Resilient Communities: Adaptation and Resistance to Territorial Stigma in a Rome’s Neighbourhood

The concept of territorial stigmatisation highlights how the dissolution of the Fordist-Keynesian capitalism has pushed increasing segments of the urban population towards a condition of ‘advanced marginality’ and a livelihood into ghetto-neighbourhoods. Despite some valid criticisms, the concept proves to be useful to grasp both the forms of production of stigma and the strategies of adaptation and/or resistance in the case-study of the present paper: the Roman neighbourhood Quarticciolo. Once emblematic of working-class forms of cohesion, it is now characterised by fragmentation and conflicts due to high unemployment, street crime, housing crisis, and lack of services. Yet, in line with the Southern European culture of grassroots local ac- tivism, civil-society actors are at work in the neighbourhood countering discursive stigmatisation, providing services, and monitoring the municipal administration’s decisions. The paper presents the results of an exploratory research aimed at mapping the practices of civic activism of Quartic- ciolo residents by using qualitative and participatory meth- ods (semi-structured interviews, participant observation, participatory workshops). Bottom-up forms of resilience are unpacked, eliciting the coexistence of strategies of in- fra-stigmatisation, lateral denigration, adaptation, refram- ing, civic activation, and resistance. Top-down ‘circuit of production’ of territorial stigma are investigated focusing on the journalistic field, specifically on two news stories that involved Quarticciolo in 2021 and 2023 and made na- tional headlines. Media content analysis together with field research results allow to unveil the role of different actors, both internal and external to the territory, in promoting or countering stigmatisation. Thus, providing further elements to the analysis of new forms of active citizenship in Southern Eu- ropean countries.