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Alberto Vanolo

Università degli Studi di Torino, Dipartimento Culture, Politica e Società, Faculty Member

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Address: Dipartimento Culture, Politica, Società
Università di Torino
Lungo Dora Siena 100A
10153 - Torino (Italy)
ROOM 3D229

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Papers by Alberto Vanolo

What is nocturnal about night studies? Insights from Turin, Italy

City Culture and Society, 2025

The relation between the urban diurnal and the urban nocturnal has been famously conceptualized w... more The relation between the urban diurnal and the urban nocturnal has been famously conceptualized with the metaphor of the night as frontier. Originally proposed by Murray Melbin in 1978, the phrase suggests that the nocturnal has been gradually colonized by the capitalist logics of the day. This article contributes to provincializing night studies by postulating a nonlinear and non-dichotomous relation between the urban diurnal and nocturnal. Specifically, the article adopts the philosophical perspective of the constitutive outside, as articulated in a recent strand of contemporary urban studies, exploring the paradoxical and even contradictory generative tensions shaping the meanings, materialities and politics of the urban night. This theoretical posture is explored through the case of Turin, Italy, a city that has developed a complex tension between the diurnal and the nocturnal which cannot be interpreted simply from a dichotomistic perspective, as the metaphor of the urban frontier suggests.

The LEGO railway station and the illusion of creativity

Lo Squaderno n. 69 - www.losquaderno.net, 2024

Vanolo A. (2024), The LEGO railway station and the illusion of creativity, Lo Squaderno, n. 69, p... more Vanolo A. (2024), The LEGO railway station and the illusion of creativity, Lo Squaderno, n. 69, pp. 15-20, www.losquaderno.net

LEGO is an influential cultural product, circulating worldwide in several forms beyond plastic toys (for example, images, movies, TV series, videogames, discussion forums, etc). Put in this light, LEGO products arguably play a role in shaping and influencing cultures and imaginaries. This contribution focuses on railway stations, looking at the evolution of sets since 1968 to suggest potential lines of research on LEGO urbanism and how apparently
innocent cultural products may mirror or actively reproduce – or potentially contest – hegemonic ideologies.

Sustainability and impossible worlds

by Filippo Menga and Alberto Vanolo

Environment and Plannning E: Nature and Space, 2024

This paper mobilises the idea of impossible worlds to conceptualise and explore inconsistent and ... more This paper mobilises the idea of impossible worlds to conceptualise and explore inconsistent and illogical visions and ways of living sustainably. Specifically, the paper focuses on an understanding of sustainability based on classic Kantian universalistic ethics (suppose everyone did the same) and relative feelings of responsibility and guilt for the environment. By mobilising three vignettes, the paper argues that impossibility is present in current environmental thinking, and narratives of impossibility have an emotional and political role in shaping popular discourses concerning environmentalism and responsibility. It suggests that exploring glitches, impossibilities, contradictions and inconsistencies may contribute to understanding the role of personal guilt in sustainability narratives, and potentially trigger change.

La geografia umana secondo un’intelligenza artificiale. Un piccolo esperimento

Rivista Geografica Italiana, 2023

Bozza dell’autore; la versione finale è pubblicata come: Vanolo A. (2023), “La geografia umana s... more

Autistic cities: critical urbanism and the politics of neurodiversity

City. Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, 2023

Vanolo A. (2023) “Autistic cities: critical urbanism and the politics of neurodiversity”, City. A... more Vanolo A. (2023) “Autistic cities: critical urbanism and the politics of neurodiversity”, City. Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, v. 27, n. 1-2, pp. 190-208.

Autism and neurodiversity are key topics in current public debate and in the social sciences. A vast multidisciplinary literature has explored spatial dimensions of neurodiversity, particularly by analyzing autistic experiences in private and public spaces and the design of autistic-friendly environments. Building on this literature and by presenting my personal experience as the father of an autistic child, this paper explores connections between critical urban studies and the social and political dimensions of neurodiversity. Focusing on different meanings, positions, and discourses shaping autistic experiences and neurodivergent identities in the capitalist city, the paper draws on the notions of 'queering' and 'cripping' autism. Lastly, the paper presents four tentative propositions about autistic cities, with two goals in mind: imagining more just, liveable and empowering cities, and suggesting that critical urban studies can themselves be stimulated by the encounter with neurodiversities.

Keywords: autism, neurodiversity, autistic city, queering autism, neurodiversicity

Repetition, movement and the visual ontographies of urban rephotography: learning from Smoke (1995)

by Tania Rossetto and Alberto Vanolo

Mobilities, 2022

Engaging with a scene of the iconic movie Smoke (by Wayne Wang, 1995) in which a rephotographic p... more Engaging with a scene of the iconic movie Smoke (by Wayne Wang, 1995) in which a rephotographic project is sensitively elicited, this paper addresses the technique of repeat photography to contribute to methodological debates that have arisen within the nascent 'Mobility and Humanities' subfield. Through a humanistic perspective, the paper reviews and expands the nexus between mobility, photography and the urban by comparing the technique with three methodological issues: the blurring of supposed binaries, such as traditional/innovative, static/moving and fast/slow; the possibility of grasping the mobilities of the world in a post-human vein; and the opportunity to also consider techniques as sites for reflection. To address these issues, the paper draws from philosophies of movement, post-phenomenological and object-oriented stances and visual and urban cultural geographies. With reference to the urban realm, this paper proposes three perspectives on rephotography, namely (1) rephotography as a practice of slow and rhythmic attunement with circumstantial spacetimes moving backwards and forwards; (2) rephotography as a visual ontography that displaces the human and opens up space for the apprehension of the agency and mobility of things; and (3) rephotography as a continual process of activation of moving gazes on cities and their imaginaries.

Urban Neoliberalism

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

The rise of neoliberalism as the hegemonic art of governing contemporary capitalist cities traces... more The rise of neoliberalism as the hegemonic art of governing contemporary capitalist cities traces its origins back to the 1980s, being associated with the ascent of conservative governments in the Unites States and the United Kingdom pursuing economic development strategies based on the conventional free market ideas. Since then, urban neoliberalism has spread across the globalizing world through an increasing emphasis being laid on the entrepreneurialization of local government, the privatization of public services,

Smartmentality: The Smart City as Disciplinary Strategy

Urban Studies, 2014

The paper analyses the concept of the smart city in critical perspective, focusing on the power/k... more The paper analyses the concept of the smart city in critical perspective, focusing on the power/knowledge implications for the contemporary city. On the one hand, smart city policies support new ways of imagining, organising and managing the city and its flows; on the other, they impress a new moral order on the city by introducing specific technical parameters in order to distinguish between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ city. The smart city discourse may therefore be a powerful tool for the production of docile subjects and mechanisms of political legitimisation. The paper is largely based on theoretical reflections and uses smart city politics in Italy as a case study. The paper analyses how the smart city discourse proposed by the European Union has been reclassified to produce new visions of the ‘good city’ and the role of private actors and citizens in the management of urban development.

