#géographi

Géographies de la colère. #Ronds-points et prés carrés

https://journals.openedition.org/gc/docannexe/file/14711/couv_114-small200.jpg

Dans un contexte de crise économique, de catastrophe climatique, de luttes altermondialistes et démocratiques, la première décennie du XXIe siècle a été le théâtre de contestations sociales marquées par un ancrage spatial des #revendications et des #conflits. #Printemps_arabes, #Gilets_jaunes, #Blacks_Lives_Matter, #MeToo, #marches_pour_le_climat… Les #mobilisations et les #mouvements_sociaux visant à la défense de causes spécifiques s’enchaînent, et la colère semble un puissant dénominateur commun de ces manifestations disparates. Ce numéro de Géographie et cultures ambitionne de questionner les traductions spatiales de ces colères. À la faveur d’un mouvement inédit en France difficile à comprendre et à décrypter avec des grilles classiques des sciences humaines et sociales, les différents articles analysant les logiques spatiales des Gilets jaunes traduisent un besoin de renouvellement des cadres de compréhension : les ronds-points périphériques deviennent des pôles de #luttes et parfois de #violences_policières, la cartographie devient participative en demeurant un outil de combat, le périurbain n’est (toujours) pas une périphérie homogène. Des échos sont clairement identifiables dans d’autres colères issues de l’injustice de traitement : l’accès aux services publics, la violence faite aux femmes, aux Noirs (aux États-Unis). Ce numéro s’inscrit à différentes échelles : très locale quand il s’agit du fonctionnement quotidien d’un rond-point occupé ou des luttes contre les projets éoliens à celle, internationale, des violences terroristes.

▻https://journals.openedition.org/gc/14706
#revue #géographie #géographie_de_la_colère

C’est pour bientôt, et bientôt un peu de matos sur visionscarto

Ceci est l’annonce de la sortie d’un ouvrage qui parle de cartographie radicale aux éditions La Découverte avec @nepthys et @reka.

En librairie le 14 octobre.

►https://www.editionsladecouverte.fr/cartographie_radicale-9782373680539

Ce livre est né de la rencontre entre une historienne et un géographe. La spécialiste du système de représentation statistique Isotype développé par Otto Neurath décortique le fonctionnement de la carte en tant qu’image et discours sur le monde. Le géographe, s’appuyant sur quelques dizaines d’années de recherche et de pratique cartographique (donc sémiologique et géométrique), revient sur le pouvoir de la carte, autant oppressive et aliénante que résistante et combattante, et raconte comment elle révèle l’invisible.

À la croisée de ces analyses, l’objet carte se fait tour à tour instrument, outil ou arme pour faire naître la possibilité de la carte radicale et critique, mais aussi expérimentale. L’ouvrage cherche à en définir les contours.

Cette exploration, toute en images, promène lectrices et lecteurs dans le monde multiforme des cartes, à la découverte de cet art de la carte qui met en dialogue science et politique, oscillant sans cesse entre le réel et l’imaginaire.



https://dl.dropbox.com/s/3urh426995o2q0l/carto%20radicale%20couverture.png?dl=0

From Form‑Trans‑Inform to Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée. A Discussion with Doina Petrescu and Constantin Petcou
Zeppelin
▻https://e-zeppelin.ro/en/from-form%e2%80%91trans%e2%80%91inform-to-atelier-darchitecture-autogeree

Summer 2021

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Interview: Alex Axinte

Co-founded by Constan­tin Petcou and Doina Petrescu, atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa) is “a collective platform of research and action around urban change and emerging cultural, social and political practices in the contemporary city. aaa initiates and supports strategies of ecological transition involving citizen locally and internationally. aaa acts against global crisis (ecological, economic, political, social, etc) by creating the conditions for citizen to participate in the ecological transition and adopting resilient ways of living. aaa functions within an open interdisciplinary network, where different viewpoints cross each other: architects, artists, students, researchers, pensioners, politicians, activists, residents, etc.

aaa is an international reference in the field of participative architecture and urban resilience, aaa’s projects have been exhibited at Venise Biennale 2012 and 2016, MoMA New York, Berlin Biennale, Pavilion d’Arsenal Paris, Untied Nation Pavilion Geneva, etc. For its activity, aaa has received international recogni­tion and numerous awards across the years including the International Resilient Award Building for Humanity (2018), The Innovation in Politics Award for Ecology (2017) being one of the “100 projects for the climate” selected by the public at COP21 (2015). (Alex Axinte)

The passages bellow are extracted from a series of conversations I had during several days with Doina Petrescu and Constantin Petcou. At their studio, at home, in cafes and metros or visiting their projects located in different Paris suburbs, we spoke about their beginnings in Romania, about their current practice atelier d’architecture autogérée (aaa) and about future plans. While still in school, within the social and political context of 1980’s Romania, they were involved in initiating groups and networks, they engaged in experiment and innovation, building after graduation an alternative practice through a critically approach of architecture.

Visiting aaa. Drawing by Alex Axinte

Alex Axinte: Let’s start from the time when you were professionally and humanly trained in Romania within the socialist education system of that time. Has this contributed to what your practice became?

Doina Petrescu: Certainly it was a seed there, which wasn’t enough by itself, but it was important because this prepared us to face practical situations, knowing everything that a traditional architect should know. And this thing was a solid base, for knowing how to build, knowing about materials, knowing about structure, knowing history, you can see now that this is not taught in schools anymore, that these became specializations, you specialize in such things. We learned them all. And somehow this general formation counted a solid base, as a foundation. On top of this you can add other more sophisticated things, you may try to position yourself, you can take a stand, and you can develop certain interests. So this was one of the good things. Other good thing from the school, not necessarily different from the school, but one that we took or created in the school, was some sort of parallel school, of which Constantin can say more because he initiated it, adding the fact that the school allowed us the freedom to do other things.

