Afterlife of Evictions. The Social Impact of Urban Displacement in Rome (en Inglés) - Stefano Portelli

Across the world, states use demolitions and displacement to reorganize cities according to particular visions of society. Through the voices and experiences of former slum dwellers evicted in the 1970s from a self-grown settlement beneath a Roman aqueduct, this book examines the social consequences of forced relocation and the ways communities rebuild social life in its aftermath. It reveals the forms of sociality that emerge in the gaps of urban planning and highlights the damage caused when governments respond to grassroots urbanism with bulldozers and relocation schemes.

- A full-scale study of a neighborhood many years after forced displacement

has never been undertaken.

- This book studies the effects of displacement through ethnographic data, by comparing the consequences of evictions carried out in the 1970s, evaluated in hindsight, with the contemporary risk of eviction faced by people of similar

background in the same area.

- This book builds on Herzfeld’s work on evictions in Rome, currently the only publication on the topic, but extends the analysis of gentrification’s effects geographically and temporarily: from the city center in the 2000s studied by Herzfeld, to an analysis of the city’s outmost periphery since the 1970s to present.

Focusing on residents displaced from a self-grown settlement beneath a Roman aqueduct, this book explores the social consequences of forced relocation. Through their experiences, it reveals how communities rebuild social life and exposes the costs of state-led urban redevelopment.