Shops, food regeneration and a controversial signature building in Turin, Italy

European Planning Studies, 2022

The paper focuses on the case of PalaFuksas, a signature building inaugurated in 2005 and located... more The paper focuses on the case of PalaFuksas, a signature building inaugurated in 2005 and located in the central (but marginalized) area of Porta Palazzo in Turin, Italy. Originally designed to host clothing shops, the building had a history of failures and reconversions, and it is currently mainly used as a branded food hall. By mixing archive and qualitative research, the article focuses on the evolution amongst local stakeholders, of different ‘expectations’, intended as heterogeneous and not fully conscious and rational sets of ideas, imaginaries, forecasts. PalaFuksas was expected to be a successful and functional building to contain businesses, a flagship for the entire city, and to perform distinction and iconicity, acting as a regenerator for its neighbourhood. Failures in meeting these expectations implied a continuous renegotiation of the meanings, functions and identities of PalaFuksas, revealing the complexity of the processes at play in the attempt to sign, re-sign and ultimately ‘become’ a signature building.

The work of foodification: an analysis of food gentrification in Turin, Italy

by Panos Bourlessas, Samantha Cenere, and Alberto Vanolo

Bourlessas, P., Cenere, S., & Vanolo, A. (2021). The work of foodification: an analysis of food gentrification in Turin, Italy. Urban Geography, 1-22. doi:10.1080/02723638.2021.1927547, 2021

Intersecting culinary and retail geographies, this paper brings to centre stage food in retail ge... more Intersecting culinary and retail geographies, this paper brings to centre stage food in retail gentrification. Theoretically, it suggests that food, together with its spatialities, can produce a “displacement atmosphere” throughout retailscape by enabling privileged consumers to achieve distinction. Empirically, it draws from Porta Palazzo, Turin’s historical neighbourhood and marketplace, where the opening of a branded food hall reveals food’s role in the area’s early-stage retail gentrification. Attending to both the food hall and smaller emerging spatialities, the “work of foodification” is analyzed through three constitutive elements: discourse, materialities, practices. Within the city’s wider geographies and ongoing transformations, the synergy of these elements reveals that the work of foodification is the convert of Porta Palazzo into a device that, first, fixes a displacement atmosphere onto the local retailscape and, then, allows for the gentrification frontier to proceed. The paper responds to calls for re-conceptualizing displacement, contributing to emergent research on marketplaces as gentrification’s frontier spaces.

Shame, guilt, and the production of urban space

Progress in Human Geography, 2021

Guilt and shame operate in connection with individual and collective forces. This paper explores ... more Guilt and shame operate in connection with individual and collective forces. This paper explores how space is contingent in psychic processes, and how the generation and negotiation of feelings of guilt and shame develop in the interplay between internal processes of the mind and the worldly 'outside'. By presenting two examples, precisely commodity consumption and sex, and a set of fictional anecdotes, the article proposes a series of hypotheses concerning distance, proximity and visibility in relation to shame and guilt, and it analyses mechanisms of resistance to guilt and shame, which include spatial architectures of concealment, displacement and mimesis. It is argued that an explicit recognition of the role of guilt and shame in shaping urban spaces may lead to a better understanding of the mechanics of production of space, may contribute to further bridging geographical and psychoanalytical debates, and may have a political and transformative potential, with meaningful geographical implications.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0309132520942304

Religious diversity and inter-faith competition: the politics of camouflage in Italian cities

Territory, Politics, Governance, 2021

Religions play a significant role in Italian cities and, more generally, in the social, cultural ... more Religions play a significant role in Italian cities and, more generally, in the social, cultural and political lives of Italians. Since 1948, the Italian state has formally been secular, and it guarantees religious freedoms beyond Christianity. However, the reality is much more complex, as the hegemonic position of Catholicism is still evident, and religious minorities often deal with various forms of marginalization, stigmatization and lack of resources. This phenomenon is visible in Italian cities, particularly by looking at the evolving role of Catholic spaces such as parishes, and the parallel struggles for legitimation, visibility and resources of religious minorities. In this scenario, Italy seems to be increasingly characterized by various and uneven forms of inter-faith competition, which also imply rivalry in the spheres of charity, voluntarism and the provision of social services. This paper analyses the relations between religious groups and the Italian state, proposing the idea of a 'politics of camouflage' shaping inter-faith competition for resources and legitimation.

Cities are not products

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2020

This paper reflects critically on city branding by building on Kavaratzis and Ashworth's 2005 art... more This paper reflects critically on city branding by building on Kavaratzis and Ashworth's 2005 article 'City branding: An effective assertion of identity or a transitory marketing trick?' It discusses the relationships between urban geography and branding studies, and challenges the idea that cities may be considered as special kinds of products in need of specific branding techniques. This exercise entails reflection on the boundaries between the concept of branding and its potential relation with the commodification of cities.

Scenes from an urban outside: personal accounts of emotions, absences and planetary urbanism

City. Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 2019

This contribution to the Scenes & Sounds section of CITY reflects on the experience of feeling 'o... more This contribution to the Scenes & Sounds section of CITY reflects on the experience of feeling 'outside' the urban by focusing on urban absences. The argument is developed first through theoretical speculations on planetary urbanism, emotions and absences/presences. The paper then mobilises autobiographical accounts concerning the emotions that I experienced during a summer spent in an alpine village. The paper suggests that, in my emotional sphere, the village was a 'constitutive outside' of the urban, particularly through the manipulation of feelings of distance from, and proximity to, the urban. In this sense, the paper proposes that the village was not simply a 'negative other' of the urban; rather, it may be regarded as an outside which was relationally constructed in a position of continuity with the inside: the extra-urban may include and exceed the urban, and it may emotionally perform the role of a constitutive outside.

Politicising city branding: Some comments on Andrea Lucarelli’s ‘Place branding as urban policy’

Cities, 2018

Critical remarks on Andrea Lucarelli’s ‘Place branding as urban policy’ Final version publishe... more Critical remarks on Andrea Lucarelli’s ‘Place branding as urban policy’

Final version published as:
Vanolo, A. (2018), “Politicising city branding: Some comments on Andrea Lucarelli’s ‘Place branding as urban policy’”, Cities, v. 80, pp. 67-69.

