DOI: https://doi.org/10.26758/14.1.9
PhD student, LUMSA University, Rome – Taranto, Italy
Doctoral course: “The development and well-being of individuals and organizations”
Address correspondence to: e-mail: c.sale@lumsa.it
Abstract
Objectives. The identity of the place has an effect on citizens’ identities. The study presented aims to support the connection between slow violence, environmental injustice, and the use of visual sociology to deepen the experiences and relations of people in the surrounding environment. The target is a neighborhood called Tamburi in the city of Taranto, Apulia.
Methods. After an initial focus group useful to know more about the context, 8 people residing in the target area took photos to understand how the environmental damage has slowly settled on every aspect of life in the neighborhood and to explore concepts like social memories, and socio-semiotic category. The contribution of a non-residing photojournalist was analyzed, in order to improve and complete observation techniques.
Results. Tamburi, literally incorporated by the industry, is a place with a complex identity to the detriment of social life and the new generations’ well-being, accompanied by a correlated social and cultural unease as well as a feeling of abandonment and vindication. It is identified as a sacrifice area due to the high rate of pollutants in circulation, premature deaths, and contamination of the urban and vegetable elements present.
Conclusions. Living in territories vulnerable to sacrifice translates into considering the existences therein underestimated. The visual method offers interesting insights into the possibilities of interpreting some phenomena. The images of the neighborhood are a negative stimulus that communicates feelings of fragility in the individual and collective memory and has an impact on the livability and attractiveness of places.
Keywords: visual sociology; environmental violence; narrative images; generational injustice; place identity.
Introduction
Lefebvre states that space is a mentally conceived image, a materially and physically perceived space, and a lived space, that is, the product of the interaction between conceived space and perceived space, a social construct that influences people’s practices and their perceptions so the space is transformed and it becomes a place (Lefebvre, 1976, p. 14). Space is not only a number of objects and boundaries but also an expression of language and interactional practices evident in a community (Scollon & Scollon, 2003).
Individuals entrust meaning and value to places by attributing vitality to them through the exercise of the mind and body. The places therefore acquire such a creative force that crossing them changes the subjects and redefines their identity. Lynch notes that there is an ecosystemic bond between the city and its inhabitants, which is specified in the cognitive, pragmatic, and passionate dimensions (Lynch, 1981, pp. 125-130), that shapes the city’s identity and in which processes of distancing or adhesion of citizens to the place take place. The city space, in particular, is perceived as elements in relation to processes of signification; the sense of this depends on the relationships with the surrounding elements and on the value that individuals attribute to it: a wall close to an overgrown field can become a center of aggregation, and a space designed for socializing as a square can exist as a simple place of crossing (Giannitrapani, 2009, p. 35).
A place is therefore the content of memory, both because it is permeated by people’s memories and because, through memory, it presents itself as a description; monuments, buildings, symbols, etc. are the scattered descriptive traces resulting from history or urban planning that act as “urban reminders” for the entire community (Lewicka, 2008). Individual memories are closely linked to social and collective memories, which is why the narratives of places have the power to transcend time and exist in the future, in some way, enriching the individual and social imagination. Cities possess symbolic meanings, elements where concepts, feelings, dimensions, and ideas are condensed, towards which citizens project cultural and social meanings (Silchenkova, Likhachev, Desyaeva, Likhacheva, & Sheveleva, 2021). As Remm notes, the urban space is also meaning-generative in a specific way (Remm, 2011). Studies on symbolism underline how often ideas, values, and meanings are expressed more appropriately through images and environmental elements. In cinema and literature, the elements of the environment are metaphors for thoughts; they convey personal and social meanings (Falih Sulaiman, 2019). These elements motivate the opportunities for using the visual approach as a resource for carrying out a territorial study in the social sciences.
Visual sociology is a collection of approaches in which researchers use photographs to portray, describe, or analyze social phenomena. It is possible to use visual methods in multiple ways; the researcher can directly produce visual material to study the phenomenon in question or can analyze the productions of others, whether they are professional and culturally institutionalized, whether they are the result of the personal and family history of individuals, or whether they are produced in place of the verbal interview (Harper, 1988). The visual method is used in territorial studies to read the space and the relationships present in it, or, in other words, its social structures. What characterizes structural violence is its peculiar relationship with the environment. This type of violence has to do with the structure, the context, and, to some extent, the space, whether physical, political, economic, or social. Structural violence shares multiple aspects with slow violence, which is exercised as a form of environmental violence and affects our well-being and that of the entire ecosystem.
