Urban poverty and social cohesion: lessons from Naples

The chapter describes the historical transformation of poor and/or segregated districts 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 Neapolitan case, and of Southern European cities in general, characterized by low levels of segregation, albeit the rates of poverty and unemployment are persistently high. This model fosters informal fields of interaction that allow the most disadvantaged subjects to develop survival strategies and to cooperate also in absence of those shared cultural models that the politics of recognition find so relevant. Without resorting to the abusing metaphor of the porous city, we can say that in Naples there is a long tradition of practice of “togetherness” among strangers , places where people can meet out of scheduled arrangements. These forms of encounters are based on friendships and kinship networks but also on the simple sharing of daily life and work spaces. It is the very structure of the historical center of the city, resistant to gentrification , with alleys , markets , craft shops at the street level , which encourages this type of spontaneous learning to “togetherness”.