Cities, special issue ‘City Marketing and Branding as Urban Policy’

Rivista Geografica Italiana, 2018

L’articolo propone una riflessione sulla figura del fantasma in relazione a spazi geografici ed e... more L’articolo propone una riflessione sulla figura del fantasma in relazione a spazi geografici ed emozioni. La tesi di fondo è che le presenze spettrali, in quanto caratterizzate da uno status intermedio fra visibile e invisibile, vita e morte, contemporaneità e passato, assenza e presenza, possono contribuire a sviluppare sguardi geografici complessi, tesi a superare visioni dicotomiche dello spazio e dei fenomeni sociali, e a cogliere l’importanza degli elementi ‘assenti’ nel dar forma a campi relazionali ed emozionali. In questo senso, si suggerisce l’importanza di sviluppare una sensibilità geografica spettrale e di riconoscere come gli spazi, le relazioni e i corpi che animano la geografia del quotidiano siano popolati da fantasmi.

Vanolo, A. (2018), “Fantasmi”, Rivista Geografica Italiana, 125, 3, pp. 369-381

L’uomo nel 2000, cinquanta anni dopo: città e futurologia nell’Italia del boom economico

Rivista Geografica Italiana, 2019

L'articolo propone una rilettura, a cinquant'anni dalla sua pubblicazione, del libro L'uomo nel 2... more L'articolo propone una rilettura, a cinquant'anni dalla sua pubblicazione, del libro L'uomo nel 2000 di Ugo Apollonio. L'analisi del testo e del discorso pubblico che l'ha accompagnato consente di sviluppare una riflessione sui mutamenti dell'immaginario futurologico urbano. La tesi proposta riguarda la sua sostanziale staticità: nonostante la presenza di narrazioni differenti, il pensiero relativo alla città di domani pare convergere intorno a un numero piuttosto limitato di idee, questioni e orizzonti. L'articolo intende quindi stimolare una riflessione circa le possibili relazioni fra geografia e futurologia, contribuendo al dibattito circa la natura e la forma degli immaginari urbani.

Parole chiave: Futurologia, tecnologia, smart city, città del futuro, immaginario urbano

Pubblicato come: Vanolo A. (2019), “L’uomo nel 2000, cinquanta anni dopo: città e futurologia nell’Italia del boom economico”,
Rivista Geografica Italiana, v. 126, n. 2, pp. 77-100.

Cities and the politics of gamification

Cities, 2017

Gamification is widely intended as the mobilisation and implementation of game elements in extra-... more Gamification is widely intended as the mobilisation and implementation of game elements in extra-ludic situations, including the management of social problems and issues. By mobilising virtual rewards and playful elements, mobile apps, websites, social initiatives and even urban policies are getting more and more gamified. The aim of this viewpoint paper is to stimulate a critical discussion on the potential relationships between gamification processes and cities, particularly by reflecting on the cultures of gamification and by discussing potential lines of research for urban studies.

Final version published as:
Vanolo A. (2017), “Cities and the politics of gamification”, Cities, v. 74, pp. 320-326; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.12.021

Selling cruises: Gender and mobility in promotional brochures

by Alberto Vanolo and Nadine Cattan

Tourist Studies, 2017

Leisure cruising combines movement and stativity in a particular tourist experience: users are su... more Leisure cruising combines movement and stativity in a particular tourist experience: users are supposed to enjoy very different activities, with the movement of the ship guiding them to their destinations. This article analyses visual representations of gender and mobility in over 600 images collected from leisure cruise promotional brochures by taking advantage of a qualitative methodology and by focusing on narratives related to themes of pleasure, work, age and contact with nature/culture. The results stress the presence of an implicitly masculine gaze, with complex and non-linear associations with the themes of mobility and immobility, which relates to visual narratives in a number of different ways, testifying to the multiple meanings that may be assumed by the idea, the practice and the experience of movement.

Final version published as:
A. Vanolo, N. Cattan (2017) ‘Selling cruises: Gender and mobility in promotional brochures’, Tourist Studies, v. 17, n. 4, pp. 406-425.

Turin and Lingotto: resilience, forgetting and the reinvention of place

by Annalisa Colombino and Alberto Vanolo

European Planning Studies, 2017

Lingotto used to be an important industrial site and a highly symbolic space at the heart of the ... more Lingotto used to be an important industrial site and a highly symbolic space at the heart of the city of Turin, Italy. The aim of this article is to analyse the multiple trajectories, spatialities and layers of memories, meanings and practices that overlapped within and across Lingotto in the last decades, following the changing economic conditions and connected discursive paradigms associated with the evolution of the local economy since the Fordist crisis of the 1970s. The analysis shows that Lingotto may be interpreted as a mirror of Turin's resilience strategies used to cope with the economic crises that have hit the city. Furthermore, it shows how Lingotto is a highly resilient urban fragment and building. Contrary to mainstream debates about the need to conserve and stage local urban heritages, this paper offers an account of Lingotto's resilience, which highlights how forgetting the past may be a strategy for tackling the present and being resilient. The analysis of the evolution of Lingotto thus contributes to understanding urban processes that entwine with the quest for resilience in the contemporary post-industrial city, stressing the ambiguous role of the often-implicit politics of forgetting and amnesia in a framework of urban resilience.

Published as:
A. Colombino, A. Vanolo (2017) ‘Turin and Lingotto: resilience, forgetting and the reinvention of place’, European Planning Studies, v. 25, n. 1, pp. 10-28; DOI:10.1080/09654313.2016.1254598

What is nocturnal about night studies? Insights from Turin, Italy

City Culture and Society, 2025

The relation between the urban diurnal and the urban nocturnal has been famously conceptualized w... more The relation between the urban diurnal and the urban nocturnal has been famously conceptualized with the metaphor of the night as frontier. Originally proposed by Murray Melbin in 1978, the phrase suggests that the nocturnal has been gradually colonized by the capitalist logics of the day. This article contributes to provincializing night studies by postulating a nonlinear and non-dichotomous relation between the urban diurnal and nocturnal. Specifically, the article adopts the philosophical perspective of the constitutive outside, as articulated in a recent strand of contemporary urban studies, exploring the paradoxical and even contradictory generative tensions shaping the meanings, materialities and politics of the urban night. This theoretical posture is explored through the case of Turin, Italy, a city that has developed a complex tension between the diurnal and the nocturnal which cannot be interpreted simply from a dichotomistic perspective, as the metaphor of the urban frontier suggests.

