Il quartiere nella città contemporanea

Abstract

This paper focuses on the neighbourhood as the key site for understanding broader social processes in contemporary urban societies. In recent decades we see a new interest in the neighbourhood, as a consequence of the proliferation in the urban space of borders that isolate or interrupt the flows of communication and resources, creating new inequalities among social groups. The essay presents some theoretical tools for conceptualizing the neighbourhood and studying how it impacts on people’s everyday life and on their chances of life. The concept of community, traditionally used in neighbourhood studies, seems inadequate for capturing the current models of socio-territorial organization in contemporary city. Concerning in particular to the question whether and how the neighbourhood could influence urban liveability, the paper proposes the concept of neighbourhood as a filter, that sets different access thresholds to the “network of networks” of relationships, services, opportunities that is the city.