Alternative Takes to the City / Edition 1

by Irini Micha, Dina Vaiou

Overview

Alternative Takes to the City presents the mosaic of relations and socio-spatial conditions which compose the plurality of contemporary everyday space(s) in cities, offering "a view from below". It proposes a multidisciplinary and gendered approach to the (relational) spatialities and temporalities of the everyday, of new mobilities and of global and local networks which constitute urban life in contemporary cities. The book raises an empirically informed theoretical proposition which springs from the multiplicity of everyday experiences, as a laboratory for understanding recent socio-spatial, political and ideological transformations. Each chapter takes forward the theoretical argument based on one or more examples of concrete cities, in order to unveil the complexity and diversity of the urban condition in changing conjunctures, in which local practices connect and collide with global developments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786302946
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	12/12/2019
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Irini Micha is Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Her research and publications focus on urban security policies, theories of public space and mass culture, urban representations and children s geographies. Dina Vaiou is Professor Emeritus of Urban Analysis and Gender Studies in the Urban and Regional Planning Department at the National Technical University of Athens. Her research and publications focus on the feminist critique of urban analysis, informal work and practices and a theoretical perspective through the everyday.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix
Irini MICHA and Dina VAIOU

Chapter 1. A City of One’s Own. Territorialities of Migrant Women in Public Spaces 1
Camille SCHMOLL

1.1. Migrant women in Southern Europe 2

1.2. Diversity of migration patterns, but common subordination 3

1.3. An incongruous presence: moral geographies of the public space 5

1.4. And yet they go out: mixed uses of public spaces 9

1.5. In the interstices of the city 11

1.6. Body politics in public spaces 13

1.7. Conclusion 15

1.8. References 16

Chapter 2. Spatialized Hierarchies: Mirror Effects Between Migrants and Non-migrants in Terzigno (Naples) 21
Adelina MIRANDA

2.1. Scientific co-presence and research relations “at home” 24

2.2. Spatialization of migratory forms 27

2.3. Tensions in and between domestic and public spaces 33

2.4. Conclusion 37

2.5. References 38

Chapter 3. The Power of Speed and the Governance of Space in Urban Life 43
Gabriella PAOLUCCI

3.1. For a definition of the concept of time—space compression 44

3.2. The fragmented experience. Acceleration in the void and lack of time 49

3.3. The power of resentment 55

3.4. References 57

Chapter 4. Gendered Aspects of the Everyday. Restructurings of Urban Life in Athens 59
Dina VAIOU

4.1. Spatializing everyday life 62

4.2. Everyday encounters in the neighborhoods of Athens 65

4.3. Living with “strangers”: reciprocal adaptations and invisible borders 74

4.4. References 76

Chapter 5. Children’s Everyday Flows and Networks in the Neighborhoods of Athens 81
Irini MICHA

5.1. Theoretical arguments. 85

5.2. Alternating images of the city of Athens 87

5.3. The everyday life of children as a tool for approaching urban space 93

5.4. Conclusion 96

5.5. References 98

Chapter 6. Social Citizenship and Social Movements in Response to Housing Needs 101
Marisol GARCÍA

6.1. Building up an urban social movement and achieving national recognition 2009—2011 106

6.2. The PAH innovative strategies and objectives 111

6.3. Public visibility in the media: amplifying social action 113

6.4. Achieving policy results 2012—2015 115

6.5. Institutionalizing policy from bottom-up claims: a fading away of the Platform’s presence from 2015 118

6.6. Conclusion 120

6.7. References 122

Chapter 7. Reading Perceptions of the “Other” Through the Debates and Public Discourses about Islamic Religious Practices and the Presence of Mosques in Athens 125
Penny KOUTROLIKOU

7.1. Spatialities of integration (of faith groups) 127

7.2. Religion and national identity in Greece 131

7.3. Migration and violence in Athens 134

7.4. The (almost) “invisible” mosques in Athens 137

7.5. Claims to recognition and acts of citizenship 140

7.6. In the end... 143

7.7. References 145

List of Authors 151

Index 153