The LEGO railway station and the illusion of creativity

Lo Squaderno n. 69 - www.losquaderno.net, 2024

Vanolo A. (2024), The LEGO railway station and the illusion of creativity, Lo Squaderno, n. 69, p... more Vanolo A. (2024), The LEGO railway station and the illusion of creativity, Lo Squaderno, n. 69, pp. 15-20, www.losquaderno.net

LEGO is an influential cultural product, circulating worldwide in several forms beyond plastic toys (for example, images, movies, TV series, videogames, discussion forums, etc). Put in this light, LEGO products arguably play a role in shaping and influencing cultures and imaginaries. This contribution focuses on railway stations, looking at the evolution of sets since 1968 to suggest potential lines of research on LEGO urbanism and how apparently
innocent cultural products may mirror or actively reproduce – or potentially contest – hegemonic ideologies.

Sustainability and impossible worlds

by Filippo Menga and Alberto Vanolo

Environment and Plannning E: Nature and Space, 2024

This paper mobilises the idea of impossible worlds to conceptualise and explore inconsistent and ... more This paper mobilises the idea of impossible worlds to conceptualise and explore inconsistent and illogical visions and ways of living sustainably. Specifically, the paper focuses on an understanding of sustainability based on classic Kantian universalistic ethics (suppose everyone did the same) and relative feelings of responsibility and guilt for the environment. By mobilising three vignettes, the paper argues that impossibility is present in current environmental thinking, and narratives of impossibility have an emotional and political role in shaping popular discourses concerning environmentalism and responsibility. It suggests that exploring glitches, impossibilities, contradictions and inconsistencies may contribute to understanding the role of personal guilt in sustainability narratives, and potentially trigger change.

La geografia umana secondo un’intelligenza artificiale. Un piccolo esperimento

Rivista Geografica Italiana, 2023

Bozza dell’autore; la versione finale è pubblicata come: Vanolo A. (2023), “La geografia umana s... more

Autistic cities: critical urbanism and the politics of neurodiversity

City. Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, 2023

Vanolo A. (2023) “Autistic cities: critical urbanism and the politics of neurodiversity”, City. A... more Vanolo A. (2023) “Autistic cities: critical urbanism and the politics of neurodiversity”, City. Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, v. 27, n. 1-2, pp. 190-208.

Autism and neurodiversity are key topics in current public debate and in the social sciences. A vast multidisciplinary literature has explored spatial dimensions of neurodiversity, particularly by analyzing autistic experiences in private and public spaces and the design of autistic-friendly environments. Building on this literature and by presenting my personal experience as the father of an autistic child, this paper explores connections between critical urban studies and the social and political dimensions of neurodiversity. Focusing on different meanings, positions, and discourses shaping autistic experiences and neurodivergent identities in the capitalist city, the paper draws on the notions of 'queering' and 'cripping' autism. Lastly, the paper presents four tentative propositions about autistic cities, with two goals in mind: imagining more just, liveable and empowering cities, and suggesting that critical urban studies can themselves be stimulated by the encounter with neurodiversities.

Keywords: autism, neurodiversity, autistic city, queering autism, neurodiversicity

Repetition, movement and the visual ontographies of urban rephotography: learning from Smoke (1995)

by Tania Rossetto and Alberto Vanolo

Mobilities, 2022

Engaging with a scene of the iconic movie Smoke (by Wayne Wang, 1995) in which a rephotographic p... more Engaging with a scene of the iconic movie Smoke (by Wayne Wang, 1995) in which a rephotographic project is sensitively elicited, this paper addresses the technique of repeat photography to contribute to methodological debates that have arisen within the nascent 'Mobility and Humanities' subfield. Through a humanistic perspective, the paper reviews and expands the nexus between mobility, photography and the urban by comparing the technique with three methodological issues: the blurring of supposed binaries, such as traditional/innovative, static/moving and fast/slow; the possibility of grasping the mobilities of the world in a post-human vein; and the opportunity to also consider techniques as sites for reflection. To address these issues, the paper draws from philosophies of movement, post-phenomenological and object-oriented stances and visual and urban cultural geographies. With reference to the urban realm, this paper proposes three perspectives on rephotography, namely (1) rephotography as a practice of slow and rhythmic attunement with circumstantial spacetimes moving backwards and forwards; (2) rephotography as a visual ontography that displaces the human and opens up space for the apprehension of the agency and mobility of things; and (3) rephotography as a continual process of activation of moving gazes on cities and their imaginaries.

Urban Neoliberalism

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

The rise of neoliberalism as the hegemonic art of governing contemporary capitalist cities traces... more The rise of neoliberalism as the hegemonic art of governing contemporary capitalist cities traces its origins back to the 1980s, being associated with the ascent of conservative governments in the Unites States and the United Kingdom pursuing economic development strategies based on the conventional free market ideas. Since then, urban neoliberalism has spread across the globalizing world through an increasing emphasis being laid on the entrepreneurialization of local government, the privatization of public services,

Smartmentality: The Smart City as Disciplinary Strategy

Urban Studies, 2014

The paper analyses the concept of the smart city in critical perspective, focusing on the power/k... more The paper analyses the concept of the smart city in critical perspective, focusing on the power/knowledge implications for the contemporary city. On the one hand, smart city policies support new ways of imagining, organising and managing the city and its flows; on the other, they impress a new moral order on the city by introducing specific technical parameters in order to distinguish between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ city. The smart city discourse may therefore be a powerful tool for the production of docile subjects and mechanisms of political legitimisation. The paper is largely based on theoretical reflections and uses smart city politics in Italy as a case study. The paper analyses how the smart city discourse proposed by the European Union has been reclassified to produce new visions of the ‘good city’ and the role of private actors and citizens in the management of urban development.

Shops, food regeneration and a controversial signature building in Turin, Italy

European Planning Studies, 2022

The paper focuses on the case of PalaFuksas, a signature building inaugurated in 2005 and located... more The paper focuses on the case of PalaFuksas, a signature building inaugurated in 2005 and located in the central (but marginalized) area of Porta Palazzo in Turin, Italy. Originally designed to host clothing shops, the building had a history of failures and reconversions, and it is currently mainly used as a branded food hall. By mixing archive and qualitative research, the article focuses on the evolution amongst local stakeholders, of different ‘expectations’, intended as heterogeneous and not fully conscious and rational sets of ideas, imaginaries, forecasts. PalaFuksas was expected to be a successful and functional building to contain businesses, a flagship for the entire city, and to perform distinction and iconicity, acting as a regenerator for its neighbourhood. Failures in meeting these expectations implied a continuous renegotiation of the meanings, functions and identities of PalaFuksas, revealing the complexity of the processes at play in the attempt to sign, re-sign and ultimately ‘become’ a signature building.

