Introduzione : forme dell'abitare tra miti, discorsi e politiche
Nicoletta Bosco
The definition of housing problems:
myths, discursive space and institutional practices
As many authors point out, widely accepted definitions of a problem
often rely on discourses and myths which draw on tradition and take
disputable knowledge for granted. Indeed, in order to analyse policy
responses, it is important to understand the problems to which policies
intend to respond. The article aims to reflect upon the definition and construction
of housing problems, through examples taken from English and
American literature, and argues that this approach could become – without
living out the more traditional ones – an important focus of attention,
also within the Italian national context.
La questione abitativa e i suoi dilemmi
Manuela Olagnero
The housing question and its dilemmas
The article discusses the role of the three analytic elements housing
consists of: inhabitants, houses and territory. These elements allow to
understand housing as a multifaceted problem and claim for a stricter
co-operation among disciplines (demography, sociology, geography,) involved
in this fiels of studies. The concept of housing quality points to
the importance of assuring not only a roof, but also a fair context to inhabitants
living in a house. The aim of the analysis is to point to some
new deprivations and inequalities related to the housing quality (safety,
affordability, adequacy to needs) that are coming out from the difficulty
to face the increasing instability affecting both social and family life, either
housing market or urban territories. The complexity of housing question
comes out from the different levels implied, as housing is a challenge for
families or local governments; and private and public solutions have to be
addressed both to territories and people.
Retoriche dell'abitare e costruzione sociale delle politiche
Antonio Tosi
Rethoric of housing and social construction of housing policy
The reappearance of the housing question in the public debate in Italy
invites various questions about the categories adopted and their effectiveness
in dealing with the new terms of the question. Everywhere in Europe
the reappearance of new forms of housing deprivation from the ’70s has
deeply changed the housing question and this makes even more evident
the limitations of the traditional structure of social housing policies. In all
countries, the selection of target populations has been weakened by considerable
elements of irrationality and great limitations in terms of social
adequacy: redistributive inadequacy and scarce effectiveness as regards
some components of the population in need. The most remarkable has
been the exclusion of poor and marginal groups of population from the
benefits of housing social policy. The crisis of housing policy in the ’79s
and ’80s opened a new space for making housing policy more «social».
The coming of new practices, in contradiction with many traditional policy
notions, offered new opportunities to get over the social limitations of
policies and to improve their consistency with the needs and experience
of dwellers. In this perspective the debate regained an idea which had a
long tradition in the critical thinking on housing: that – further than its
physicality and «object» nature – «housing» is act – meaning, action, relationship.
The article argues that these principles – whose influence on
policies so far has been very scarce – can work as a real counter-model
even to-day and that the current risk of a new «differentialism» in housing
urges reconsideration of their potentiality for housing policies.
La casa in proprietà nella stratificazione sociale
Teresio Poggio
Homeownership and Social Stratification
Current research on social stratification is largely focused on social
classes, defined on an occupational basis, and on the transmission of human
capital as a relevant strategy for the reproduction of social advantages
and social mobility. Both the link to the labour market and education
are core elements in social stratification. However other resources and
processes are not negligible. The paper discusses the relevance of housing
wealth and of the intergenerational transmission of home ownership in
the structuring of social inequality. A theoretical framework for an integration
of this theme within social stratification is depicted, considering
both the legacy of the classics and contemporary research issues.
Casa e rigenerazione urbana: esperienze e riflessioni critiche a partire dal caso di Torino
Francesca Governa, Silvia Saccomani
Housing and urban regeneration
Experiences and critical remarks from the case of Turin
Public housing has moved away from the centre stage because of the
privatisation processes and the decline in the public housing sector investments.
This article intends to discuss the main changes in housing policies
over the last years, mainly focusing on the case of Turin. In our view, the
city is a good example to analyse the progressive changes of the housing
issue, the emergence of new local policies to provide affordable housing,
the relationship between housing and urban regeneration policies. Starting
from Turin, the aim of the article is to consider if current housing
policies define a neo-liberal approach to housing and critically discuss its
main implications.
Controllare lo spazio interno, radicarsi nello spazio esterno : come disegnare lo spazio del confinamento
Giuseppe A. Micheli
Mastering the daily life in the inner spaces, rooting it in the outer world.
How to design a space of confinement
The major socio-demographic transformations expose an increasing
part of population to risks of long-term dependency, and consequently to
be confined in a circumscribed physical space. Segregation can be realized
at two different levels of severity, i.e. a lighter one (when movement of the
individual is gradually reduced to the core of his own space of daily life)
and a harder one (when the individual is transplanted in a totally extraneous
space, as a nursing home or a prison). At both levels, even though with a
graduated severity, confinement menaces the self of the individual, corroding
the two remaining built-in functions of social life: the ability to master
the inner space of life, and to save some sort of rooting in the surrounding
world. Sustaining the life conditions of the new chronics, victims of harder
or lighter segregation, implies thus two complementary strategies: a well
gauged design and modularization of the interiors, and the permeation of
the inner spaces into the outer world. The article reviews a number of cases
of implementation of the two strategies, separately for lighter and harder
confinements, evidencing qualities, limits and pitfalls of both, and aiming to
a cross-fertilization of the ideas in different domains.