Tom Davies, in his “Slow violence and toxic geographies: ‘Out of sight’ to whom?” deepens and extends the understanding of the concept of slow violence presented by R. Nixon in reference to slow and lasting calamities, not immediately capable of capturing the attention given to events characterized by a certain dose of spectacularism to the detriment of the “poorest” and of future generations (Nixon, 2011, p. 6). Outcomes dilated in time and space disperse the environmental damage, subtracting it from its form and recognizability. Davies acknowledges that it is those “who experience toxic landscapes, on daily exposure who demonstrate that it is not a formless type of violence but a tangible and extremely real one” (as cited in Davies, 2022, p. 360). The communities that experience environmental damage up close are attentive witnesses to the progress of its effects. What makes slow violence persistent but hidden is the lack of importance that is given to those who suffer the most from the consequences by inserting them in a process of ineluctable predisposition to sacrifice.
Life has to do with what can be called the semiosphere: a set of heterogeneous, material and immaterial elements productive of effects. The semiosphere is populated by objects and mental capacities, cultural products and elements that produce meaning (Mangano, 2019, p. 20). This paper aims to investigate the urban context, focusing on human and non-human entities that have effects capable of influencing a community. From a more than human perspective, places are also introduced as subjects of urban scenarios, broadening the understanding of the dynamics therein. It sheds light on the complex socio-anthropological narrative of the community of the target area, a territory with complex socio-environmental issues. That means investigating narratives through multiple and interrelated dimensions, sedimented in memory thanks to experiences and emotions in intragenerational dialogue. The experience of places is part of all the agents and actants involved, giving rise to perceptions and emotions, and from these to actions, projects that guide individual and community choices, modulating responses and interventions in the future. This leads us to consider that:
– Memory is also based on corporeality, which is linked to the emotional world and then to the imaginary.
– Places are imbued with memories, even when they have undergone change, have been destroyed, or have been transformed.
– Understanding these concepts through intergenerational dynamics is important, as urban narratives are interrelated with memories of the past, present, future, and wishes.
Methodology
In this research, the visual approach was used in its specific variation, i.e., asking people to photograph their environment in order to analyze the relationships between the previously expressed concepts. The visual document produced is a look behind the visible to bring out the point of view of the subject (Stagi & Palmas, 2015, p. 29). Through the images, it is possible to contemplate the multiple dimensions and aspects of the individual/environment relationship, memory, and symbolism concepts in a context of slow violence.
8 residents of a district of the city of Taranto, Puglia, were selected as privileged witnesses in the semiotic role of assistant participant, i.e., an observer embodied in an actor who frames the scene and participates in the events (Bertrand, 2002, p.75). Through the images and reflections, it was possible to reconstruct a map of the places that are significant for them, important junctions, and the symbolic and evocative landmarks of the territory.
The subjects involved are over the age of 60 and are currently residents of Tamburi; they represent its historical memory. They also experienced the most representative moments in the neighborhood’s history; some of these are actively involved in environmentalist associations, while others have long been promoters of neighborhood theatrical and recreational activities. After an initial meeting between the researcher and the research participants, during which general information was collected to map the historical, social, and cultural context, they were asked to produce photographs to be debated in the subsequent meeting, during which the images produced became a stimulus for comparison.
The first meeting was carried out in focus group mode as a way of obtaining information about a certain issue to enhance the exploration (Paradzik, Jukic, & Bolfan, 2018). The chosen set where they met is a meeting place for some of them, as well as a recreational club and headquarters of a theater association; the other participants involved come from other neighborhood realities. The focus group lasted 50 minutes and developed in the form of free discussion, starting with the question: What was the neighborhood like before? How would you define it now?
Then, they were asked to produce photographs stimulated by the following questions: Tell me about yourself through the neighborhood. Which places and which symbols are important to you?
The photographic interview was conducted in researcher-single participant mode one week after the first focus group to encourage active conceptualization and contemplation (Gauntlett, 2007), like a dive into the depths of your own reflections. Attention is placed not only on the territory but also on its image to attribute meaning and value to the looks of the inhabitants who communicate social value (Parmeggiani, 2006).
At the same time, the photographic material of a non-resident photojournalist commissioned by a digital magazine to create a report on the relationship between citizens and the industrial center in Tamburi was analyzed. The researcher accompanied the photojournalist on his research path to utilize his visual productions as data later. His contribution from a semiotic perspective is interpreted in the role of the assistant, an actor who builds a figurative, descriptive space and ideally precedes the participating actor.