The work of foodification: an analysis of food gentrification in Turin, Italy

by Panos Bourlessas, Samantha Cenere, and Alberto Vanolo

Bourlessas, P., Cenere, S., & Vanolo, A. (2021). The work of foodification: an analysis of food gentrification in Turin, Italy. Urban Geography, 1-22. doi:10.1080/02723638.2021.1927547, 2021

Intersecting culinary and retail geographies, this paper brings to centre stage food in retail ge... more Intersecting culinary and retail geographies, this paper brings to centre stage food in retail gentrification. Theoretically, it suggests that food, together with its spatialities, can produce a “displacement atmosphere” throughout retailscape by enabling privileged consumers to achieve distinction. Empirically, it draws from Porta Palazzo, Turin’s historical neighbourhood and marketplace, where the opening of a branded food hall reveals food’s role in the area’s early-stage retail gentrification. Attending to both the food hall and smaller emerging spatialities, the “work of foodification” is analyzed through three constitutive elements: discourse, materialities, practices. Within the city’s wider geographies and ongoing transformations, the synergy of these elements reveals that the work of foodification is the convert of Porta Palazzo into a device that, first, fixes a displacement atmosphere onto the local retailscape and, then, allows for the gentrification frontier to proceed. The paper responds to calls for re-conceptualizing displacement, contributing to emergent research on marketplaces as gentrification’s frontier spaces.

Shame, guilt, and the production of urban space

Progress in Human Geography, 2021

Guilt and shame operate in connection with individual and collective forces. This paper explores ... more Guilt and shame operate in connection with individual and collective forces. This paper explores how space is contingent in psychic processes, and how the generation and negotiation of feelings of guilt and shame develop in the interplay between internal processes of the mind and the worldly 'outside'. By presenting two examples, precisely commodity consumption and sex, and a set of fictional anecdotes, the article proposes a series of hypotheses concerning distance, proximity and visibility in relation to shame and guilt, and it analyses mechanisms of resistance to guilt and shame, which include spatial architectures of concealment, displacement and mimesis. It is argued that an explicit recognition of the role of guilt and shame in shaping urban spaces may lead to a better understanding of the mechanics of production of space, may contribute to further bridging geographical and psychoanalytical debates, and may have a political and transformative potential, with meaningful geographical implications.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0309132520942304

Religious diversity and inter-faith competition: the politics of camouflage in Italian cities

Territory, Politics, Governance, 2021

Religions play a significant role in Italian cities and, more generally, in the social, cultural ... more Religions play a significant role in Italian cities and, more generally, in the social, cultural and political lives of Italians. Since 1948, the Italian state has formally been secular, and it guarantees religious freedoms beyond Christianity. However, the reality is much more complex, as the hegemonic position of Catholicism is still evident, and religious minorities often deal with various forms of marginalization, stigmatization and lack of resources. This phenomenon is visible in Italian cities, particularly by looking at the evolving role of Catholic spaces such as parishes, and the parallel struggles for legitimation, visibility and resources of religious minorities. In this scenario, Italy seems to be increasingly characterized by various and uneven forms of inter-faith competition, which also imply rivalry in the spheres of charity, voluntarism and the provision of social services. This paper analyses the relations between religious groups and the Italian state, proposing the idea of a 'politics of camouflage' shaping inter-faith competition for resources and legitimation.

Cities are not products

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2020

This paper reflects critically on city branding by building on Kavaratzis and Ashworth's 2005 art... more This paper reflects critically on city branding by building on Kavaratzis and Ashworth's 2005 article 'City branding: An effective assertion of identity or a transitory marketing trick?' It discusses the relationships between urban geography and branding studies, and challenges the idea that cities may be considered as special kinds of products in need of specific branding techniques. This exercise entails reflection on the boundaries between the concept of branding and its potential relation with the commodification of cities.

Scenes from an urban outside: personal accounts of emotions, absences and planetary urbanism

City. Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 2019

This contribution to the Scenes & Sounds section of CITY reflects on the experience of feeling 'o... more This contribution to the Scenes & Sounds section of CITY reflects on the experience of feeling 'outside' the urban by focusing on urban absences. The argument is developed first through theoretical speculations on planetary urbanism, emotions and absences/presences. The paper then mobilises autobiographical accounts concerning the emotions that I experienced during a summer spent in an alpine village. The paper suggests that, in my emotional sphere, the village was a 'constitutive outside' of the urban, particularly through the manipulation of feelings of distance from, and proximity to, the urban. In this sense, the paper proposes that the village was not simply a 'negative other' of the urban; rather, it may be regarded as an outside which was relationally constructed in a position of continuity with the inside: the extra-urban may include and exceed the urban, and it may emotionally perform the role of a constitutive outside.

Politicising city branding: Some comments on Andrea Lucarelli’s ‘Place branding as urban policy’

Cities, 2018

Critical remarks on Andrea Lucarelli’s ‘Place branding as urban policy’ Final version publishe... more Critical remarks on Andrea Lucarelli’s ‘Place branding as urban policy’

Final version published as:
Vanolo, A. (2018), “Politicising city branding: Some comments on Andrea Lucarelli’s ‘Place branding as urban policy’”, Cities, v. 80, pp. 67-69.

Cities, special issue ‘City Marketing and Branding as Urban Policy’

Rivista Geografica Italiana, 2018

L’articolo propone una riflessione sulla figura del fantasma in relazione a spazi geografici ed e... more L’articolo propone una riflessione sulla figura del fantasma in relazione a spazi geografici ed emozioni. La tesi di fondo è che le presenze spettrali, in quanto caratterizzate da uno status intermedio fra visibile e invisibile, vita e morte, contemporaneità e passato, assenza e presenza, possono contribuire a sviluppare sguardi geografici complessi, tesi a superare visioni dicotomiche dello spazio e dei fenomeni sociali, e a cogliere l’importanza degli elementi ‘assenti’ nel dar forma a campi relazionali ed emozionali. In questo senso, si suggerisce l’importanza di sviluppare una sensibilità geografica spettrale e di riconoscere come gli spazi, le relazioni e i corpi che animano la geografia del quotidiano siano popolati da fantasmi.

Vanolo, A. (2018), “Fantasmi”, Rivista Geografica Italiana, 125, 3, pp. 369-381

L’uomo nel 2000, cinquanta anni dopo: città e futurologia nell’Italia del boom economico

Rivista Geografica Italiana, 2019

L'articolo propone una rilettura, a cinquant'anni dalla sua pubblicazione, del libro L'uomo nel 2... more L'articolo propone una rilettura, a cinquant'anni dalla sua pubblicazione, del libro L'uomo nel 2000 di Ugo Apollonio. L'analisi del testo e del discorso pubblico che l'ha accompagnato consente di sviluppare una riflessione sui mutamenti dell'immaginario futurologico urbano. La tesi proposta riguarda la sua sostanziale staticità: nonostante la presenza di narrazioni differenti, il pensiero relativo alla città di domani pare convergere intorno a un numero piuttosto limitato di idee, questioni e orizzonti. L'articolo intende quindi stimolare una riflessione circa le possibili relazioni fra geografia e futurologia, contribuendo al dibattito circa la natura e la forma degli immaginari urbani.

