Abstract
Urban Europe is a testing ground for key dynamics of negotiation of citizenship, integration versus exclusion and tolerance versus toleration. This chapter, draws upon long-term fieldwork in Naples to address how contested and negotiated urban space is divided and used. Ethnographic evidence shows the complex and varied relations between immigrants and native entrepreneurs in a context where Neapolitans have long been treated as second-class citizens. This feeling must be understood in light of the flawed view held by many that Southerners are deeply corrupt in their personal and public lives and that Southern society is undermined by a cultural sympathy with criminality and a lack of civic sense.
Earlier reflections on the issues studied in this Chapter were discussed at the Annual Conferences of the Commission on Urban Anthropology held in 2012 and 2015, hosted respectively by The Institute of Ethnology, Prague and by Brooklyn College, City University of New York. The present text benefits from the comments offered by participants in those events and by anonymous readers.
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Notes
- 1.
With reference to Mediterranean Europe, this issue is addressed comparatively in Pardo and Prato eds 2011b.
- 2.
On the critical distinction between tolerance and toleration, see Pardo (2009, 112–14). Prato (2009b) has developed a comparative discussion of the dynamics that make the former turn into the latter, of the attendant responsibilities and of the conceptual, social and political implications of this shift.
- 3.
- 4.
Interviews with Neapolitan informants were conducted in Italian and Neapolitan. As I had no knowledge of immigrants’ native languages, I conducted interviews with them in Italian, English or French.
- 5.
- 6.
See Pardo 1996, 2010 and 2012b. It will be useful to remind the reader of the Cassa del Mezzogiorno (literally, Fund for the South), established in 1950 by the central government and discontinued in 1984. In 1992 the central government also ceased all ‘extraordinary intervention’ in the South. The Cassa was intended to stimulate economic growth through the development of the infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.) and through credit subsidies and tax advantages. However, while large companies benefited, small and medium enterprises did not. The literature on this issue is vast. Lepore (2013) has recently offered an assessment.
- 7.
Prato (2009a) has provided a similar account with reference to the historical Albanian immigration in South Italy.
- 8.
Some locally-based pro-immigrant associations are under judicial investigation, accused of misappropriating public money in the order of millions of Euros. Allegedly, part of this money has been used by the association’s hierarchy for private gain and part has been used by local politicians for clientelistic purposes (see Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno, May 23, 2015 and Il Mattino, May 24, 2015).
- 9.
This kind of action is exemplified by the case of the Asilo Filangieri. This important historical building was restored at public expense to be used as a venue for international cultural events. It was, however, illegally occupied by radical groups and has since deteriorated (see Il Mattino, March 12, 2016). Recently, a Municipal decree has turned those illegal occupants into legal occupants (Corriere del Mezzogiorno, January 4, 2016).
- 10.
The City Council is responsible for local transport, important parts of which are found wanting. In her criticism of the present administration, the local leader of the Partito Democratico (the major Leftist party) recently noted that “in 1997 there were 800 buses, now there are 300 and they are 17-year-old” (Il Mattino, April 2, 2016).
- 11.
This decision was opposed by traders, who lost customers, and by ordinary citizens who resented the consequently increased traffic in the rest of the city centre. Over time, the pedestrianized part of the promenade has gradually shrunk to a quarter-mile portion of via Partenope. Meanwhile, the adjoining public park has deteriorated into a wasteland.
- 12.
Criticism in this line is regularly argued in the local papers; see Il Mattino, Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno, La Repubblica Napoli (2016).
- 13.
- 14.
A quantitative assessment of the informal sector is, of course, extremely difficult. However, it may be useful to mention some estimates made by the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). According to ISTAT (2010), in 2008 the economic value of the informal sector was between 255 and 275 billion Euros (16.3% and 17.5% of the GDP). In 2013 what ISTAT calls “shadow economy” was valued at about 190 billion Euros (11.9% of GDP), an increase compared to previous years (11.7% in 2012, 11.4% in 2011). Overall, in 2013 informal and illegal economic activities amounted to an estimated 206 billion Euros (12.9% of GDP; ISTAT 2015). According to SVIMEZ (Associazione per lo Sviluppo dell’Industria nel Mezzogiorno, Association for the development of industry in South Italy), in 2010 roughly six million Southerners of working-age were involved in informal activities (SVIMEZ 2010, 8).
- 15.
See, for example, Pardo 2012a. Recently, the newspaper Il Mattino posted a video on its website: http://ilmattino.it/napoli/cronaca/suk_contraffazione_teatro_san_carlo_napoli_venditori_aggrediscono_verbalmente_donne-1645889.html
- 16.
Elsewhere (Pardo 2009, 116–18), I have described at length Maria, her story, her embodiment of the complex relationship between the formal and the informal and her successful path to integration.
- 17.
The text of this decree of November 2014 reads: “Those found in breach of this order, are to be punished by the application of the fine of Euros 500.00 in accordance with art. 7a TUEL and art. 16 of the Law of 24 November 1981 No 689 and s.m.i. and with the immediate destruction of the waste collected from the rubbish bins and of the equipment used for its collection and transportation” (my translation); see: http://www.napolitime.it/59631-mercato-abusivo-dei-rifiuti-napoli-il-sindaco-ferma-questa-pratica.html
- 18.
This is the large square outside Naples central railway station. Over the last 25 years, much of this large open space has been gradually appropriated by immigrants. There and across the adjacent areas various ethnic groups meet regularly to socialize. Traders from various countries run shops and licensed and unlicensed businesses.
- 19.
Since 1993, this large, highly symbolic square has been closed to traffic and is now in a partial state of disrepair, including uprooted paving stones and large patches of weeds. In a modern version of the tried and tested “bread, circus and gallows” tactics, it has been extensively used by local rulers to stage mass events (Pardo 2012b, 67–68), which continues today.
- 20.
Among the many examples, see reports in Affari Italiani (April 4, 2013), in Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno (February 29, 2016) and in Il Mattino (April 3, 2016).
- 21.
Like many similar traders, he also sells sunglasses in the summer and umbrellas in the winter.
- 22.
The reports of the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) both meet and clarify this aspect (see, for example, ISTAT 2015).
- 23.
According to the Naples Sportello Unico delle Attività Produttive (SUAP; literally, Office for Productive Activities), in December 2015 there were 6,000 authorized immigrant street sellers. Such a figure is estimated to have grown to 10,000 over the first three months of 2016.
- 24.
Permission to practise an itinerant trade can be legally obtained by applying on-line to the SUAP. Authorization is generated automatically.
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Pardo, I. (2017). Politicking Imperils Democracy: Contested Public Space in Naples. In: Krase, J., Uherek, Z. (eds) Diversity and Local Contexts. Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53952-2_9
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