Case presentation
Tamburi as a neighborhood was born with the first rural settlements, which also increased over time thanks to the presence of the steel mill, one of the most important industrial centers in Italy. Historically, the district has been the protagonist of numerous phases and events and is brought to the public’s attention for its complex environmental, political, social, and economic issues.
During the first meeting, resentments about all the circumstances that surround the neighborhood emerged immediately. The participants clearly understood the problems related to the environmental aspect: high rates of illness and mortality, neurological and psychological disorders, uninhabited houses devalued by the real estate market, social distress, and illegality, which become more evident because they have the opportunity to grow in a circle capable of self-feeding. The narration of the neighborhood of the past is that of a lively place characterized by an intense social life; when the risks of polluting poles were not yet known to most, this was characterized by important sporting and social aggregation realities, shops, cinemas, families, and movement. However, it would be simplistic to talk about the history of a neighborhood, considering the focal elements and decisive events as compartmentalized. This is what emerges from the reflections in the focus group that embrace the history of the neighborhood that has grown to allow urban regeneration of other areas of the municipal area of reference, a sort of social material that passes from one territory to another and gives it dynamism, that is, it gives it further practices and further meanings. The relationship with the administrations, the political choices, and the working dimension have emerged and are not explored in this research. It is possible to summarize the participants’ report, with approximations, in some phases.
1- pre-industrial phase: nucleus with few housing units; there is a prevalence of rural areas, and this element is felt with nostalgia by the community. New economic activities started to shape the neighborhood, among which the refinery and the steel industry.
2- Industrial phase and growth: commercial realities, meeting places, sports realities; during this phase, the neighborhood has its own composite identity; there are different social groups even in contradiction with each other.
3- Phase of crime: this area becomes a scenario of criminal disputes and economic interests.
4– Phase of decline: environmental problems linked to industrial emissions begin to emerge with more force and urgency, above all following the nationwide dissemination of ever clearer and more precise data and the premature deaths of children. The age-old work/health issue is revealed.
5- Phase of abandonment: the neighborhood is empty, there are no realities suitable for family life, and there are difficulties for children and young people to fulfill themselves according to their expectations due to the lack of suitable spaces for play and growth. Permanence of mechanisms linked to social distress.
The photographic interview explored some aspects that emerged in the dense initial focus group; many of the places portrayed by the participants also overlap due to the similar cultural, social, and generational backgrounds of some of them and this strengthens the understanding of the link between the individual and collective memory of the social groups. Although many places belong to memory and personal experience, they are inserted in the memory of the community, and around them there are shared narratives.
The photos and related expressions that help with synthesis have been selected and presented here.
Figure 1.
Soccer field covered by iron snow (to see Figure 1, please click here).
Beyond these walls covered with ferrous residues, on the border with the steelworks, there was a soccer field on which hundreds of boys used to play.
« In the 70s and 80s there were 30–35 amateur teams in the district. Each team brought together… about 100 kids who were taken off the street to play soccer. Today there is no longer a football team, the field has been closed, 685 tons of ore were taken from the ground that hit the field where we played, the children came out black… Do you know how many died? Do you hear this voice? I’ve played so many matches on that court, my vocal cords are dehydrated. Do you know how many friends died? CANCER. What a beautiful word, isn’t it?»
Figure 2.
Where we used to figure out the world (to see Figure 2, please click here).
Here was a social center where many used to meet to talk about politics and news.
«There was a social center where we also talked about politics, with the newspapers and that sort of thing, they made it disappear, the empty land remained…It’s a desert. »
« Billiards are the center of entertainment; people don’t know what to do and go there.»
Figure 3.
A neighborhood in turmoil (to see Figure 3, please click here).
Here were shops, restaurants, a cinema where participants spent pleasant events for them; they are closed today.
« There was a place where the brides came for a party, so many restaurants. The best restaurants in Taranto were in Tamburi at the time.»
« As the pollution problem has arisen, Tamburi has become a dormitory district, a lot of activities are now closed. »
« How many beautiful films! We used to go out and come back to see them again.»
Figure 4.
The boys of the wall, where we were trying to grow up (to see Figure 4, please click here).
One of the main streets in the neighborhood. In the past, the site of brutal crime clashes.
« We were the boys of the wall; we were there to eat the melon and to grow up. »
« The streets were full of boys and girls, full of students, very crowded… now it’s just G. and me. »
« Yes, everything was ruined because the criminals infiltrated. »
Figure 5.
My house, my story (to see Figure 5, please click here).
