Editor(s): Stefano Portelli
What happened to the inhabitants of the self-built settlements around Rome, the so-called “shacks” demolished in the 1970s? This book tells the story of the decades following the great era of housing struggles, when thousands of people relocated to the coast began to feel deported, uprooted, more isolated than in the old neighbourhoods. “Ostia, or Bombay – it’s the same,” wrote Pasolini. Across the globe, millions of people experience evictions, forced relocations, and transfers, often to remote areas. But when bulldozers demolish homes, social spaces, and places of worship, those who are uprooted experience a violence whose effects can resurface elsewhere, in forms that are sometimes difficult to decipher. The “right to remain” that the inhabitants of Ostia’s Idroscalo, the last settlement in Rome, as well as those from other areas considered “informal” around the world, are demanding today, may be the key to imagining neighbourhoods that resist uprooting – cities based on the needs and desires of those who live in them, rather than on plans made elsewhere.
Publisher: Carocci
Year: 2024