Constantin Petcou: I did two interesting things in school: first is that I walked a lot through Bucharest and I took the street as a teacher. I had also good teachers, but I studied a lot vernacular architecture. And second is that I initiated a group, a sort of school in school, which was called Form-Trans-Inform and which was based on knowledge theory, and other theories as well. [Stratford H, Petrescu D & Petcou C (2008) Form-Trans-Inform: the ‘poetic’ resistance in architecture. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 12(02)] Basically it was a transdisciplinary group: there were students from scenography, we had interactions with others too, we also organized some events in Club A, we invited philosophes, art critiques, until they spotted me and wanted me to enrol in the party…

“Inner Gesture“ – happening, Baneasa 1982, team: Constantin Petcou, Constantin Gorcea, Florin Neagoe, Lavinia Marșu, Doru Deacu, Sorin Vatamaniuc, Constantin Fagețean ©Form-Trans-Inform

AA: What vernacular Bucharest meant?

CP: It meant some fabulous neighbourhoods, because many they were self-constructed, this being usual in mahalas (ie. popular neighbourhoods). The inhabitants were partly self-sufficient: they were already controlling the household climate, having a lot of courtyards covered with vine, they were trying to produce energy, and there were quite a lot of wind mills, they were trying to produce food by raising pigeons in big cages , which were flying all around… It was like in Garcia Marquez. If you were really sensitive to space and wind and light, you were blown away by how much you could see and feel…

AA: Is this something that you were looking for also in Paris, or you rather came with this type of looking from Bucharest?

CP: In Paris you don’t have such a thing. I think it was a root that we came from there.

DP: Yes, and we applied this later in projects like R-Urban and other projects which we developed later. It was a lesson we have learned, we have understood from those conditions. Also, we still kept having this sensibility to “read” spaces’ potentiality. For example you see a square and some trees: you realise that there is a place there with a certain urban quality and in Bucharest there were many such places with very special qualities due to the urban typologies and ways of living. This mahala type of living was actually a sensitive urban typology.

Constantin rises on his tops and waters the plants hanging from the studio’s ceiling. We flip through black and white magazines in which there were published some of their projects receiving prizes in paper architecture competitions. They tell me about how they became involved in organizing exhibitions, about working with clothing, about publications which didn’t make it past the 1st issue and where many articles finished with ‘to be continued’. Than, they continued with their architect’s life in Romania before ’89: Doina working in sistematizare (state planning) and Constantin as ‘mister Design’ in a factory of clothing and shoes. Here, with found materials, they worked together for redesigning an office space as a sort of ‘participative deconstructivist’ manifesto, quite provocative at the time. Doina goes out in the courtyard and ransacks bended over some compost containers. Here are their pets, some big earthworms which just received banana peels as their favourite meal. After ’90 they left for Paris guided by the idea to continue their postgraduate studies and than to come back.

“Catarg towards Ithaca“ –“Honorable mention“ at Shinkenchiku Residential Competition, Japan, 1986. Echipa de proiect/Project team: Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu, Mircea Stefan, Victor Badea

*The Design section atelier – Valceana Leather Factory, 1988. Project team : Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu ©ConstantinPetcou

AA: It is a fairly quite spread perception, that architecture is architecture and politics is politics. We are doing our job, we design, we build. If this supports an ideology or not, this is not architecture’s business. How architecture became for you a political acting?

DP: I think that in a way it was the context that forced us when we started. We started from scratch. And we had to invent ways of negotiating to gain access to space, to gain access to ways of practicing architecture, and we quickly realized that such a negotiation is political and that actually you need to learn to speak with people caring political responsibilities. But at the same time, we realized that the very fact of asking, of doing the practice differently is a political act. There were some things we refused to do, such as the conventional capitalist practice. We wanted to facilitate the inhabitants’ access to space, for any city inhabitant, we wanted to open urban spaces that are closed and that are controlled either by the municipalities or other institutions, and this is already a political act. We managed to ensure access to space, and afterwards, slowly, the self-management of the space, which was also a process, by persuading people that they have to become responsible if they want to use the space, that they need to learn how to manage it, to get along, to organize. This is in fact what Deleuze and Guatarri are calling micro-politics, meaning politics at the level of the subject, transformations at the subjective level. [Deleuze, G. and F. Guattari (2004), Anti-Oedipus, London: Continuum] We always worked with people. Our architecture always included this subjective and social architecture into the project. The fact that we formed a social group around the project, that people have changed, that they changed their interest, all these are for us part of architecture.

AA: Do you tend towards consensus in your projects?

CP: We don’t really use the word consensus. It is about temporary equilibrium. In any such a project, as there are many people involved, and here we speak about governance, co-management and self-management, there are various interests, there are people with different cultural backgrounds – some are employed, others not -­ and people with more or less time. So they cannot have the same vision over the use of space, over the type of activities, and then you need to reach some agreements, some temporary, partial deals, which should not suffocate the others and allow others to emerge. What we do is to give the inhabitants the opportunity to appropriate a space, an equipment, a way of organising time together, of organising the neighbourhood’s life, which are ecological, solidary, all this obviously with some guidance. Because the majority of inhabitants of the banlieue are very much excluded. And we are offering them an emancipatory space, or, in Guatarri’s language, a re-subjectivation capacity, very useful in today’s society which excludes many. [F. Guattari (1977), La révolution Moléculaire, Paris: ed. Recherches] In such spaces they gain new qualities; someone is a gardener, someone else takes care of the chickens, somebody else of the compost, one of the kitchen…

DP: This is actualy the micro-politics.

CP: Including until the kids’ level. I remember when we were at the Ecobox I had a lot of keys and a kid asked me, mais Constantin, you have keys from every space in the neighbourhood?! Can you open any space? And obviously that I answered yes, because, for his imaginary it was very important to know that you can open spaces, that you can make this urban space to evolve, which has become now more and more expensive, inaccessible and segregated. Such imaginary is fundamental for the “right to the city”, it is to know that, even for a kid, space could be negotiable, accessible and welcoming, that there are no barriers and walls. Actually, we don’t make walls: we make doors, windows, bridges… this is the kind of things we are building.

Steering to the passers-by, Doina recollects her diploma project for which she collaborated with an ethnologist to design something which today could be called an ethnological cultural hub. Once arrived in Paris, after a master, they began teaching, being among others the co-founders of Paris-Malaquais architecture school. Step by step, they began to act as citizens, teachers and architects in the neighbourhood where they were living: La Chapelle. This is how aaa started. In the same time, they kept on teaching and initiating projects also in Romania, in Brezoi, but which got stuck. Constantin starts the fire in a small godin in the Agrocite, located in southern Paris, at Bagneux, which is a sort of ecological prototype spatializing aaa’s concepts: short circuits, popular ecology, urban resilience.

