Local organizations as an answer against abyssal exclusion and advanced marginality in European cities

In the last decades, several economic, social, and political processes have modified and shaped the structure of Western countries (e.g., the flexible accumulation regime, globalization, and the restructuring of the welfare state). These events have intensified and exacerbated the existing forms of inequality and social exclusion, which have acquired new shades of marginalization, polarization, and segregation in the urban contexts (e.g., Bergamaschi et al., 2009; Tammaru et al., 2016; Musterd et al., 2017; Dikeç, 2017; Madden, 2021). Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the consequential economic and social crisis, have worsened these disparities and shown the weaknesses of social welfare by exposing the most vulnerable neighbourhoods and communities to higher sanitarian and socioeconomic risks (e.g., Reale, 2020; Madden, 2021; Lelo et al., 2021, Oxfam, 2021). This paper presents these phenomena in European cities and how local organizations contrast them. It extrapolates the result from a PhD research project conducted between September 2021 and November 2022 in five capitals, namely Rome, Brussels, Stockholm, Bucharest, and London. The theoretical framework of the study is rooted in post-colonial and urban studies. Precisely, it combines “abyssal exclusion” (Santos, 2007, 2017, 2021) with “advanced marginality” (Wacquant, 1996, 1999, 2008, 2013, 2016). The data has been gathered by engaging with the most vulnerable communities and neighbourhoods in the cities mentioned. This involvement entails interviewing associations and organizations that work with, help, and defend the most excluded people and groups. In addition, they also include experts, such as sociologists, economists, urbanists, and statisticians, that study these dynamics. The results spotlight the role of local organizations in handling these severer forms of social exclusion and inequality in European cities. The paper sought to present the similarities and differences among cities and the collateral issues that arose.