Space, Marginality, and Youth in Urban Spaces: Pedagogical Practices in the Quartieri Spagnoli

Matías Nestore

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78597-0_6

Abstract

AbstractThe Quartieri Spagnoli (QS) in Naples represent a central urban area of the city affected by extreme levels of disadvantage. The area is characterized by crime, together with high unemployment and school dropout rates, and virtually no social integration in the wider urban landscape. With the highest population density in the city, the area is low in services and green spaces, and its spatial arrangements are characterized by narrow streets and restricted accessibility. In this chapter, I aim to present an account of children’s lived experiences and self-perceptions of space, power, and violence in an urban space that is facing a process of change due to recent capitalist developments such as deepening deprivation and marginalization in advanced capitalist societies (Wacquant, Urban outcasts: a comparative sociology of advanced marginality. Polity, Cambridge, 2008), and expulsions (Sassen, Expulsions: brutality and complexity in the global economy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014). Moreover, I focus on teachers’ perceptions of their role as pedagogical actors in a marginalized urban space.

Highlights

This is the place with the highest number of children leaving school, the highest criminality, this place is known for having fewer green spaces than any other place in the world, an insane population density ... this place is excess on all levels. (Paola, teacher, Interview No 8, 2019)
The Quartieri Spagnoli (QS) are affected by high levels of disadvantage: here there are informal economies operating on crime and violence (Laino, 2012) alongside high unemployment and school dropout rates (Cavola, di Martino, & de Muro, 2010; Laino, 2012)
I seek to identify the QS as a liminal space, one that acts as both a boundary and a frontier (Balibar, 2007) that separates those who are seen as legitimate citizens from those who are constructed as illegitimate

Summary

Chapter 6

Marginality, and Youth in Urban Spaces: Pedagogical Practices in the Quartieri Spagnoli This is the place with the highest number of children leaving school, the highest criminality, this place is known for having fewer green spaces than any other place in the world, an insane population density ... With the highest population density in the city, the area has a low level of basic services and poor access to green spaces, and the narrow streets restrict accessibility (Cavola et al, 2010; Laino, 2012). Their lanes form networks of relations, informal economies, and social tensions that both isolate and make this space unique. I focus on this space as I am interested in exploring how processes of expulsion, disenfranchisement, and

Nestore (*) Homerton College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Conclusions