The ‘blemish of the past

(Un)usual paths of gentrification in a Mediterranean city throughout history

Bibliographic Data

ID12580904
AuthorsTeresa Graziano (0000-0002-6478-1075, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume26
Issue2-3
Pages473-495
Publication date2022-04-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1360-4813 • E-ISSN: 1470-3629
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13604813.2022.2054222
OpenAlexW4225658246
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited33

Contemporary gentrification challenges long-entrenched conceptualizations. In particular, in ‘peripheral’ urban contexts of the Global North, the phenomenon is often interwoven with variegated processes stemming from the specific evolution of their historical centers. This paper scrutinizes the transformations of a marginal central district in a Southern Europe ‘peripheral’ city, Catania, named San Berillo. A series of postwar demolitions and reconstructions, followed by the local community’s forced displacement, fueled socio-economic decline and growing rates of territorial stigmatization. Since the early 2000s, some transformations partially modified narratives about the district. By retracing the evolution of San Berillo I deconstructed the role of the ‘blemish of the past’ in (re)shaping old and current imaginaries upon which the district’s identity is built. The aim is to understand, from an historical perspective, to what extent the Haussmann-like postwar demolition and eviction programme can be judged through the lens of gentrification and urban stigmatization, and if contemporary transformations have been shaping a context at risk of being gentrified (or re-gentrified). In so doing, the paper provides novel theoretical insights about gentrification in Southern Europe by mobilizing the concept of intersection to explain the phantom-like gentrification emerging as a (in)visible repertoire of past memories that loom over the district at different levels: as an operational framework for community-led and/or tourism-based initiatives, as a heterotopic discursive practice, as a buzzword for anti-gentrification counter-narratives

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Eviction · Gentrification · Geography · Identity (music · Narrative · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender Studies · History · Law · Urban Planning and Governance · Urbanization and City Planning

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