Latent contentious issues, which significantly characterise urban neighbourhoods, are frequently present and underway for many years in cities, even if they do not emerge as open or explicit conflicts (Moessner, Del Romero, 2015). They contribute to shaping urban transformation at different scales and work as more or less visible lines of tension, moving between space and social practices. Using the urban tension framework to analyse recent transformations means being able to detect such lines of contention and possible fractures even when they do not emerge as visible conflicts, an ever more common condition in post-political urban settings, in which horizontal governance practices often contribute to remove conflict and contentious issues from public discourse. The chapter concerns the interpretation of latent urban tensions in two complex and multi-layered peripheral neighbourhoods in Milan, Corvetto and via Padova, characterised in one case by large social housing compounds, and in both cases by changing populations, forms of marginality and disadvantage, but also by very lively and active local communities and forms of grassroots activism. Moreover, in the last few years, both areas, even if with different intensity, have been the object of a number of urban regeneration policies and innovation programmes promoted by the Milan Municipality and other local or city level stakeholders.
Latent Tensions and Urban Change in Two Milan Neighbourhoods
Pacchi C.
2021-01-01
Abstract
Latent contentious issues, which significantly characterise urban neighbourhoods, are frequently present and underway for many years in cities, even if they do not emerge as open or explicit conflicts (Moessner, Del Romero, 2015). They contribute to shaping urban transformation at different scales and work as more or less visible lines of tension, moving between space and social practices. Using the urban tension framework to analyse recent transformations means being able to detect such lines of contention and possible fractures even when they do not emerge as visible conflicts, an ever more common condition in post-political urban settings, in which horizontal governance practices often contribute to remove conflict and contentious issues from public discourse. The chapter concerns the interpretation of latent urban tensions in two complex and multi-layered peripheral neighbourhoods in Milan, Corvetto and via Padova, characterised in one case by large social housing compounds, and in both cases by changing populations, forms of marginality and disadvantage, but also by very lively and active local communities and forms of grassroots activism. Moreover, in the last few years, both areas, even if with different intensity, have been the object of a number of urban regeneration policies and innovation programmes promoted by the Milan Municipality and other local or city level stakeholders.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