Parole chiave: Futurologia, tecnologia, smart city, città del futuro, immaginario urbano

Pubblicato come: Vanolo A. (2019), “L’uomo nel 2000, cinquanta anni dopo: città e futurologia nell’Italia del boom economico”,
Rivista Geografica Italiana, v. 126, n. 2, pp. 77-100.

Cities and the politics of gamification

Cities, 2017

Gamification is widely intended as the mobilisation and implementation of game elements in extra-... more Gamification is widely intended as the mobilisation and implementation of game elements in extra-ludic situations, including the management of social problems and issues. By mobilising virtual rewards and playful elements, mobile apps, websites, social initiatives and even urban policies are getting more and more gamified. The aim of this viewpoint paper is to stimulate a critical discussion on the potential relationships between gamification processes and cities, particularly by reflecting on the cultures of gamification and by discussing potential lines of research for urban studies.

Final version published as:
Vanolo A. (2017), “Cities and the politics of gamification”, Cities, v. 74, pp. 320-326; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.12.021

Selling cruises: Gender and mobility in promotional brochures

by Alberto Vanolo and Nadine Cattan

Tourist Studies, 2017

Leisure cruising combines movement and stativity in a particular tourist experience: users are su... more Leisure cruising combines movement and stativity in a particular tourist experience: users are supposed to enjoy very different activities, with the movement of the ship guiding them to their destinations. This article analyses visual representations of gender and mobility in over 600 images collected from leisure cruise promotional brochures by taking advantage of a qualitative methodology and by focusing on narratives related to themes of pleasure, work, age and contact with nature/culture. The results stress the presence of an implicitly masculine gaze, with complex and non-linear associations with the themes of mobility and immobility, which relates to visual narratives in a number of different ways, testifying to the multiple meanings that may be assumed by the idea, the practice and the experience of movement.

Final version published as:
A. Vanolo, N. Cattan (2017) ‘Selling cruises: Gender and mobility in promotional brochures’, Tourist Studies, v. 17, n. 4, pp. 406-425.

Turin and Lingotto: resilience, forgetting and the reinvention of place

by Annalisa Colombino and Alberto Vanolo

European Planning Studies, 2017

Lingotto used to be an important industrial site and a highly symbolic space at the heart of the ... more Lingotto used to be an important industrial site and a highly symbolic space at the heart of the city of Turin, Italy. The aim of this article is to analyse the multiple trajectories, spatialities and layers of memories, meanings and practices that overlapped within and across Lingotto in the last decades, following the changing economic conditions and connected discursive paradigms associated with the evolution of the local economy since the Fordist crisis of the 1970s. The analysis shows that Lingotto may be interpreted as a mirror of Turin's resilience strategies used to cope with the economic crises that have hit the city. Furthermore, it shows how Lingotto is a highly resilient urban fragment and building. Contrary to mainstream debates about the need to conserve and stage local urban heritages, this paper offers an account of Lingotto's resilience, which highlights how forgetting the past may be a strategy for tackling the present and being resilient. The analysis of the evolution of Lingotto thus contributes to understanding urban processes that entwine with the quest for resilience in the contemporary post-industrial city, stressing the ambiguous role of the often-implicit politics of forgetting and amnesia in a framework of urban resilience.

Published as:
A. Colombino, A. Vanolo (2017) ‘Turin and Lingotto: resilience, forgetting and the reinvention of place’, European Planning Studies, v. 25, n. 1, pp. 10-28; DOI:10.1080/09654313.2016.1254598

La città autistica [Einaudi, 2024]

La città autistica, 2024

Che cos'è una città «autistica»? È uno spazio per immaginare e sperimentare modi diversi di inten... more Che cos'è una città «autistica»? È uno spazio per immaginare e sperimentare modi diversi di intendere le diversità, incluse quelle neurologiche, anche al di là del linguaggio delle categorie, delle diagnosi e delle disabilità. Il mondo ha bisogno di città del genere: «autistico» non va inteso in senso peggiorativo e la condizione di neurodiversità può offrire molto per progettare città più vivibili e aperte. Costruire realtà urbane migliori significa anche sovvertire le categorie morali e i linguaggi comunemente associati all'autismo. Alberto Vanolo offre una serie di proposte provocatorie per la città autistica, una sorta di manifesto con principî generali per immaginare realtà urbane più semplici e sostenibili, non solo per chi vive una condizione di neurodivergenza.

City Branding. The Ghostly Politics of Representation in Globalising Cities [Routledge, 2017] [chapter 1]

Alberto Vanolo, City Branding. The Ghostly Politics of Representation in Globalising Cities, Rout... more Alberto Vanolo, City Branding. The Ghostly Politics of Representation in Globalising Cities, Routledge, New York and London, 2017

The file includes cover, table of contents and chapter 1 (manuscript)

Book abstract
Since the 1990s, city branding has become a key factor in urban development policies. Cities all over the world take specific actions to manipulate the imagery and the perceptions of places, both in the eyes of the inhabitants and in those of potential tourists, investors, users and consumers.
City Branding: The Ghostly Politics of Representation in Globalising Cities explores different sides of place branding policies. The construction and the manipulation of urban images triggers a complex politics of representation, modifying the visibility and the invisibility of spaces, subjects, problems and discourses. In this sense, urban branding is not an innocent tool; this book aims to investigate and reflect on the ideas of urban life, the political unconscious, the affective geographies and the imaginaries of power constructed and reproduced through urban branding.

Geografie dello sviluppo: una prospettiva critica e globale

by Filippo Celata, Elisa Bignante, and Alberto Vanolo

Perché alcune regioni sono ricche, attraenti, centrali, mentre altre sono povere, periferiche, de... more Perché alcune regioni sono ricche, attraenti, centrali, mentre altre sono povere, periferiche, desolate? Il sottosviluppo è semplicemente la mancanza di sviluppo? I paesi poveri sono ‘in ritardo’ nel loro percorso di sviluppo, ma prima o poi diventeranno ‘come noi’? Quali sono i meccanismi che sottintendono alla produzione e riproduzione di centri e di periferie geografiche? Perché ogni luogo sviluppa una particolare specializzazione e svolge un differente ruolo nell’economia globale?
Geografie dello sviluppo affronta questi ed altri quesiti e, a partire da alcuni temi-chiave, propone una rassegna ragionata e critica di classiche teorie geografiche, unite ad alcune delle riflessioni più attuali e provocatorie della disciplina. Il tentativo non è tanto quello di fornire risposte univoche, quanto piuttosto suggerire come riformulare e problematizzare il rapporto tra sviluppo economico e spazio geografico, aprendo lo sguardo a nuovi modi di pensare alla struttura e all’organizzazione del mondo.