Houses suffer depreciation. Residents are forced to file for reparations to get more out of the sale.
« Can you believe how much I invested in this house? Now it’s worth nothing but I won’t sell it off… I never go out on the balcony. »
« Those who can’t get by, come here because they can find a house with little money; they were driven by the need. We are fond of the neighborhood, our history is here, our relatives are here; we would like to encourage our children not to leave, but how can we do it? »
Figure 6.
Thus, I was saved (to see Figure 6, please click here).
Meeting place of a theater association. The neighborhood boasts some important theatrical realities for the entire urban area.
« The passion for the theater was passed on to me by my teacher, we used to bring plays to the palaces, I wrote one entitled “Ann Accis u Mar” [Dialect name of the theatrical comedy] even before this was about the steel mill… I keep this place open for myself and for them even if everyone in the building is dead. The theater saved me. »
« I took the boys off the street, now they’re bored. »
Figure 7.
The echo of memory (to see Figure 7, please click here).
In the neighborhood, as in the whole territory of Taranto, there are historical remains of the utmost importance. The industrial vocation of the city has ousted further potential.
« At the end of this road, there is a Roman aqueduct, but it is hidden, abandoned; I always think about it that it is there and no one knows how beautiful it can be. »
«They have accustomed us to not wanting more; you see only weeds, we imagine another reality. »
Figure 8.
In remembrance of (to see Figure 8, please click here).
One of the symbolic plaques in the neighborhood in memory of those who lost their lives due to a disease related to polluting elements.
«We know that here, when it is windy, it is impossible to leave the house; sometimes I wonder who will be the next one. »
Figure 9.
Can we have a prayer? (to see Figure 9, please click here).
The withered tree is a symbolic reference to life without hope. Next-door is a recently built park thanks to the contribution of a singer who cares about the matter. Unfortunately, it is still difficult to play due to the scarce resources for maintenance and environmental concerns about soil and air.
« I’m sorry for children; who takes care of them? »
Figure 10.
A dangerous pot (to see Figure 10, please click here).
Some areas of the neighborhood where it is necessary to intervene.
« There are many problems I prefer not to talk about. »
The salient passages of the dialogue with the photojournalist, P. Bonetti, are reported.
Figure 11.
P. Bonetti – Abandoned building, what voice for an urban void (to see Figure 11, please click here).
« Tamburi is, in many respects, a suburban neighborhood like a thousand others in the world…with voids and problems, photographing it was not easy. »
« Banally, looking at photographs taken in places without license plates or red dust, I wouldn’t be able to identify it; maybe because there are many dimensions to consider that are linked to the environmental one. »
Figure 12.
P. Bonetti – Graffiti, please don’t break anything (to see Figure 12, please click here).
« Places tell something because they are inserted in the memory of those who have experienced them firsthand or thanks to the media. »
Figure 13.
P. Bonetti – Past the stacks, past the city (to see Figure 13, please click here).
This is a school in the neighbourhood; in the background, the chimney and the structures are next to each other.
« Then there are the most distinctive elements, the E312 fireplace that towers over the neighborhood…It’s incorporated into the industry. »
Figure 14.
P. Bonetti – Through the smell of the street (to see Figure 14, please click here).
One of the main streets of the neighborhood
« I am struck by the total absence of contact with the sea, its presence is almost not felt despite being attached to it. »
Discussion
The initial focus group brought out important elements. The feelings of nostalgia, resentment, and abandonment characterize the relationship that participants have with the reference territory. This translates into low trust and concern about the future of the next generation. The interest in the latter concerns the opportunities to set goals and to have individual and social expectations that can effectively be realized. The space that becomes a place because it is crossed by experiences and memory emerges in the story that the participants tell of their own lives, inserted and lived in the environment and influenced by it.
Emotions are connected with social relations and individual context, an individual’s biology, and personal history, but they are also intertwined with the expectations, ideas of the culture and history we inhabit. Vast and varied are the ways we are in the world and how this is vivid within us (Watt Smith, 2015, pp. 10-20). This premise is necessary before we turn to the description of the emotions that the interviewees expressed, which cannot be exactly generalizable but appropriately invokes multiple shades of meaning. Some of these are useful in understanding the relationship the subjects have with the places and the ways of being in this relationship.
Below are some of the emotions that were most presented, an interesting mixture that originates complex individual and collective feelings.
