The local culture as a means to explore the processes of social coexistence: A case study on a neigborhood in the city of Rome


Abstract


Community-based interventions for urban sustainability need to develop a consistent theoretical framework dealing with the individual-context relationship by exploring community affective processes of sense-making, in order to overcome a nomothetic and individualistic perspective. A case study on a neighborhood in the city of Rome is proposed with the aim of detecting the community representations of the neighborhood, as well as the problems and potential development demands. Text analysis was performed across interviews to 60 participants. Cluster analysis identified five different representations of the neighborhood referring to: the multicultural fragmentation and the need for a territorial identity (1), the business influence of the Chinese community and the loss of Italian typicalness (2), the threat evoked by marginalized social groups and abandonment by local authorities (3), the cultural knowledge about different ethnic groups to favor social integration (4), the deterioration of the neighborhood perceived as a crossing point for tourists and commercial traffic (5). These representations are conceived along four latent dimensions (factors) organizing the social coexistence within the neighborhood. They respectively refer to: territorial identity, power systems, social integration and cultural development. Some development paths are proposed for improving neighborhood quality of life and livability.

 


DOI Code: 10.1285/i24212113v1i2p22

Keywords: local culture; social coexistence; urban development; neighborhood quality of life; Esquilino

References


Barni, M. (2012, August). Re-writing the city through Linguistic Landscape: Immigrants languages in Esquilino. Paper presented at the Sociolinguistics Symposium 19, Berlin, GE.

Barni, M., & Extra, G. (Eds.) (2008). Mapping Linguistic Diversity in Multicultural Contexts. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Benedetti, M., Mebane, M., Tomai, M., & Francescato, D. (2011). Community interventions in a multiethnic neighbourhood: Promoting intercultural dialogue through community profiling. In T. Saïas, W. Stark, & D. Fryer (Eds.), Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse Practices (pp. 214-217). Saint-Cloud: AFPC.

Brown, B. B., & Perkins, D. D. (1992). Disruptions in place attachment. In I. Altman & S. Low (Eds.), Place attachment (Vol. 12, pp. 279-304). New York: Plenum.

Cabell, K., & Valsiner, J. (2011). Affective hypergeneralization: Learning from psychoanalysis. In S. Salvatore, & T. Zittoun (Eds.), Cultural psychology and psychoanalysis: Pathways to synthesis (pp. 87-113). Charlotte, NC: Info Age Publishing.

Caputo, A. (2013). Cultural models shaping stalking from a content analysis of Italian newspapers. Europe's Journal of Psychology (EJOP), 9(3), 443-460. doi: 10.5964/ejop.v9i3.604

Caputo, A. (2014). Exploring quality of life in Italian patients with rare disease: a computer-aided content analysis of illness stories. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 19(2), 211-221. doi: 10.1080/13548506.2013.793372

Carli, R. (1993). L’analisi della domanda: Modelli di intervento in psicologia clinica [Analysis of demand: Models of intervention in clinical psychology]. Milano, IT: Carlo Giuffrè.

Carli, R., & Giovagnoli, F. (2011). A cultural approach to clinical psychology: Psychoanalysis and analysis of the demand. In S. Salvatore & T. Zittoun (Eds.), Cultural psychology and psychoanalysis: Pathways to synthesis (pp. 117-150). Charlotte, NC: Info Age Publishing.

Carli, R., & Paniccia, R. M. (1999). Psicologia della formazione [Training psychology]. Bologna, IT: Il Mulino.

Carli, R., & Paniccia, R. M. (2002). L’analisi emozionale del testo: Uno strumento psicologico per leggere testi e discorsi [Emotional text analysis: A tool for reading texts and discourses]. Milano, IT: Franco Angeli.

Carli, R., & Paniccia, R.M. (2003). Analisi della domanda: Teoria e tecnica dell’intervento in psicologia clinica [Analysis of demand: Theory and technique of intervention in clinical psychology]. Bologna, IT: Il Mulino.