Mobile modules – EcoBox project, 2003. Project team: Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu, Denis Favret, Giovanni Piovene ©aaa

*Eco interstice “Passage 56“ – street view, 2007, Project team: Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu, Raimund Binder, Sandra Pauquet, Nolwenn Marchand ©aaa

AA: 100 years after Bauhaus, 50 years after the May ’68 revolt and 30 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, within the current global capitalism crisis, all Bauhaus’ principles of how to live and work together are becoming again relevant. In this context, how legitimate is still Bauhaus’s questions if design can change society, and what it means to be modern today?

DP: So all these ideas are reaching some sort of anniversary and one needs to take them together, one cannot take only Bauhaus ideas, but also other ideas which came after in order to understand what can design do today: participation, global democracy, ecology. Design need to remain open, as Ezio Manzini was saying: ‘design when everybody designs’. There is an acknowledgement of the fact that we are all designing, in our own way, we design our life, we design our decisions. How can you put all those things together in a strategic way, at a moment when the society and the humanity need to take some decisions, need to be prepared for a civilizational change, otherwise we become extinct? I think design has a role in this, by helping, by mediating, by formulating questions, decisions, or solutions together. And how to do design together is the big question, and there is not only one way of doing it, there are many ways. We also need to imagine what are these places where ways of designing together are possible. Which are the new institutions, the new mediating agents? – all these seem to me to be the questions of our times.

Constantin confesses that Bauhaus changed his life, when, after an exhibition, improbable for that time, where 1:1 modernist furniture was exhibited, he quits the arts high school in Iași and joined the architecture school.

CP: I am sure that design has an immense capacity to change society until even distorting it (see the tablet, the iPhone…). As architects, we are working a lot in a broader sense of design, and that’s why we are trying to launch not just projects, but also movements like One Planet Site or R-Urban which can be adopted also by others, because we have the capacity and the responsibility, so you have the capacity, but you have also the responsibility to act. It’s like a doctor. If you are in a plane and someone is sick, you have the capacity and responsibility to act. This is the case for us architects: we acted here in the neighbourhood we are living because there were many difficulties. The planet is now in great difficulty and you need to act. We know how to design, to project into the future, to find money, to create a horizon of hope, a model which becomes interesting for others too, so we have this capacity to design, in a broader sense, complex, temporal and functional. All these including re-balancing how much technology, how many resources, how much mutualisation, how much governance, all these are in fact design.

DP: For example, with R-Urban we proposed a resilience strategy as designers. We have used design and the organization and shaping of space, of making visible specific practices, as a catalyst. We succeed in a way to organize a social group around the project, by giving it also a political dimension, again, by using architecture’s capacity to make visible, to make real the idea of short circuits for example. People could finally see what happens if you collect rain water, where it goes, that you have to think differently about space to make passive heating, and that you need to think differently about the heating system if you want to reduce the fuel consumption. That by using space in a certain way, in 1 year time you will have this amount of reduction of carbon emissions, which is much better than the national rate. So, all these things can be made visible through the way you design their experience. We didn’t just design a building, or a site, but we designed a usage and a way of creating an activity there.

“ R-Urban “ – Diagrams on the ecological transition principles 2008. Echipa de proiect/Project team: Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu cu Nolwenn Marchand, Sara Carlini, Clémence Kempnich ©aaa

““Agrocité”—micro-farm for urban agriculture and ecological training, Colombes, 2013-2014

“Recyclab”—social economy hub, urban waste recycling and eco-design, Colombes, 2013. Project team: Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu, Clémence Kempnich

“Agrocité”—micro-farm for urban agriculture and ecological training, Bagneux, 2019. Project team: Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu, Anna Laura Bourguignon, Alex Gaiser, Rémi Buscot, Juliette Hennequin

AA: So you could say that this means modernity now?

DP: The concept of modernity is very much contested in fact, but in a way you could say that this means a hope for the future.

CP: Modernity I think it had the quality of promoting progress, a democratic progress for all, through small prices, standardization, through in fact what they knew back then. And I think that these ideals remain somehow valid. Such as fablabs are in a way a continuity of this progressive modernist ideal of making accessible and democratic the use to technology. And it’s good. But the problem is the excess. When standardization becomes excessive and exploitative. I think modernity needs to be revisited, keeping what is good, like democracy, ethics, progress and others, and readapting it. Because modernity couldn’t address at that time the problems of limited resources issues, climate change, extractive capitalism, or extinction of species; those problems weren’t visible back than.

AA: What is the relation with technology in your projects?

DP: We document and present all our technological devices with an interface accessible to the users and we make them with means that makes them transferable and reproducible. I think we need to take into account the democratization of technology and the fact that the reproduction is not made by the industry, but by the masses, everyone being able to take part. What is important is to keep a degree of creativity, of appropriateness, of participative innovation possible at all levels. All these technological devices were conceived together with experts. The grey water filtration system was made together with a specialist in phyto-remediation. What we brought new is that we designed the first prototype used in urban contexts. This approach is also situated, is specific for a certain situation, you work with the specialist to find the solution there, and afterwards you integrate also local and traditional knowledge. For example, for the phyto-remediation device it was very cool that we built it with a team of Romanians having a construction company in France. Due to the fact we were in a flooding area, we needed to raise the device above the ground by 1 meter and we didn’t know how to build it. And then, the team of Romanians which knew how to make… barrels, manage with what we had, with found boards that were boarded like for barrels… and this is how we made the phyto-remediation device. This shows that all skills and ways of knowledge are useful in a certain situation.

They choose together the tomatoes, than Doina the aubergines and Constantin the potatoes from a temporary market installed in the Paris former mortuary house. This is now a cultural centre, open to everyone and full of life. Recently they participated in the biggest architectural competition organized by the city of Paris which offered some difficult sites for development – “Reinventer Pars”. The brief was very close to the R-Urban model. They haven’t officially won, but their proposal was very good and this is how they were able to develop it in a different location. The project is called Wiki Village Factory (VWF) and is a cluster of technological and social innovation of 7000 sqm which aims to become a sort of central node in the R-Urban network towards developing the city 2.0 (ecological and collaborative).