Nostalgia: E. is the owner of a theater association that continues, with difficulty, to offer shows for the neighborhood, trying as much as possible to involve local people and give them a chance to express themselves, engage in something, or cultivate a passion. His “place of the heart” is a room in an uninhabited building; on the walls are posters and photographs through which he tells about his life, anecdotes, and experiences. Thus, a bit of nostalgia emerges. Nostalgia is the result of emotions that originate from a wistful thought about something or someone far away or lost. In it there is the hope of return and the mourning for loss. In the words and images of subjects, there is nostalgia, but there is also resignation; the pleasure of remembering a joy that belongs to the past, but also the feeling that more than what has been attempted, there cannot be. A kind of mourning is also felt, as if something or someone had taken away an important part of one’s life that identifies, tells about oneself, about a phase.
Anger is an emotion very present not only among those directly involved in research but also expressed through the manifestations and initiatives carried out over time by the community. Anger has declined differentially through:
Indignation: Political theory scholars state that indignation is an emotion capable of playing a key role in public life. Anger can dominate or alienate individuals, but it also prompts the subjects to participate. G. is a member of one of the environmental associations in Taranto. His group, like those of the many others in the area, has been fighting for years to bring out instances, problems, elaborating initiatives of all kinds. Attachment to places, along with health concerns, has been the driving force behind intervening in the debate about the neighborhood. The need for political involvement and transformative engagement is essential for some to feel still able to achieve, keeping alive the neighborhood and its dignity, especially for future generations.
Resentment: It is a form of anger that is suppressed and leads to frustration; it is hidden and only on some occasions emerges, bringing negative consequences for the life of the neighborhood as related to distrust. This is an important aspect of what concerns the relationship with political institutions at multiple levels. The inability to address the real needs could create a feeling of exclusion for a community that lives under its own rules in opposition to the initiatives and actions of an administration, for example. Disaffection for public life, civic engagement, and so on is also a problem for new generations. Target city is experiencing a phase of urban redevelopment with major high-impact projects, generating good communication and collaboration for the redevelopment of places is conditioned by this emotion.
Acceptance and Hope: a widespread feeling, especially among older individuals, is one of acceptance, which is the background to a now more renunciatory and dynamic attitude. In this trend, a key role is played by hope. In every story heard, among all the emotions and perceptions that emerged, there is a reference to hope by those who have not lost it yet or by those who think about younger people’s hope, wondering about their future and how they will handle it.
Those involved felt they have little control over the things that have happened and will happen to the neighborhood, perhaps even over their own lives here, it is to admit a shared vulnerability and strength at the same time.
Memory, as has been mentioned, also functions on the basis of corporeality and, thus, the perceptions that are experienced. The recounting of some past experiences about the places portrayed is built on images, smells, and tastes like: the good taste of the desserts in the now-closed restaurant or the movies seen and reviewed in the biggest cinema in the city; the grass of the soccer field on which they played free and carefree; the streets where they grew up, and so on. Now, the most narrated descriptions and perceptions speak of the dust that has colored everything red due to the deposited iron, of the windy day that prevents children from going to school or playing in the park, and of the abandoned buildings that appear to be painful ruins, generating a sense of abandonment. For memory, this generates strong emotions sometimes even in apparent contradiction; once again, the concern is aimed at the new generations and the possibility of creating new memories because this is made up of stories to tell, old and new stories that are a treasure to cherish.
If some images for the photojournalist are the expression of a form with which the neighborhood gives itself to the world, for the residents, these are also repeated in their own biography, in their identity, and therefore in the social imagination of past and future generations. The ability to remember, recognize, and reconstruct places is a key component of autobiographical memory. In this sense, place constitutes an essential basis for the unfolding of experiences in memory and imagination. Autobiographical memory contributes to a sense of self and identity of place (Lengen, Timm, & Kirstemann, 2019); for some, this translates into a desire to emancipate from some processes; for others, into a form of acceptance. The reference to art as a dimension of denunciation, protection, and resistance is interesting. The recreation center becomes a symbol of the transformative power of the imagination. The reference to the aqueduct is also a symbolic interpretation of one’s feeling of abandonment, of a beauty that exists but is hidden.
Residents of the neighborhood are among the first witnesses to violence spread over time, with different shapes and sizes. The matter brings out the issue from the point of view of social inequality. During the photographic interviews, the participants showed moments of discouragement because they are self-perceived as part of a sacrifice, as if there were a scale of importance among human beings, and they were on the lowest rung of this: “If this is the meaning that is entrusted to my life, how can I exercise my abilities fully and flourish?” It is therefore legitimate to ask for a researcher: If slow violence is dispersed in space and time, what future will there be for the children of the neighborhood? As Sen notes, “enhancement of human freedom is both the main object and the primary means of development. The objective of development relates to the valuation of the actual freedoms enjoyed by the people involved” (Sen, 2000, p. 53). The tools of freedom are varied and include not only the economic, political, and social aspects but also the environmental ones in mutual interdependence. Therefore, the development of a territory also passes through the freedom of its citizens. The purpose of development is to allow people to live in a creative manner, i.e., for a meaningful existence (Nussbaum, 2013, p.185).