Vite in strada : ricostruire home in assenza di house
Antonella Meo
Living on the road: absence of house and processes of home rebuilding
This article discuss the housing issues referring to the situation of poverty.
The aim is to point out size and features of housing from an extreme
perspective, the one of the homeless. Housing hardships may show up
under more or less serious and different ways and manners. The study
of the very extreme conditions of housing deprivation may contribute
to enlighten, by comparison, some significant features of housing experience,
to underline the inadequacy of the traditional policies and to
suggest different interpretations, emphasizing how problematic are the
conceptual schemes used to represent the housing issue. Basing itself on
the results of several researches carried on in the Turin context following
the ethnographic method, the article schematizes meanings and features
of the housing deprivation, from the point of view of the homeless. The
consequences of the lack of housing are examined under different aspects,
together with the process of coping carried out by the homeless.
Giovani italiani e scelte abitative
Letizia Mencarini
Young Italian people and housing choices
The Italian Multipurpose survey on Family and Social Actors, carried
out by ISTAT in 2003 and covering almost 15,000 young people
aged 18-39, confirms the latest-late transition to adulthood of Italians
and some other well-known features that are peculiar to the Italian context.
The lack of adequate independent housing solutions appears to be
an element that constrains a huge proportion of young Italians making
them remain in the parental home much longer than elsewhere. The
peculiarities of Italian society, characterised by a scarce and expensive
rental market, a high proportion of housing property, the lack of social
housing and special credit measures for young people, reinforce the role
of the family of origin.as a crucial subject in allowing young Italians to
get an independent home.
Abitare al plurale : differenze e disparità abitative tra gli stranieri
Irene Ponzo
Do migrants live differently?
Housing differences and disparities among foreigners
The article investigates the various housing integration processes of
migrants. In order to point out some of the main factors responsible for
this heterogeneity, the housing integration paths of Romanians and Moroccans
living in Turin are compared. Actually, these two ethnic groups
show significant differences in family models, gender roles, patterns of
social capital and in other social, cultural and economic aspects which can
play an important role in explaining differences in housing integration.
The emerging data and information are organized in an analytic framework
which includes the macro and micro levels.
Dalla casa all'abitare : nuove pratiche e ricadute simboliche
Giampaolo Nuvolati
From dwellings to living styles. New practices and symbolic aspects
In contemporary societies living conditions are strongly changing, generating
more composite uses of dwellings. Behind widespread tendencies
of re-organization and re-signification of residential patterns in a general
context of uncertainty, it is possible to discover emerging housing conditions
and practices strongly differentiated according to new living styles
as well as to more classical social stratification. In particular, the article
analyzes the relationships between families and rising dwelling frameworks
based on the processes of emptying and re-filling of the houses, on
the multiplication of the habitation units, on the interweaving between
private and public spaces.
Dal consumismo al consumerismo : un'indagine nella città di Catania
Davide Arcidiacono
From consumerism to «consumerism»: a study in Catania
The object of our study is «consumerism». Ranci says that «consumerism
» is a «consumer movement industry»: a collective movement similar
to a «market» where different actors take part, with different status and
roles, offering the same «product». «Consumerism» arrived in Italy, and
above all in Catania, with some delay and , without consistency and political
support, it risks remaining an instrument of demagogy or an elite
phenomenon. «Consumerism» is «collective action individualized» for
«people with a high level of education». The revolutionary power of this
movement is not still demonstrated and it is a problem of governance,
without which the consumer sovereignty is still limited.
La lunga ora d'aria : l'identità umiliata nei Centri di permanenza temporanea
Helen Dardanelli
The long open out. The humiliation of identity
in the italian detention centres
Ten years after their institution in 1998, the immigration detention
camps are still in the focus of the Italian political debate. This article collects
life stories from the camp of Turin, casting light on the complex reality
of the administrative detention. The sociological analysis gives us back
the most often neglected point of view of the actor, the immigrant, and
underlines the consequences of the detention on personal identity.
Olof Palme e i venti della storia
Monica Quirico
Olof Palme and the Winds of History
Olof Palme, chairman of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (Sap)
from 1969 to 1986, and prime minister from 1969 to 1976 and again from
1982 to 1986, was a politician well-known abroad and controversial at
home: the two-volumes biography written by Kjell Östberg – the first
volume covers the period 1927-69 (from Palme’s birth to his appointment
to chairman), while the second is on his years both as prime minister and
in opposition – is a valuable contribution to the knowledge of Palme’s
achievements (his first mandate is related to the golden age of Swedish
reformism) as well as ambiguities (his radicalism as a speaker, but not as a
politician). His murder is still a mystery: but the hatred he was surrounded
by is reason for thinking about the challenges issued to those who are
intended to reform market society.