“Wiki-Village-Factory” – cluster of social and ecological innovation, Paris, 2016. Project team: Constantin Petcou, Doina Petrescu, Benjamin Poignon, Pierre Marie Cornin, Grégoire Beaumont © aaa-REI-Deswarte

AA: With WVF for example, how important is for you the materiality and the aesthetics? Or is the program more important?

CP: Aesthetics for as is a result. You need to take care for the building to be well integrated in the context, you need to express well what’s going on. For example, the coop spaces are trying to make you to wish to collaborate with others; it’s not just like any other office. The ground floor, we try to have it open towards the neighbourhood, despite it is a difficult neighbourhood.

DP: I would say that aesthetics are trying to express not necessary the programme, but what is important in the program and beyond the program. We are using architecture tactically if you want, as a way of exposing and communicating principles of functioning, of governance, of construction and the ethics of using a building today.

CP: We are exposing the ecology of the building in fact, and this is beyond function. In order to become more ecologic. This is to make you use fewer materials, less insulation, but count on the passive insulation of the building’ skin. We also succeeded in convincing them to have dry toilets. This will be the largest building with dry toilets in Europe. We will build a special device, like a large scale prototype, which doesn’t exist right now. In fact, although they are on a tight budget, they will put more money into this than into usual toilets, because also the developer and everybody want this aspect to be exemplary. And it will be quite vegetal, with urban agriculture; we will try to remediate the grey waters. All the principles that we are using in R-Urban hubs will be implementing as much as we can also here.

AA: So, the city 2.0 should look differently because it values and creates hierarchies in a different way?

DP: Yes, it is important to create a new discourse, but also governance is important, social and ecological governance, that is what we try to express through architecture. There are many layers which add up to the modernist functional layer. And there is also the idea of being reversible, the fact that a building needs to evolve, to adapt, to disappear if necessary after a while, so it is not built to last hundreds of years. Because we need to leave room for future generations to build the architecture they need, don’t we?

#ville #écologie #participation #auto_gestion #urban_planning

Le travail de recherche de #Emilio_Distretti sur l’#Italie_coloniale

Je découvre grâce à @cede le travail de recherche de #Emilio_Distretti, post-doc à l’Université de Bâle, sur le #colonialisme_italien et les #traces dans l’#architecture et l’espace.

Sa page web :
▻https://criticalurbanisms.philhist.unibas.ch/people/emilio-distretti

Je mets dans ci-dessous des références à des travaux auxquels il a participé, et j’ajoute ce fil de discussion à la métaliste sur le colonialisme italien :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/871953

#colonisation #colonialisme #Italie #histoire #géographie_urbaine #urban_matter

Un Airbnb bruxellois sur deux exploité par des professionnels ?
▻https://www.rtbf.be/info/regions/detail_un-airbnb-bruxellois-sur-deux-exploite-par-des-professionnels?id=1083699

L’économie de partage, c’est le principe mis en avant par les fondateurs d’Airbnb : j’ai une chambre vide dans mon appartement ou ma maison, je la loue à des visiteurs de passage pour arrondir mes fins de mois. Ou je pars souvent à l’étranger et je loue mon appartement quand je n’y suis pas. Bref, on s’entraide entre particuliers. Or, une étude de la VUB l’affirme : dans la capitale, près d’un Airbnb sur deux serait exploité par des professionnels ou des investisseurs.

Le problème, avec la plateforme de location immobilière, c’est qu’elle ne communique pas volontiers ses données. Aussi Pieter-Paul Verhaege et Sylvie Gadeyne, les deux auteurs de l’étude, ont dû s’adresser à AirDNA, un site qui fait du «  data-scraping  », littéralement du grattage de données. Comprenez : le site extrait toutes les données possibles et les agglomère pour tenter de dresser un portrait aussi fidèle que possible de la situation des Airbnb, ville par ville.

https://ds1.static.rtbf.be/article/image/770x433/f/9/5/4d9a8ea376bb320fe1614e8683fd29b5-1630933341.jpg

L’équipe de l’université néerlandophone de Bruxelles s’est procurée les chiffres pour 2019, période avant COVID. Ils lui ont permis de dresser un portrait pour le moins nuancé du marché de la location Airbnb à Bruxelles.

Les chercheurs ont divisé les propriétaires en plusieurs catégories : ceux qui proposent, occasionnellement, une chambre dans un appartement ou une maison ; ceux qui offrent un appartement entier, mais moins de 120 jours par an (c’est le cas des personnes qui sont souvent en voyage professionnel, par exemple) ; ceux qui proposent un seul bien, mais pendant plus de 120 jours ou qui mettent deux appartements en location et enfin ceux qui disposent de plus de trois biens.

Pour les auteurs de l’étude, seules les deux premières catégories peuvent être classées comme jouant le jeu de l’économie de partage chère à Airbnb. Ils représentent 55% du total des propriétaires présents sur la plateforme.

A côté, ceux qui mettent deux biens en location ou un seul bien mais plus de 120 jours par an représentent 29% du total. Pour les professeurs de la VUB, ce ne sont pas des amateurs, mais des investisseurs.

Enfin, il y a les professionnels : 16% des propriétaires bruxellois présents sur la plateforme proposent au moins trois bien à la location. Les chercheurs ont même dénombré 32 personnes qui ont plus de 10 appartements.

Sans grande surprise, professionnels et investisseurs préfèrent proposer des locations à proximité de la Grand’Place, là où les touristes cherchent à se loger, ou près des institutions européennes, visant ainsi plus une clientèle professionnelle. Les auteurs de l’étude pointent également un détail amusant : la concentration des locations Airbnb correspond à celle des restaurants : plus il y a de restos, plus il y aura d’Air BNB dans les environs.

Selon l’étude, il y avait, en 2019, 11.427 biens disponibles sur la plateforme à Bruxelles. Si l’on enlève les propriétaires qui jouent le jeu de l’économie partagée, cela laisse encore quelque 5.000 biens qui sont soustraits au marché locatif de la capitale. Prochaine tâche pour les auteurs de l’étude : tenter de déterminer quelles pressions éventuelles cette soustraction exerce sur les loyers bruxellois.

airbnb #uber #logement #exclusion #paupérisation #tourisme #domination #algorithme #bénéfices #gentrification #urbanisme #disruption #urbanisme #urban_matter #ville #villes #géographie_urbaine

#François_Malaussena sur Twitter

Quand on voit les cartes, on peut se demander comment malgré des milliers de milliards et 20 ans à former une armée, on perd aussi facilement et aussi rapidement un pays ? Ca va être sévèrement décousu, mais un peu de #géopolitique de l’#Afghanistan.