Casacchia, O., & Natale, L. (2002). L'insediamento degli extracomunitari a Roma: Un'analisi sul rione Esquilino [The settlement of immigrants in Rome: An analysis on the Esquilino area]. In R. Morelli, E. Sonnino, & C. M. Travaglini (Eds.), I territori di Roma: Storie, popolazioni, geografie (pp. 609-639). Roma, IT: Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza – Tor Vergata – Roma Tre.

Cossetta, A., & Cappelletti, P. (2013). Participation as a product of generativity: Reflection on three case studies (Working paper series No 28). Retrieved February 4, 2014, from Fondazione Volontariato e Partecipazione website: http://www.volontariatoepartecipazione.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FVPWP28CossettaCappelletti.pdf

Cristaldi, F. (2002). Multiethnic Rome: Toward residential segregation?. GeoJournal, 58(2), 81-90.

Fisher, A. T., & Sonn, C. C. (2002). Psychological sense of community in Australia and the challenges of change. Journal of Community Psychology, 30(6), 597-609. doi:10.1002/jcop.10029

Fleckenstein, L. E. (2006). Greening to Promote Urban Health: Strategies for Environmental Health Promotion Interventions (Master’s Thesis). University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved from http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/8851/1/fleckensteinle_etd2006.pdf

Fornari, F. (1979). I fondamenti di una teoria psicoanalitica del linguaggio [The bases of a psychoanalytic theory of language]. Torino, IT: Boringhieri.

Greed, C., & Roberts, M. (1998). Introducing Urban Design: Interventions and Responses. London: Longman.

Hawe, P., Shiell, A., & Riley, T. (2009). Theorising interventions as events in systems. American Journal of Community Psychology, 43, 267-276. doi:10.1007/s10464-009-9229-9

Hidalgo, M., & Hernández, B. (2001). Place Attachment: Conceptual and Empirical Questions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21, 273-281. doi:10.1006/jevp.2001.0221

Hirsch, G. B., Levine, R., & Miller, R. L. (2007). Using system dynamics modeling to understand the impact of social change initiatives. American Journal of Community Psychology, 39, 239-243.

Kaplan, D. H., & Li, W. (2006). Landscapes of the ethnic economy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Mannarini, T., Ciavolino, E., Nitti, M., & Salvatore, S. (2012). The role of affects in culture-based interventions: Implications for practice. Psychology, 3, 569-577. doi: 10.4236/psych.2012.38085

Matte Blanco, I. (1975). The unconscious as infinite sets. London: Duckworth.

Montuori, M. A. (2007). The visible and the invisible: Crossing ethnic and spatial boundaries in two immigrant’s neighborhoods in Rome. Retrieved December 12, 2013 from http://www.susdiv.org/uploadfiles/ED2007-055.pdf

Mudu, P. (2003). Gli Esquilini: Contributi al dibattito sulle trasformazioni nel rione Esquilino dagli anni Settanta al Duemila [The Esquilini: Contributions to the debate on the transformations in the Esquilino from the seventies to the millennium]. In R. Morelli, E. Sonnino, & C. M. Travaglini (Eds.), I territori di Roma, storie, popolazioni, geografie (pp. 641-680). Roma, IT: Università di Roma La Sapienza – Tor Vergata – Roma Tre.

Salvatore, S., & Freda, M. F. (2011). Affect, unconscious and sense-making: A psychodynamic semiotic and dialogic model. New Ideas in Psychology, 29, 119-135. doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2010.06.001

Salvatore, S., & Zittoun, T. (Eds.). Cultural psychology and psychoanalysis: Pathways to synthesis. Charlotte, NC: Info Age Publishing.

Scarpelli, F. (Ed.) (2009). Il rione incompiuto: Antropologia urbana dell'Esquilino [The unfinished district: Urban Anthropology of Esquilino]. Roma, IT: CISU.

Senlier, N., Yildiz, R., & Aktas, E. (2009). A perception survey for the evaluation of urban quality of life in Kocaeli and a comparison of the life satisfaction with the European cities. Social indicators research, 94(2), 213-226.

Trickett, E. J. (2009). Multilevel community-based culturally situated interventions and community impact: An ecological perspective. American Journal of Community Psychology, 43, 257-366. doi:10.1007/s10464-009-9227-y


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.