From citizens to citadins? Rethinking right to the city inside housing squats in Rome, Italy

Abstract

In the prolonged aftermath of the economic crisis, urban citizenship is becoming nuanced with a multifarious array of quotidian grassroots organisational forms, aiming at re-appropriating essential right to the city, such as housing. In the case of the Italian capital city, Rome, squatting has become a widespread practice for both native and migrant dwellers for tackling with conditions of severe housing deprivation and lack of public housing, despite the punitive legislative context. This paper contends that their subjective composition, and the forms of organisation and life stemming from squatting nowadays, can contribute to updating Lefebvre’s definition of right to the city, and his critique of the citizen as the enfranchised subject for exerting a transformative power over the urban environment. In order to ground this argument, I will discuss the evidences collected in two big housing occupations located in the marginalised borough of Tor Sapienza, Metropoliz and four Stelle Occupato.

Keywords:

• Citizenship
• right to the city
• housing
• squats
• Rome

Notes

1. As for the definition of housing deprivation and the data provided by the European Institute of Statistics: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Housing_statistics#Type_of_dwelling.

2. The first autonomous housing right movement, created in Rome in 1988 from the ashes of the Seventies revolts.

3. Created in early 2000s after the scission of the autonomous trade union A.s.i.A.-USB.

4. The complete text of the deliberation is available here: http://www.regione.lazio.it/binary/rl_urp/tbl_news/Deliberazione_15_gennaio_2014_n._18.pdf.

5. At the date of writing this paper, the Lazio Region has promised to draft the implementing guidelines of the Delibera by the end of February 2015.

6. http://www.comune.roma.it/wps/portal/pcr?jp_pagecode=contratti_tor_sapienza.wp&ahew=jp_pagecode

7. http://www.spacemetropoliz.com/ (The movie is subtitled also in English).

8. From the description on its Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/museoMAAM/info?tab=page_info.

9. http://www.4stellehotel.it/ (available also in English).

10. According to the last census, the percentage of foreign citizens in Rome has doubled from 2005 (6, 7%) to 2014 (12, 7). The most consistent increase was from Africa (overall + 23% compared to 2013), followed by those coming from the enlarged EU area (+12, 4%): http://www.comuni-italiani.it/058/091/statistiche/stranieri.html.