Fil géopolitique très complet avec #cartes, #géographie, #religions

►https://blogs.mediapart.fr/francois-malaussena/blog/190821/pourquoi-lafghanistan-est-tombe-si-vite-geopolitique-du-cimetiere-de
▻https://twitter.com/malopedia/status/1427735616079474689

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E9BWgA6WUBgrUEQ.jpg

#usa #réfugiés #guerre #conflits #talibans #islamisme #migration

Covid-19 : en France, une triple fracture vaccinale
▻https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2021/07/25/covid-19-en-france-une-triple-fracture-vaccinale_6089451_3244.html

Les données calculées par le géographe de la santé Emmanuel Vigneron mettent en évidence une France divisée sur le plan de la vaccination entre Nord-Ouest et Sud-Est, entre centres urbains et périphéries, ainsi qu’entre communes riches et pauvres.

#covid-19 #paywall

​Militarism and the police: how our streets became battlefields

As institutions like the police and border patrol become increasingly militarized, anti-militarism needs to become a cornerstone of social movements worldwide.

▻https://roarmag.org/essays/militarism-police-streets-battelfields
#urban_matter #villes #géographie_urbaine #violence #conflit #équipement #complexe_militaro-industriel #armes #flash-ball

ping @karine4 @isskein @cede

#militarisation #police

L’extractivisme en récits
▻https://laviedesidees.fr/L-extractivisme-en-recits.html

À propos de : Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Friction : délires et faux-semblants de la globalité, La Découverte,. Pourquoi le #capitalisme est-il si chaotique ? demande Anna Tsing depuis les montagnes de Bornéo saccagées par l’exploitation. Aborder les connexions globales et les idéaux universalistes comme de puissantes mises en récit permet de comprendre et de résister.

#International #nature #écologie
▻https://laviedesidees.fr/IMG/docx/20210714_friction.docx
▻https://laviedesidees.fr/IMG/pdf/20210714_friction.pdf

Des terrasses partout, une fausse bonne idée ? - Inter-Environnement Bruxelles
▻https://ieb.be/Des-terrasses-partout-une-fausse-bonne-idee

Extraits :

La transformation d’un espace auquel on accède gratuitement, en un espace où il faut débourser pour y rester, renforce également le risque d’auto-exclusion de personnes qui fréquentaient le lieu et ne s’y sentent plus les bienvenues. Permettre l’extension des terrasses sur une plus grande portion de l’espace public n’est pas un choix sans conséquences : il exclura une partie des usages, la partie non monétarisée. Si les mesures sont temporaires, on pourrait être tenté de les accepter sans rien en dire, mais le risque réside dans l’extension dans le temps de l’exceptionnel. Permise aujourd’hui sous couvert de nécessité économique, l’extension déraisonnée de l’horeca sur l’espace public sera peut-être difficile à contester demain. Or, les logiques marchandes imposent certains comportements : à (...)

#privatisation

Habitability map of Australia, 1946.

https://i.imgur.com/L2nPDwr.jpg

#extractivisme #useless #Australie #colonisation #colonialisme #exploitation #cartographie #visualisation #cartographie_historique #habitabilité #géographie_du_plein #géographie_du_vide
#ressources_pédagogiques

via @odilon et @fil

@visionscarto

En #Guadeloupe, l’#eau_courante, potable, est devenue un luxe

En Guadeloupe, des milliers d’habitants vivent au rythme des « #tours_d’eau », des #coupures programmées, ou n’ont tout simplement pas d’eau au robinet depuis plusieurs années. Les habitants subissent des coupures prolongées, même en pleine pandémie de Covid-19. Face à la catastrophe sanitaire, les pouvoirs publics sont accusés d’#incurie. Premier volet de notre série.

https://static.mediapart.fr/etmagine/default/files/2021/07/09/20210712-img-guadeloupe-eau-1.jpg?width=1200&height=800&width_format=pixel&height_format=pixel#.jpg

▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/120721/en-guadeloupe-l-eau-courante-potable-est-devenue-un-luxe
#eau_potable #eau_de_robinet #eau

by @wereport photos @albertocampiphoto

Du vin, de la bière, un héritage colonial et un mécano fiscal

https://entreleslignesentrelesmots.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/rapport_castel_juin_2021-2.jpg

En poussant la porte d’un caviste Nicolas, peu de clients savent qu’ils pénètrent dans une enseigne du groupe Castel, une multinationale qui s’est im- posée comme le premier négociant français de vin, troisième sur le marché international. À la tête de l’entreprise, la très discrète famille Castel compte parmi les dix premières fortunes hexagonales. Mais ce champion vinicole est aussi – et surtout – un vieil empire françafricain de la bière et des boissons gazeuses.

Note sur : Survie : De l’Afrique aux places offshore
L’empire Castel brasse de l’or

►https://entreleslignesentrelesmots.blog/2021/07/12/du-vin-de-la-biere-un-heritage-colonial-et-un-mecano-fi

#castel #afrique

Géographie de la #dispersion des migrations subsahariennes au #Maroc. Le cas de deux villes-refuge, #Tiznit et #Taza

Contexte et problématique de la thèse

Cette thèse de Doctorat traite des conséquences de la politique d’externalisation des dispositifs de #sécurisation des #frontières de l’Union européenne (UE) au Maroc dans le contexte post-crise migratoire de 2015. Le Royaume du Maroc, pays d’émigration est aussi un espace de #transit, d’#installation et d’#attente pour des individus en migration en provenance d’Afrique subsaharienne. Cette recherche est centrée sur l’outil conceptuel de « dispersion » que j’ai introduit en raison de sa fécondité explicative pour appréhender la politique d’immigration et d’asile marocaine en matière de gestion de l’accueil et d’#inclusion_urbaine des migrants subsahariens dans deux villes moyennes, Tiznit (au Sud) et Taza (au Nord-Est).