Urban Political Geographies. A Global Perspective [Sage, 2012] [introduction]

by Ugo Rossi and Alberto Vanolo

Geografia politica urbana [Laterza, 2010]

Geografia economica del sistema-mondo. Territori e reti nello scenario globale [Utet, 2010]

Per uno sviluppo policentrico dello spazio europeo. Sistemi innovativi territoriali nell’Europa sud-occidentale [Franco Angeli, 2003]

Psychoanalytic geographies

The Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2024

Psychoanalytic geographies include a variegated field of research and theories concerning the rel... more Psychoanalytic geographies include a variegated field of research and theories concerning the relations between psychoanalysis and space, including the use of concepts from psychoanalysis to analyze and interpret geographical phenomena, the contribution of psychoanalysis in methodological perspectives, and the role of space in psychic processes.

Pornhub helps. Digital corporations in Italian pandemic cities

Vanolo A. (2023) “Pornhub helps. Digital corporations in Italian pandemic cities”, in D. Mackinno... more Vanolo A. (2023) “Pornhub helps. Digital corporations in Italian pandemic cities”, in D. Mackinnon, V. Fast and R. Burns (eds), Digital (In)Justice in the Smart City, Toronto University Press, pp. 195-208.

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on societies. This chapter develops a reflection on the legitimation of digital corporations and smart interventions in the scenario of Italian pandemics. Facts and anecdotes are mobilized in the paper in order to describe how, during the crisis, various corporations assumed novel moral positions. Then, the paper considers the case of Immuni, the Italian digital app for tracking potential infections. Ultimately, the chapter speculates on ongoing transformations in the diffusion of smart city rationales during the crisis.

Keywords:
Smart city, digital infrastructures, justice, solutionism, Immuni, Covid-19

Clouds and movements

by Panos Bourlessas and Alberto Vanolo

Hybrid Mobilities. Transgressive Spatialities, 2022

Clouds are common elements in everyday life. Cloud physics and the science of clouds provide answ... more Clouds are common elements in everyday life. Cloud physics and the science of clouds provide answers to questions about their formation, their characteristics, and their movement in the atmosphere. Yet clouds are also multifaceted elements in popular cultures as well as atmospheric geographies, which evoke various ideas of materiality and movement. And a cloud today is also a key technological concept, related to ubiquitous access to shared pools of data, resources, and services. The aim of this chapter is to develop a tentative geography of clouds and their variegated movements by engaging with different conceptual approaches. Merging perspectives from cultural geography (particularly post-human and atmospheric geographies) with ideas on physics and computing technologies, the chapter aims to transgress conventional epistemological and discursive boundaries, in order to stress the need for geographical understandings of movement that embrace the multitude of spatialities, ontologies, and epistemologies associated with the movement of non-human objects.

Final version published as:
Bourlessas P., Vanolo A. (2022) “Clouds and movements”, in N. Cattan and L. Faret (eds), Hybrid Mobilities. Transgressive Spatialities, Routledge, New York, pp. 76-93.

Urban Neoliberalism [in: International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015]

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

The rise of neoliberalism as the hegemonic art of governing contemporary capitalist cities traces... more The rise of neoliberalism as the hegemonic art of governing contemporary capitalist cities traces its origins back to the 1980s, being associated with the ascent of conservative governments in the Unites States and the United Kingdom pursuing economic development strategies based on the conventional free market ideas. Since then, urban neoliberalism has spread across the globalizing world through an increasing emphasis being laid on the entrepreneurialization of local government, the privatization of public services, and the commodification of urban space. In this context, urban neoliberalism has taken the form of a highly mobile government technology, giving rise to a tremendous variety of politico-economic regimes across the globe through processes of hybridization and variegation. This article describes the variegated geographies of neoliberalism, ending with an analysis of the recent global recession which is understood as a crisis of (urban) neoliberalism.

Smart city as a mobile technology: critical perspectives on urban development policies [in: Transforming City Governments for Successful Smart Cities, 2015]

Transforming City Governments for Successful Smart Cities, 2015

Regenerating what? The politics and geographies of actually existing regeneration [in: The Routledge Companion to Urban Regeneration, 2013]

The Routledge Companion to Urban Regeneration, 2013

Since the late 1970s urban regeneration has become a powerful catchword associated with processes... more Since the late 1970s urban regeneration has become a powerful catchword associated with processes of neo-liberalization, post-modernization and globalization in a context of increasingly immaterialized capitalism. In Europe and most notably in continental Europe, the advent of the European Union has intersected with the aforementioned structural processes at the global scale. The resulting experiences of urban regeneration in Europe reflect the intermingling of European models of urban governance with broader processes of globalization and neo-liberalization. As a result, the term urban regeneration in continental Europe appears to be rather indeterminate in its outcomes compared with the Anglo-American context in which this and related terms were originally coined. The Chapter develops this argument by using the illustrative cases of the regeneration processes in central areas of Turin and Naples, two large cities in Italy located in the prosperous North and the less advantaged South, respectively.

Spatialities of Control (Turin 2006) [in: Surveillance and Security during the Winter Olympic Games, 2016]

Surveillance and Security during the Winter Olympic Games, 2016

The chapter offers an analysis of the organization, the performance and the perceptions involved ... more The chapter offers an analysis of the organization, the performance and the perceptions involved in the surveillance and security management activities carried on during the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games. The research, conducted mainly through analysis of policy and security documents, newspaper articles and by interviews with local scholars, workers and spectators, will focus on the organization of spaces, on the practices of surveillance, and on the technologies involved in the management of the bodies of the spectators and the staff in order to guarantee security in the performance of the public ritual of the Games.
First, the event is be framed in the specific geographical and social context of Torino and the Piedmont region. Next, security threats are discussed with reference to the local context, particularly by analysing technical and planning documents and newspapers discussing the various presumed menaces to security. Then, the governance system and the organization of security spaces are presented. Finally, the last part of the paper discusses the different views and perceptions of politicians, spectators and urban social movement opposing the Games.

