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From vision to division

Contemporary City: social change Presentation on Wacquant’s paper:

Red Belt, Black Belt: Racial Division, Class Inequality, and the State in the French Urban Periphery and the American Ghetto

Jelena Ljubojevic | Silvia SpolaorProf. Costanzo Ranci

+1) American spatial territorial division according to ethno ratial characteristics as a paradigm

2) European poverty americanized?

3) Urban exclusion in the cases of USA black belt and France red belt

4) The 4 themes of similarities and disparities Territorial stigma Delinquency, street violence and the shrinking of the public space Institutional isolation versus organizational desertification Social vision and division in ghetto and banlieue

5) Urban exclusion in the cases of Italian cities – Naples and Milan

6) Conclusion

Index

+1) American spatial territorial division according to ethno ratial characteristics as a paradigm

_In order to understand the degradation of urban conditions and relations, European scholars have turned towards the United States for analytical assistance. Wacquant argues how theories from American scholars have created a starting point for European studies of urban ethno racial enclaves.

_American conceptual idiom of ‘race relations’ has purchased on the urban realities of Europe, leaving aside the question of weather conventional American categories pack any analytical power on their own behalf to start with.

Comparison of contemporary forms of urban inequality and ethno-racial/ class exclusion which: does not presuppose that the analytical tools used on one continent

could be applied on the other; attends to the meanings and lived experiences of social immobility

and marginality; strives firmly to embed individual strategies and collective

trajectories into the local social structure as well as within the broader

+2) European poverty americanized?Two trends that reshaped the western European cities over the past two

decades:

Rise of urban inequalities and new forms of socio-economic marginality (special ethnic component)

Spread of ethno-racial and xenophobic ideologies and tensions due to unemployment

Expression to refer to the new spaces the “new poverty” “immigrant ghettos” “neighborhood exile” “branded space”

+3) Urban exclusion in the cases of the American ghetto and the French banlieue

Analysis of the social and mental structures of urban exclusion in the American “black belt” [dark ghetto - racial enclaves]

and the French “red belt” [traditional mode of organization of French worker’s city – close integration of work, home and public life]

Predominance of youths, manual workers or deskilled service personnel, large concentration of minorities, high levels of unemployment cased by de-industrialization and labor market changes

Exclusion operates on the basis of:

+[RED] France – Le Quatre Mille [BLACK] USA – South side ghetto of Chicago

RED BELTclass and mitigated by the state

heterogeneous

BLACK BELT color reinforced by class and state

homogeneous

+4) The 4 themes of similarities and disparities

Social organization and cognitive structures contrasting four dimensions of daily life

a. Territorial Stigma

According to the research data was held through interviews of the inhabitants of the neighborhoods they resulted strong perception of powerful stigmas.

RED BELT “it’s like there is a plague here”

Negative public image: delinquency, immigration and insecurity/ confined to a branded space “trap”/ “arab” poverty and ethnicization of france’s urban space. The inhabitants do not recognize as part

of a whole – “micro-locales” Change buildings means to change lives Awareness of being exiles

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“people really look down on you because of where you come from”

national symbol of urban “pathology”;

Incontrovertible proof of moral dissolution, cultural depravity and behavioral deficiencies of its inhabitants;

Living in the black belts carries an automatic presumption of social unworthiness and moral inferiority;

The only route for improvement is to move out.

Main effect of stigma: it is to stimulate practices of internal social differentiation and distancing that work to decrease interpersonal trust and undercut local social solidarity.