Sous l’impulsion et l’accompagnement financier de l’UE, le Maroc a ainsi organisé la politique de dispersion afin d’endiguer les mouvements migratoires subsahariens désireux d’atteindre l’Europe par les côtes marocaines ou les enclaves espagnoles de #Ceuta et #Melilla. À ce titre, la dispersion s’opère via la #distribution_spatiale et la #relocalisation interne des migrants par les autorités publiques. Elle se fait principalement depuis les camps de la frontière nord jusqu’aux villes moyennes de l’intérieur et du Sud marocain. Le processus de « #frontiérisation » que j’associe à celui de « dispersion », comme étant l’une de ses dimensions, est devenu l’un des instruments de la gestion de la frontière au Maroc. La problématique de cette thèse interroge ainsi la dispersion comme nouveau mode de contrôle et de pratique des #frontières, engendrant une dialectique entre les intérêts étatiques et ceux des migrants dispersés. Elle permet une lecture nouvelle et plus précise du phénomène migratoire subsaharien et de sa gestion, marquée à la fois par la contingence des #spatialités et #temporalités migratoires et les réactions imprévisibles des autorités marocaines. Elle nous éclaire également sur les effets complexes des #déplacements_forcés en créant de nouvelles #villes-étapes, inscrites dans le parcours migratoire, qui posent la question de leur transformation potentielle en « #villes-refuges ».

https://journals.openedition.org/cdg/7545
#géographie #spatialité #temporalité #migrerrance

ping @karine4 @_kg_

Les dimensions spatiales du maintien de l’ordre.

Carnets de débats

Marion Lecoquierre et Félix Tréguer. #Villes sous contrôle et #technologisation du maintien de l’ordre. Entretien avec #Félix_Tréguer [Texte intégral]

Carnets de recherches

Clément Monseigne. Maintien de l’ordre et maintien des ordres : les #logiques_spatiales du régiment des Gardes-françaises à Paris à la veille de la Révolution

Jonas Campion. Des espaces « exceptionnels » à sécuriser : éléments d’histoire de la cohabitation policière à la frontière franco-belge (xxe- xxie siècles)

Camille Guenebeaud. Au-delà des murs. Maintenir l’ordre à la #frontière franco-britannique

Andrea Kretschmann. Les #villes_artificielles comme espaces de formation de l’ordre politique : l’entrainement aux scénarios apocalyptiques des polices européennes

Aurélien Restelli. « Avant la manif ». L’#aménagement_préventif de l’espace manifestant

Aïcha Bourad et Fanny Parent. La #foule et l’#ordre : gouvernement spatial des conduites dans les meetings électoraux

Naoko Tokumitsu. Le développement de dispositifs techniques de #surveillance des #espaces_publics et la participation des habitants au maintien de l’ordre au #Japon

Romane Joly et Vincent Lebrou. Des #jardins pour maintenir l’ordre ? Enquête ethnographique dans un quartier populaire strasbourgeois

Carnets de terrain

Bénédicte Michalon, Tristan Bruslé, Olivier Clochard, Mathilde Darley, Olivier Milhaud et Marie Morelle. Enquêter dans les lieux d’#enfermement. Retour collectif sur une expérience de recherche

Damien Carrière
Garde-à-vous à Manesar. Une observation participante parmi les gardiens de sécurité en Inde [Texte intégral]

Carnets de lectures

Franck Ollivon. Marie Morelle, #Yaoundé carcérale. Géographie d’une ville et de sa #prison. Lyon : ENS Editions, 2019, 228 p.

Léopoldine Manac’h. BABELS, La police des migrants. Filtrer, disperser, harceler. Paris : éditions du Passager clandestin, 2019, 120 p.

Alex Mahoudeau. Mathieu Rigouste, La Domination Policière. Une violence industrielle. Paris : La Fabrique, 2012, 257 p.

Carnets de soutenances

Franck Ollivon. La prison chevillée au corps. Pour une approche géographique du placement sous #surveillance_électronique

Arthur Oldra. Spatialités individuelles et jeux de places dans l’espace public urbain. De quelques perspectives géographiques à propos des #militaires en opération #Vigipirate/#Sentinelle.

https://journals.openedition.org/cdg/6590
#maintien_de_l'ordre #géographie #espace #revue

#espace_public #quartiers_populaires #Strasbourg #lieux_d'enfermement

ping @davduf

Decolonizzare la città. Dialoghi Visuali a Padova -
Decolonizing the city. Visual Dialogues in Padova

Il video partecipativo, realizzato con studenti e studentesse del laboratorio Visual Research Methods (prof.ssa Annalisa Frisina) del corso LM Culture, Formazione e Società Globale, esplora l’eredità coloniale inscritta nelle vie e piazza di Padova. I sei protagonisti/e del video, artist* e attivit* afrodiscendenti, dialogano con questi luoghi, mettendo in atto contronarrazioni intime e familiari che sfidano la storia ufficiale, lasciando tracce del loro passaggio.

–—

The participatory video made by the students of Visual Research Methods laboratory (prof. Annalisa Frisina), Master’s degree in Cultures, Education and Global Society, explores the colonial legacy of Padova’s roads and squares. Six afro-descendent artists and activists interact with these places, giving life to intimate counter-narratives that challenge the official history, leaving their personal traces.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6CtMsORajE

Quelques images tirées du film :

https://i.imgur.com/MAyR9aK.png https://i.imgur.com/ZNnz8jB.png https://i.imgur.com/lyBQQ3O.png

–

https://i.imgur.com/gCgwig2.png https://i.imgur.com/huI7RiK.png https://i.imgur.com/9WveF2Y.png

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https://i.imgur.com/alECVen.png https://i.imgur.com/xBaMvPe.png https://i.imgur.com/OdZ2AKK.png https://i.imgur.com/APqaM7u.png

–

https://i.imgur.com/zrlEAhE.png https://i.imgur.com/DFw8hu3.png

–-

https://i.imgur.com/waI7iAc.png https://i.imgur.com/TCA2dPq.png

–-

https://i.imgur.com/gnWSdEM.png https://i.imgur.com/4fRKQ9i.png https://i.imgur.com/GAgdd5n.png https://i.imgur.com/nY4pS8B.png https://i.imgur.com/SpaqDKo.png

Où on apprend que les enfants « métissés » étaient appelés « #figli_di_due_bandiere » (fils de deux drapeaux)

#villes #décolonial #décoloniser_la_ville #Italie #Padoue #Padova #héritage_colonial #colonialisme #toponymie #toponymie_politique #géographie_urbaine #historicisation #histoire #traces #mariage_mixte #Corne_de_l'Afrique #colonialisme_italien #Antenore #fascisme #histoire_coloniale #impérialisme #piazza_Antenore #citoyenneté #néo-colonialisme #pouvoir #Amba_Aradam #blessure
#TRUST #Master_TRUST
#film #film_documentaire

ping @cede @karine4 @isskein

–—

Ajouté à la métaliste sur le #colonialisme_italien :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/871953

Borders on steroids : Open borders in a Covid-19 world ?

