of housing informalisation in Italy, highlighting its four main forms (i.e. selective social legitimisation; ethnic-based stigmatisation; judicial and administrative dislocation; preservation of grey areas) and stressing its epistemological value for a broader understanding of urban informality.
| Keywords | housing; illegality; informality; rules; regulation |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
