BOOKS BY COSTANZO RANCI

Cinema della critica negativa: Locarno 2018
-Verso un nuovo statuto spaziale dell’urbano
-La casa economica per l’affitto
-Frammenti d’autore. Si sospettano moventi politici
-La storia negletta. Una monografia su Michele Busiri Vici architetto e paesaggista 1894-1981
-La rivoluzione è in stampa o solo in cad? I maker space italiani sotto indagine
-Grandi eventi come ‘stati di eccezione’ per la trasformazione urbana delle città contemporanee

Berlino, Amsterdam, Amburgo, Parigi e Bruxelles: il servizio mette a confronto queste cinque grandi città per analizzare i processi di gentrification e di crescente dualizzazione della struttura sociale che stanno cambiando il modello urbano della ‘città europea’. Dagli articoli, preparati da un gruppo di dottorandi dei programmi Spud del Politecnico e Urbeur dell’Università di Milano-Bicocca, emerge un quadro contrastante, in cui è chiaro che la spinta delle città a rendersi più attrattive nell’ambito della competizione internazionale contribuisce ad indebolire la loro coesione sociale interna

This section presents articles on the problems of the inequality and social exclusion currently existing in global towns and cities located on various continents. They are based on work done by the doctoral students on the Spud course (urban and regional planning and urban development), a doctoral research programme at the Milan Polytechnic, under the supervision of Costanzo Ranci. The analysis shows that even if they are structured differently in these cities, the problems of inequality are commonly found at the intersection of social and spatial dynamics.

This essay reconsiders and reanalyses the results of research carried out in four European cities (Monaco, Barcelona, Copenhagen and Lyon) on the social impact of the economic growth process, as well as potential tensions and trade-offs between the mechanisms of social reproduction and competitiveness of urban systems, till shortly before the 2009 financial and economic. In particular, this article restores several essential elements relative to four aspects of the analysis: policies for attracting flows of investment, goods, and people, and for safeguarding and enhancing local liveability; the impacts of economic development models on conditions of social inequality; the policies, the housing market and the affirmation of various lines of spatial division; and the integration of immigrants into the economic and social fabric of the cities.

This paper considers various types of social impact from the economic growth process experienced by several European urban systems, shortly before the spread of the crises still in progress. The collection opens with an essay that transversally analyses several mechanisms that show economic growth and social inequality as connected or disconnected to one other. This line of thought is further developed by reconstructing four cases of more specific study (Barcelona, Copenhagen, Lyon and Monaco) that describe contexts that are similar because they play a certain central economic role in their respective national contexts and hold powerful transnational positions, but which belong to different welfare models. A portrait emerges marked by several common features and many points of differentiation, confirming the initial hypothesis, i.e., the importance of examining development models for cities.

The introduction to the thematic section presents the cross-cutting themes addressed in the following papers: globalisation and its impact on social and economic inequalities, social polarization, the relationship between social cohesion and global competitiveness. The presentation of three papers arising from the ongoing ‘Global Cities’ held by the author under the Spud Ph.D. of the Politecnico di Milano brings out the need for renewed attention to the recent multi-disciplinary urban transformations.

Social vulnerability and new social inequalities The characteristics and dimensions of social risks are rapidly changing in Western European countries. The so-called European social model was founded on the association between permanent employment, stability in the division of roles within the family and the progressive extension of welfare guarantees. All these conditions seem to be lacking in contemporary society because of the greater job insecurity and the consequent discontinuity in incomes, the organisational tensions in the family and the inertia of the welfare system. Taken together these transformations are causing social vulnerability and affecting a substantial proportion of the middle classes. Four new social risks are identified in the article: the diffusion of income instability, the growth in temporary work, the difficulties in reconciling caring and working and the explosion of a dependent population determined by the ageing population. The notion of social vulnerability is then introduced to provide an understanding of the new nature of social risks. The possible impact on social inequality is therefore analyzed. Finally, possible implications for welfare policy are illustrated.

Il tema della disuguaglianza, delle sue tendenze e delle sue dimensioni è particolarmente rilevante per la sociologia economica, le cui origini storiche e analitiche derivano proprio dalla constatazione delle particolari disuguaglianze prodotte dallo sviluppo dell’economia capitalistica moderna. A questi temi l’Associazione Italiana di Sociologia (sezione Economia, Lavoro e Organizzazioni) ha dedicato il suo convegno annuale 2007, di cui il volume presenta una selezione dei lavori migliori.

Il Rapporto 2007 riprende il tema del futuro della città, avendo come orizzonte i sentieri dello sviluppo urbano e i processi di ridefinizione degli attuali equilibri della metropoli milanese. Vengono indagati aspetti quali: il disegno urbanistico, le politiche abitative e la ristrutturazione delle periferie; i flussi della mobilità e la rete dei trasporti; gli assetti economico-produttivi e il ruolo della comunicazione; i problemi di coesione sociale e la questione della sicurezza.