Inequalities and social exclusion in urban milieus

The literature on social cohesion is widely acknowledged to be characterised by a proliferation of definitions that have proved difficult to combine or reconcile. There is no doubt that social cohesion is a concept that has been asked to "do a lot of work" and that has deserved to be paid extra. Despite its pivotal role both in much academic and political literature and in many other forms of discourse and social practice, therefore some uncertainty remains regarding the comprehensive use of the concept of social cohesion. It is still necessary to reflect on and discuss what is meant by social cohesion, why adopt this notion, how it is different from other practices of integration and how it stands in relation to the notion of economic inequality and poverty. My lecture shall attempt to address these questions. My focus of analysis is on the neighbourhood and the local community. This implies a specific attention on people's repeated interactions that are spatially specific. Although to a large degree social cohesion impacts at an international and national level, it is at the local level that the processes involved in the notion of social cohesion are embodied in concrete practices and cultural patterns. The way urban space is shaped and segmented by local urban policies, demographic and mobility trends and crystallised local cultural and political traditions and is reproduced within area-based interaction processes and spatial contiguity or separation is an essential aspect for understanding what "holds society together" and how to support trajectories of local development . The lecture shows the historical transformation of poor and/or segregated neighbourhoods and the corresponding levels of confrontation and separation in the timeframe ranging from the “extensive” accumulation regime of the XIX century to the “fragmented” regime that emerged from the crisis of the 1970s. It focuses on the peculiarities of the “porous neighbourhood”, characterized by low levels of segregation, albeit the rates of poverty and unemployment are persistently high. This model is able to foster informal fields of interaction which allow the most disadvantaged subjects to develop strategies for survival within the framework of a shared cultural model and a relatively high level of social cohesion although within the context of deep social inequalities.