BLACK BELT

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b. Delinquency, street violence and the shrinking of the public space

feeling of insecurity

Youth delinquency and the feeling of insecurity of Le Quatre Mille

Outsiders: bad neighborhood to be avoided

Pretty safe neighborhood to walk, commuters come and cross to take the metro, people use the park for picnics and walking dogs

Most common crime: motorcycle thefts, petty robberies and larceny, drugs and alcoholism, not strong flow of drugs

actual physical danger

USA: national symbol of urban “pathology”

Incontrovertible proof of moral dissolution, cultural depravity and behavioral deficiencies of its inhabitants

Living in the black belts carries an automatic presumption of social unworthiness and moral inferiority

The only route for improvement is to move out

RED BELT BLACK BELT

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the paradox of organizational density and institutional isolation on the red belt

Ramified state intervention: over-penetration of public organizations

schools, health centers, social services, leisure centers

lack of efficiency and coordination between the myriad public and semi-public organizations

dependency and dissatisfaction as a vicious cycle

number of state agencies contribute to further stigmatizing, increasing sentiment of isolation and discontent

organizational desertification and the debilitation of the public sector in

the ghetto

retrenchment of the public sector and restructuring of central-city markets

private investments attracting white workers on the north and creating abandoned ghettos on the west and south

abandoned and bad quality buildings, no healthcare facilities

the regular wage-labor economy has been replaced by the irregular and often illegal street economy

RED BELT BLACK BELT

c. Institutional isolation versus organizational desertification

_Both black and red belt are perceived as organizationally lacking and the residents of each deplore the dearth of key organizations needed to contribute to the community’s functioning and well-being

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Jeunes des cités against the rest of the world

youth vs. other social categories : dominant antagonism

youths are both the cause and the victims on an incident

nobody sees us, we don’t exist.

Tolerance even if buildings are separated by ethnicity

American apartheid and dichotomous racial consciousness

race is inscribed everywhere in the ghetto: objectivity of the space, separate and inferior institutions

racial categories have an immediacy and pervasiveness that make them central cognitive tools

“once a nigger, always a nigger”

RED BELT BLACK BELT

d.social vision and division in ghetto and banlieue

_in the banlieue, the highly heterogeneous universe in which racial or ethnic categories have little social potency

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Modernist suburb built in the North of Naples, 1964, as a social housing project

Huge apartments complexes, wide boulevards, and a massive park where built, but without commercial districts or entertainment venues

5) Urban exclusion in the cases of Italian cities a. Naples: Scampia, the ‘white belt’

Nation known for being controlled by the organized criminal groups, involved with drug trafficking

Characterized by: Territorial stigma, delinquency, insecurity and abandoned open spaces, previous public space was used for drug trading and consuming; illegal activities.

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Modernist, self-effcient neighborhood, ‘on the edge’; Built in 1953- biggest public housing project in Italy

Massive project, based around underground walkways, long concrete balconies and a space-age church

First inhabitant immigrants from Veneto, Sicily, abroad

b. Milan: Comasina, the ‘yellow belt’

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Dark walkways places for criminal activities, garbage, dump; lack of meeting places for the residents; The area was described as a ‘dead zone, isolated, lifeless.’

Communication with Milan and next neighborhoods was slow and infrequent; no post office; few shops; no alternative;

Limited integration with the city;

Became the classic ‘ghetto,’ empty by day -83.7% of residents were waged employees – 48.2% workers, 35.5% commited, except for the old, the very young, the unemployed and non-working women.

Immigrants from Asia, mostly coming from China;

Has ongoing projects for its regeneration and improvment and an active neighborhood association;

There is still a negative conotation regarding the neighbourhoods history.

Comasina before Today Comasina

b. Milan: Comasina, the ‘yellow belt’

+Conclusions

Analyzing deprived neighborhoods of Scampia and Comasina, there is a parallel flow of a neighbourhood growth and condition through years of transformation, which depends on:

The use of space by the residents Number of public spaces and activates provided by the urban plan Presence of cultural institutions or public institutions and businesses Connectivity with other areas surrounding it

Neighborhood plans must contain a timeline and a strategic plan on the future flexiblility and transformation. These examples show how there is a thin line between VISION and DIVISION, turn out to be incapable of handling new inhabitants/migration and different ways of life in the future times. There was no space for regeneration and no state involvement in solving problems at real-time, which resulted pilling up of problems.