La Prospettiva socio-spaziale nell'analisi delle disuguaglianze urbane

In a time characterized by a long and severe crisis in the western economies, resource depletion, the drastic reduction in employment opportunities (Zanfrini, 2011), uncertainty and fragmentation of individual existences (Bauman, 2011a), risks and environmental dangers (Beck, 2011), the emergence of a new urban issue poses challenges that cannot be postponed. The European social model guaranteeing social, civil and political rights, based on the conditions of solidarity and the consequent redistribution of opportunities and risks represented by the welfare state has given way to a rampant individualism, that has dissolved the certainties and made the relations between social groups and individuals themselves (Bauman, 2011b). The city is on the one hand, the context that offers the most extensive possibilities, concentrates economic activities, the most important collective services, constitutes a sphere of interaction. On the other hand, it is also the place of differences that tend to turn into inequalities, causing material and immaterial implications for the members of the various communities. While differences are the result of individual variables, inequalities also depend on structural variables relating to social aspects and spatial characteristics. The economic dimension has always been the area in which studies on urban inequalities are located, but their spatial location today represents more than ever an exciting area of study and research by different disciplines. We approach the new urban question using a place-based perspective. The analysis of some recent experiences, which focus attention on the need for new urban welfare, suggests the need for an approach that guarantees "social justice" by promoting spatial justice both as a reference value of public policies and as a variable in the analysis of phenomena at the local level.