“They tried to make me go to rehab. I said, no, no, no”. Representations of ‘deprived’ urban spaces and urban regeneration in Turin, Italy

ABSTRACT

Starting from a critical perspective on conventional representations of urban margins and traditional approaches to urban regeneration, our article aims to highlight the missing relationships between urban policies and the ways in which places organize their cultural, social and economic life. What are the socio-spatial practices that shape the everyday urban life? In which ways they are related or not to urban regeneration processes? Using Turin as a case-study, the paper discusses these questions and highlights the inconsistency of the normalizing narrative adopted by urban regeneration policies and the heterogeneous, multiple and constantly evolving identities unfolding in the urban margins.

KEYWORDS:

• Practices
• policies
• urban regeneration
• margins
• Italy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The project, named ‘Beyond the crisis: smart city e post-political citizenship’, has been realized in 2014 and 2015 within the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico di Torino and Università di Torino and financed by Compagnia di San Paolo (Turin).

2. Specifically, Lega has always based its national political campaign on its harsh position against ‘illegal’ immigration, while the issue of ‘deprived peripheral areas‘ has been at the core of the local political propaganda of Movimento 5 Stelle, to the point that the polls in the peripheral neighborhoods have aroused an upheaval in Turin the municipal government.

3. Just to name a few, we can mention Ditta Sclopis e C., a chemical industry, Società Anonima di Colla e Concimi, a glue factory, Fabbrica Giovanni Gilardini, a tannery, Officine Meccaniche Ansaldi, one of Italy’s most important engineering works, the foundry and turnery Casa G. Poccardi e C., and Società Anonima Tedeschi Ing. Vittorio e C. (later renamed I.N.C.E.T.), a leading electric cable manufacturer.

4. The Nuova Generazione Giovani Cinesi ANGI association facilitates communication between the Chinese and Italian communities – http://www.angitalia.org/site/it/index.html (last access: 16/7/2015).

5. Non-structured interview with the owner of ‘Panificio Antico Forno’ (Via Malone 27A), 9/3/2015.

6. Source: Piedmont Region (2013).

7. Non-structured interview with a worker from the ‘Il Covo’ tarallo baker (Piazzetta Cerignola 2), 9/3/2015.