Under such circumstances, it is naïve to think that these new borders and migration regimes will simply dematerialise when the world tames Covid-19. To put it another way, it is unlikely that borders will come off steroids any time soon. It is imperative that political geographers find new ways to challenge them.

▻https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629821001037
#ouverture_des_frontières #open_borders #covid-19 #frontières #crise_sanitaire #coronavirus #géographie_politique

Il n’y aurait pas quatre, mais bien cinq océans sur Terre | Radio-Canada.ca
▻https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1803962/cartographie-ocean-austral-ajout-national-geographic

L’océan Austral est reconnu depuis longtemps par les scientifiques, mais puisqu’aucun accord international n’a jamais été trouvé, nous ne l’avions jamais reconnu officiellement, explique Alex Tait, géographe pour la société dans un communiqué.

https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635/v1/ici-info/16x9/antarctique-ocean-austral-icebergs-montagnes.jpg

Territoires des #déchets. Agir en régime de proximité

Du #compostage_collectif urbain aux ressourceries de #ville, les initiatives pour ancrer le traitement des déchets dans la ville se multiplient en s’appuyant sur l’investissement des usagers.
Mais si la réglementation communautaire et nationale promeut la #proximité et l’#autosuffisance comme principes directeurs de la #gestion_des_déchets ménagers pour optimiser le #bilan_carbone, cet ouvrage montre que paradoxalement trop de proximité peut remettre en cause l’autosuffisance des territoires pourtant visée.
En confrontant les politiques menées en #France et dans divers projets européens (#Suède, #Catalogne, #Belgique), ce livre propose d’analyser en profondeur les expériences de la proximité dans le traitement des déchets : expériences des gestionnaires, des usagers, des militants écologistes.

https://pufr-editions.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/VT-territoires-des-dechets.jpg

#Zoocities. Des #animaux_sauvages dans la #ville

http://www.premierparallele.fr/files/Book/54/covers/zoocities%20pour%20site-large.jpg

Des renards dans les jardins de Londres, des sangliers dans les rues de Marseille, des léopards dans les artères étroites de Bombay, des coyotes dans les parkings de New York, des kangourous dans les rues de Canberra : repoussés par une campagne chaque jour plus hostile – polluée, rognée par l’urbanisation ou déréglée par le changement climatique – les animaux sauvages s’installent dans les villes. Ils s’y adaptent. Ce phénomène s’accentue. Et si, demain, nous devions les côtoyer au quotidien ?
La ville telle que nous la connaissons a été historiquement pensée contre les animaux sauvages et, plus généralement, contre la nature. Accueillir ces animaux parmi nous paraît impensable. Les rejeter, impossible. Les exterminer, cruel et dangereux pour les équilibres écologiques.
Ce livre propose une expérience de pensée. À quoi ressemblerait une ville dans laquelle les distances et les espaces rendraient possible la coexistence avec les bêtes sauvages ? Une ville qui ne serait plus pensée contre les animaux, ni d’ailleurs pour eux, mais avec eux ? Comment, en somme, à l’heure des grands bouleversements écologiques, construire une nouvelle arche de Noé ?
Après Quand la forêt brûle, prix Pétrarque 2020, Joëlle Zask poursuit son travail d’enquête philosophique sur les relations entre les hommes et leur environnement.

▻http://www.premierparallele.fr/livre/zoocities
#livre #animaux #urban_matter #géographie #urbanisme #ressources_pédagogiques

#Bamako. De la ville à l’agglomération

https://www.editions.ird.fr/system/product_pictures/data/009/992/480/large/Couverture_Bamako.jpg?1617099355#.jpg

Longtemps perçue comme un gros village, réceptacle des migrations rurales, la capitale du Mali est devenue une métropole illustrant remarquablement la #croissance_démographique et l’#étalement spatial des grandes agglomérations ouest-africaines. Avec trois décennies de recul, ce livre-atlas met en lumière ces enjeux et les processus de renouvellement de la population bamakoise : le poids désormais décisif des #jeunes ; l’impact de #flux_résidentiels redistribuant familles et demandes de #logement au-delà du district urbain ; le déplacement des fortes #inégalités d’accès au #sol vers les #périphéries de l’agglomération.

S’appuyant sur une combinaison de données censitaires, d’enquêtes quantitatives et d’observations recueillies jusqu’à la fin des années 2010, l’ouvrage montre comment les pratiques des habitants en matière de #logement, de migration et de #mobilité_urbaine impriment des #discriminations croissantes dans ce cadre expansif. La trajectoire de la ville se lit au fil de plusieurs générations qui ont marqué l’histoire des quartiers, densifié les lignées de propriétaires, forgé de nouveaux besoins dans les plus récents fronts de peuplement.

Prendre le pouls de la #transition_urbaine oblige à déconstruire les visions simplistes, opposant émigration et immigration, #croissance_spontanée et #urbanisme_réglementaire, une ville « prédatrice » et une campagne « spoliée », sans pour autant négliger leurs échos dans les représentations locales et les modèles globalisés de #gouvernance_urbaine. Véritable manuel d’investigation, ce livre rappelle donc la nécessité d’une connaissance précise des cycles d’expansion urbaine et des acteurs de cette double fabrique, sociale et territoriale. Il donne à voir l’agglomération de Bamako à la fois dans sa dimension régionale et dans l’intimité de ses #quartiers.

