Shockwaves

Urban conflict literature has attempted new comparisons between contested cities in conflict zones and cities with no armed conflict. This literature tends to use representational frameworks around defensive planning and normative government discourses. In this article, I propose to expand these frameworks and to engage with epistemologies of lived experience to produce new relational accounts linking “conflict cities” with “ordinary cities”. The article accounts for the lived, sensory and atmospheric in exploring the legacies of conflict on the everyday urban environments. It then reflects on the everyday and experiential effects of counterterrorism in ordinary cities. While this is designed to minimize threat, it also alters urban spatiality in a way reminiscent of urban conflict zones. It then explores the unequal impacts of counterterrorism across urban publics, and their experiential connections with practices of counterinsurgency. The article is structured around two ‘shockwaves’ entwining lived experiences across seemingly unrelatable urban settings.

A “space” of one’s own: identity and conflict in two Milan districts

The article is based on a qualitative data collection on the city of Milan, paradigmatic city as a neoliberal city, at the centre of recent urban, economic and social transformations. In particular, the essay compares the urban space s of two districts of the city, reflecting on spatial categories, recent transformations, forced cohabitations in interclosed and in-between spaces. Drawing on the classics of sociological literature, and on the most recent theoretical proposals of urban g eography studies, the essay attempts to define how and on the basis of which factors urban conflict in the global metropolis has changed.

The Curitiba Observatory of Urban Conflict: methodology and analytical categories

Urban conflicts, as an expression of social conflict, are significant phenomena and represent a prominent object for reflection on social dynamics and relations. The aim of this paper is to present categories and methodology that help to broaden knowledge on urban social struggles and their insertion into the most general range of social conflict based on the experience of building research instruments and theoretical contributions that contribute to the Curitiba Observatory of Urban Conflict. The global analysis of the 707 documented protests delivers elements with which to assess the theoretical-methodological potential of the proposal, thereby indicating that the protests, in different ways, have triggered demands for the qualification (improvements in infrastructure and services), appropriation (recognition of uses) and transformation (modification in production processes) of urban spaces.

The Refugees’ Right to the Center of the City and Spatial Justice: Gentrification vs Commoning Practices in Tarlabaşı-Istanbul

During the recent refugee crisis and following the common statement-agreement between the European Union and Turkey (18 March 2016), more than half a million refugees have been trapped in Istanbul. Although the vast majority is living in remote areas in the perimeter of the city, there is a remarkable exception in the central neighborhood of Tarlabaşı. Over the decades, this area has become a shelter for newcomers from eastern Turkey and, recently, for thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa. In this neighborhood, refugees with the support of local and international solidarity groups establish communal houses, social centers, and collective kitchens, creating an example of commoning practices, mutual help, and transnational togetherness in the urban core. At the same time, over the past few years, Tarlabaşı has been the target of gentrification policies that aim to dislocate poor residents and refugees and to transform the area into a highincome residential area and a tourist destination. Thus, ongoing urban conflict is taking place for the right to the center of the city. This article follows the Lefebvrian concept of ‘the right to the city’ and Soja’s and Harvey’s notion of ‘spatial justice,’ taking also into account the discussion on the spatialities of ‘urban commons’ and ‘enclosures.’ It combines spatial analysis, participatory observation, and ethnographic research, and its main findings concern the refugees’ daily efforts against social segregation and exclusion shaped by commoning practices for spatial justice, visibility, and the right to the center of the city.

La Frontera Interior: proceso comunitario e impacto urbano en los espacios colectivos de apropiación ciudadana del distrito de Tetuán = The Inner Border : Community Process and Urban Impact in the Citizen Appropriated Collective Spaces of the Tetuán District

ResumenLa autogestión de espacios colectivos organizada por comunidades locales es con frecuencia objeto de una estetización de lo colectivo o es reducida a una forma de ocio urbano, obviando la base política y espacial específica de cada iniciativa. Los espacios autogestionados son una forma de producción alternativa de espacios colectivos y potencialmente una plataforma para la innovación social. El estudio se centra en el distrito de Tetuán como parte de la periferia interior madrileña, como objeto de procesos urbanos de transformación y gentrificación, así como enclave de resistencia y activismo vecinal. Se sostiene que el proceso comunitario es la clave de la sostenibilidad de los espacios colectivos de apropiación ciudadana y no puede ser cooptado por la administración. La apropiación ciudadana surge como respuesta a conflictos y necesidades tanto sociales como espaciales, instaurando espacios de resistencia en un contexto de conflicto urbano.AbstractSelf-management of collective spaces, organized by grassroot communities, often falls under an aestheticization of the collective or is reduced to anecdotic urban leisure, leaving out the spatial and political bases of each specific initiative. Self-managed spaces present an alternative production of collective spaces and can be a platform for social innovation. The study focuses on the Tetuán District as an enclave in the inner periphery of Madrid. The neighbourhood has experienced deep urban transformations and is under a process of gentrification. It is also a space of community resistance where neighbourhood activism has a long tradition. It is argued that the community process is the key for the sustainability of appropriated collective spaces and cannot be co-opted by the administration. These spaces are a reaction to spatial and social conflicts and necessities, creating rebel spaces in a context of urban conflict.

THE PRINCIPLES OF "URBAN VILLAGE" AS A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF URBAN CONFLICT AND IMPROVING LIFE QUALIT

The article discusses the principles of the «urban village», in which it is possible to design a new type of residential areas in the context of increasing migration. It was revealed that the idea of urban settlements is aimed at creating a living environment with an increased level of socialization of the population, environ-mental protection, the priority of using public transport, etc. This study was aimed at using the principles of urban villages to improve the quality of life of citizens and leveling urban conflicts. The results of the study showed that in the arrangement of such habitat options with features such as the protection of natural re-sources and a combination of natural and anthropogenic environments, using efficient, integrated and hu-man-based transport, leisure activities for all categories of citizens, a sense of belonging, identity and others features, residents will feel safe in an urban environment free of conflicts.