Manuscript; final version published as:
Vanolo A. (2016), “Spatialities of Control (Turin 2006)”, in V. Bajc (ed.), Surveilling and Securing the Olympics. From Toyko 1964 to London 2012 and Beyond, Palgrave MacMillan, New York, pp. 297-318.

Ghostly cities. Some notes on urban branding and the imagining of places [in: Branding the nation, the place, the product, 2018]

Branding the nation, the place, the product, 2018

This book chapter develops an understanding of branding by working on the metaphor of the ghost. ... more This book chapter develops an understanding of branding by working on the metaphor of the ghost. The main thesis proposed here is that many urban imaginaries have an ambiguous status, between the visible and the invisible; they are palpable and powerful presences, despite being by and large immaterial and shadowy. City branding may be hence conceptualised as ghostly play, involving managing the visibility and invisibility of urban elements, also by the exercise of summoning, concealing, exorcising and domesticating urban spectres.

Manuscript; final version published as:
Vanolo, A. (2018), “Ghostly cities. Some notes on urban branding and the imagining of places”, in U. Ermann and K.-J. Hermanik (eds.), Branding the Nation, the Place, the Product, Routledge, London, pp. 53-66

Playmentalities. Sony Playstation [in: How to run a city like Amazon, and other fables, 2019]

How to Run a City Like Amazon, and Other Fables, 2019

Book chapter in M. Graham, R. Kitchin, S. Mattern and J. Shaw (eds), How to Run a City Like Amazo... more

Anarchism and urban planning [in: The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2019]

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2019

Anarchism and urban planning. Encyclopedia entry, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology

'City of Light': The production of urban space by the esoteric spiritual community of Damanhur, Italy [in: Enabling Urban Alternatives: Crises, Contestation, and Cooperation, 2019]

Enabling Urban Alternatives: Crises, Contestation, and Cooperation, 2019

Manuscript; final version published as: Palmisano S., Vanolo A. (2019), “‘City of Light’: The pro... more Manuscript; final version published as:
Palmisano S., Vanolo A. (2019), “‘City of Light’: The production of urban space by the esoteric spiritual community of Damanhur, Italy”, in K. J. Fisker, L. Chiappini, L. Pugalis, A. Bruzzese (eds.), Enabling Urban Alternatives: Crises, Contestation, and Cooperation, Palgrave MacMillan, Singapore, pp. 247-270.

Playable urban citizenship: Social justice and the gamification of civic life [in: The Right to The Smart City, 2019]

The right to the smart city, 2019

Over the last few years, technological developments have allowed new possibilities for fostering ... more Over the last few years, technological developments have allowed new possibilities for fostering civic participation and engagement, as testified by various smart city experiments. In this framework, game elements are diffusely mobilized in order to develop responsible and active citizens with the aim of tackling urban problems. Gamification may be effective in nudging citizens and promoting various forms of participation, but fundamental ethical and political questions have to be addressed. This chapter develops the argument by interpreting gamification in light of the classic conceptualization of social justice proposed by David Harvey, arguing that participation through gamification potentially implies critical elements of injustice.

Published as: Vanolo A. (2019), “Playable urban citizenship: Social justice and the gamification of civic life”, in P. Cardullo, C. Di Feliciantonio, R. Kitchin (eds.), The Right to The Smart City, Emerald, Bingley, pp. 57-69.

Urban citizenship: Insurgencies and recognition

by Ugo Rossi and Alberto Vanolo

Ugo Rossi & Alberto Vanolo (2012) Urban Political Geographies. A Global Perspective. Sage, London.

The spaces of 'national citizenship', understood as a simultaneously legal, cultural and societal... more The spaces of 'national citizenship', understood as a simultaneously legal, cultural and societal sense of belonging, have been eroded by the forces of globalization and neoliberalism. While the advent of globalization has undermined the primacy of state-centred citizenship, the resurgence of the local scale of governance and economic development has led to the re-emergence of cities and metropolitan areas as crucial spaces of contention over the recognition of minority identities and a variety of shifting positionalities. The city is the space in which a denationalized dimension of collective and individual belonging appears to be founded on truly cross-national relationships and socio-spatial practices. Urban citizenship, therefore, intersects with post-national senses of belonging and the everyday cosmopolitanism of international migrants. Along with the recognition of ethnicity and cultural difference, sexuality represents a contentious terrain for minority politics in contemporary cities. The negotiation of sexual citizenship typically reproduces the contradictions of the politics of recognition in a context of neoliberal urban governance.

Glossary (key terms in critical urban studies)

by Ugo Rossi and Alberto Vanolo

Urban Political Geographies. A Global Perspective, 2012

This glossary is part of Urban Political Geographies. A Global Perspective, a book by Ugo Rossi e... more This glossary is part of Urban Political Geographies. A Global Perspective, a book by Ugo Rossi e Alberto Vanolo. It provides a concise definition of key terms in critical urban studies and particularly in geographical scholarship dealing with urban politics at a time of globalisation and neoliberalism.

Nuova geografia politica urbana

by Ugo Rossi and Alberto Vanolo

Laterza, 2024

Negli ultimi cinquant’anni, per la prima volta nella storia, nelle aree urbane è giunta a concent... more Negli ultimi cinquant’anni, per la prima volta nella storia, nelle aree urbane è giunta a concentrarsi la maggioranza dell’umanità. La rapida avanzata dell’urbanizzazione planetaria sta comportando trasformazioni radicali nelle condizioni di vita del nostro pianeta. Le strategie di rappresentazione dell’immagine urbana, le diverse espressioni della città creativa, le forme e le pratiche del governo locale, la geopolitica urbana, i movimenti per la giustizia sociale e la cittadinanza sono i principali temi affrontati dagli autori. Questo libro – che riprende, espande e aggiorna la precedente edizione del 2010 – offre una comprensione critica del multiforme e conflittuale universo della politica urbana, stabilendo un confronto serrato tra geografia, sociologia, pianificazione urbana, antropologia culturale, scienza politica.

Forewords to Urban Political Geographies_Ola Söderström/Jamie Peck/Abdoumaliq Simone

by Ugo Rossi and Alberto Vanolo

Urban Political Geographies. A Global Perspective, 2012

- Ola Söderström: The Athenian Symptom - Jamie Peck: The Nine Lives of Neoliberalism - Abdoumal... more

lo Squaderno 62 | Ghosts [crowds]

by Andrea Pavoni, Alberto Vanolo, Annaclaudia Martini, Giulia de Spuches, and Gabriella Palermo

lo Squaderno, 2022

lo Squaderno no. 62 | Ghosts [Crowds]

by losquaderno_ journal, Alberto Vanolo, Annaclaudia Martini, Giulia de Spuches, and Mariana G Bonadio

lo Squaderno, 2022