The environmental question binds to the social question, and the need for the redevelopment of places emerges forcefully to rethink the identity of the neighborhood and the citizens as a whole. Disadvantaged neighborhoods have fewer resources to succeed in life as society has abandoned them (Mirowsky & Ross, 2003, p. 155). The presence of urban voids where before there were meeting places or commercial activities, the cumbersome presence of industrial structures, the commemorative plaques to evoke the loss, and even the natural elements like the wind take on a different meaning are facts with which the residents relate on a daily basis. Just like human metabolism, urban metabolism too should be sustainable; otherwise, there is a danger that the city will produce waste from dispersion and suffering (Galdini, 2017, p. 85).
The experience of Tamburi is also included in the overall social changes of post-modernity that act as variables and globally raise questions about the fate of urban public space. The presence of shopping malls outside the neighborhood, the advent of social networks, city branding, and other social phenomena are factors that must be taken into account in order not to simplify matters and to plan appropriately, thanks to the daily experience of those who live and make use of the city, although they are not considered (Ferrer, 2022, p. 190).
Analyzing the photojournalist’s research path made it possible to follow the steps of an observer not directly involved; He was the bearer of a more objective, never completely, vision of the concepts considered. His sensations of the urban elements portrayed made it possible to grasp an immediate judgment on the image/observer relationship of a descriptive type: “the neighborhood is incorporated into the industry”, intuitions not generated by an experience of the place but subsequently analyzed for their evocative value; “the absence of the sea”.
The reference to the communicative aspect of the urban environment, the ability to tell oneself in a society where the concepts of branding, attractiveness, and influence are well present, must be taken into account to deepen the relationship between neighborhood and territory.
Conclusion
Visual sociology in its many forms can really contribute to deepening research topics, specifically in the field of territorial studies. The effects of slow violence in some contexts, as in the case of Tamburi in Taranto, are not only evident starting from the physical and descriptive elements of the area in question but also well known by its inhabitants. The high rates of disease and mortality, the contamination of buildings and green areas, or the abandoned places is the narration of a slow but visible change. As witnesses, the residents perceive themselves as not considered, underestimated, and abandoned; this raises feelings of vindication in the adult generation, but the concern is linked to the new generations who could instead grow up in a climate of resignation. These aspects bring out interesting research questions that can be further explored in further investigations with different targets and methodologies. The link with places for the construction of one’s identity is fundamental and often not adequately considered. The urban space articulates meanings that act on individual and collective memory, on the identity of individuals and the community, and on their well-being. The urban dimension is a fundamental part of the design of interventions aimed at citizens as individuals and at social groups such as families through a hub capable of creating communication with the place supporting the needs of local society (Bazzini & Puttilli, 2008, p. 49). Places are not a static collection of objects; they are a mixture of activities, ideas, things, forces, and so on that are interrelated (Hammond, Biddulph, Catling, & McKendrick, 2023, p. 240). I. Duhn refers to ‘place as assemblage’, between a more than human world that acts creatively (Duhn, 2012, p. 99). This is one of the key features of living in “common worlds” and dealing with the mess of the world, where pollution also exists and acts (Taylor, 2013, p. 77).
Therefore, it is necessary to delve deeper into how the new generations generate practices in spaces and understand that assemblage in relation to their own experience and understanding of the world, reworking those of adults. The paper wants to talk about the strength of the meanings of places of memory in vulnerable areas, stimulating the debate on the need for redevelopment to give voice to citizens and their collective memory in “handling with care” these spaces.
On the other hand, however, we must also look at other forms of relationship with the environment that grow as a sort of resistance in those spaces as alternative practices. If we suspend damage, we can be inspired by the prospects that these lived spaces can suggest and encourage initiatives involving citizens, like imaginative experiments, starting from the observation of every-day forms of urban resilience.
Acknowledgements
A summary of this paper was presented at the online international conference: Individual, family, society: contemporary challenges, fifth edition, October 4–5, 2023, Bucharest, Romania, and published in the journal Studii şi Cercetări de Antropologie, No. 8/2023.
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