Seeing Ethnic Succession in Little Italy: Change despite Resistance

Abstract

This illustrated paper is the latest in a long series based on visual sociological research which I have conducted about how the meanings of neighbourhood spaces are changed by the agency of even the least of their inhabitants. Specifically, it attempts to demonstrate how the Italian-American character, or version of Italianness (Italianità), of four of New York City's most well-known Little Italies (Mulberry Street and East Harlem in Manhattan, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Belmont, Bronx) has been affected by the invasions of new and different ethnic groups. The spatial and semiotic logic of diasporic/transnational processes that have taken place over the course of a century is presented here in the form of scholarly and journalistic reportage, as well as photographic images. All these sources document and illustrate contrasting and changing demography, but here special attention is paid to commercial vernacular landscapes which play a major role in defining the ethnic (in this case Italian) quality of city neighbourhoods. It is also suggested that this Visual Sociological approach might have value if applied in parallel studies of how immigrants are changing the meanings of urban spaces in contemporary Italy.