▻https://www.editions.ird.fr/produit/632/9782709928908/bamako
#ville #géographie_urbaine #TRUST #master_TRUST #urban_matter #livre #villes #Mali #ressources_pédagogiques

La terre compte désormais cinq océans

▻https://www.letemps.ch/sciences/terre-compte-desormais-cinq-oceans

Clouds of Unknowing : Edward Quin’s Historical Atlas (1830)

https://the-public-domain-review.imgix.net/collections/edward-quin-historical-atlas/quin-thumb.jpg

“Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps”, says the seafaring raconteur #Charles_Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) (▻https://www.gutenberg.org/files/219/219-h/219-h.htm). “At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, ’When I grow up I will go there.’” Of course, these “blank spaces” were anything but. The no-man’s-lands that colonial explorers like #Marlow found most inviting (the Congo River basin, #Tasmania, the #Andaman_Islands) were, in fact, richly populated, and faced devastating consequences in the name of imperial expansion.

In the same troublesome vein as Marlow, Edward Quin’s Historical Atlas painted cartographic knowledge as a candle coruscating against the void of ignorance, represented in his unique vision by a broiling mass of black cloud. Each map represents the bounds of geographical learning at a particular point in history, from a specific civilizational perspective, beginning with Eden, circa “B.C. 2348”. In the next map titled “B.C. 1491. The Exodus of the Israelites”, Armenia, Assyria, Arabia, Aram, and Egypt form an island of light, pushing back the black clouds of unknowing. As history progresses — through various Roman dynasties, the reign of Charlemagne, and the Crusades — the foul weather retreats further. In the map titled “A.D. 1498. The Discovery of America”, the transatlantic exploits of the so-called Age of Discovery force Quin to employ a shift in scale — the luminescence of his globe now extends to include Africa and most of Asia, but North America hides behind cumulus clouds, with its “unnamed” eastern shores peeking out from beneath a storm of oblivion. In the Atlas’ last map, we find a world without darkness, not a trace of cloud. Instead, unexplored territories stretch out in the pale brown of vellum parchment, demarcating “barbarous and uncivilized countries”, as if the hinterlands of Africa and Canada are awaiting colonial inscription.

Not much is known about Edward Quin, the Oxford graduate, London barrister, and amateur cartographer whose Atlas was published two years after his death at the age of thirty-four. We learn, thanks to Walter Goffart’s research into historical atlases, that Quin’s images were more popular than his words. The well-regarded cartographer William Hughes rescaled the maps for a new edition in 1846, discarding their artist’s accompanying text. The Atlas’ enduring technical advancement, which influenced subsequent cartographers, can be found in its ingenious use of negative space. Emma Willard’s Atlas to Accompany a System of Universal History, for instance, features cloudy borders that seem very much indebted to Quin.

Looking back from a contemporary vantage, the Historical Atlas remains memorable for what is not shown. Quin’s cartography inadvertently visualizes the ideology of empire: a geographic chauvinism that had little respect for the knowledge of those beyond imperial borders. And aside from depicting the reach of Kublai Khan, his focus remains narrowly European and Judeo-Christian. While Quin strives for accuracy, he admits to programmatic omission. “The colours we have used being generally meant to point out and distinguish one state or empire from another. . . were obviously inapplicable to deserts peopled by tribes having no settled form of government, or political existence, or known territorial limits”. Instead of representing these groups, Quin, like his clouds, has erased them from view.

▻https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/edward-quin-historical-atlas
#cartographie_historique #cartographie #connu #inconnu #géographie_du_vide #vide #histoire #Tasmanie #fleuve_Congo #colonisation #colonialisme #Edward_Quin #atlas

ping @reka @visionscarto

via @isskein

Rural Italy Had a Pandemic Renaissance. Can It Last ?

After thousands of young workers fled urban lockdowns to the countryside, village leaders are trying to make sure they stay. It’s easier said than done.

A Medieval hamlet perched in the Madonie mountains of Sicily, Castelbuono looks straight out of a fairy tale, with narrow, winding streets and a stone-walled castle from the 14th century.

Yet despite years of local efforts to turn it into a cultural hub through tourism and the establishment of an international music festival, Castelbuono has been shrinking for decades. Since the late 1960s, entire families across southern and central Italy have fled to the wealthier north in search of employment, as agriculture, textile mills and other industries declined. As a result, some 2,500 villages across the country are disappearing, with more than 2 million empty houses.

But Covid-19 brought an unlikely reversal in that trend. Even as the virus tore through Italy’s rural interior and south, it also drew a wave of young adults and expatriates into its declining towns. Once relegated to weekend escapes from urban fatigue, centuries-old villages like Castelbuono — called “borghi” in Italian, or “borgo” in the singular — became more attractive refuges from the claustrophobia of pandemic lockdowns, promising more space to inhabit and improved quality of life at cheaper prices.

Now, to translate this phenomenon into a lasting post-pandemic legacy, elected leaders and grassroots organizations are taking action to improve infrastructure, rebuild community ties and push these aging villages into the 21st century as remote work becomes the new normal.

“The pandemic created one of the biggest opportunities ever for small towns in Italy,” said Carla Cucco, a 30-year old lawyer who grew up in Castelbuono and moved back from Palermo amid the first lockdown in spring 2020. She is now living with her parents.

Exactly how many people returned to villages last year is hard to say, especially since many Italians who previously left never gave up nominal residency. But a report by SVIMEZ, an Italian think tank focused on the economic development in the south, estimates that between 80,000 to 100,000 people moved back to these long-fading regions since the start of Covid-19, based on employer surveys. Meanwhile, demand for properties in rural areas increased by 20% last spring, according to real estate agencies.

Some new arrivals are remaking villages so that they are more viable places to live long-term. Cucco is part of South Working, a loose network of young Italian professionals that started during the pandemic to stay connected while in isolation. Over the past six months, in cooperation with the local officials in Castelbuono, Cucco and a group of fellow returnees turned parts of historical buildings into coworking spaces. Now, when Cucco has to speak with a client in the city, she steps into what was once the cloister of an 18th-century Catholic church, now converted into an open-air conference room.

The baroque village of Palazzolo Acreide in southern Sicily, which has lost about 7% residents in the last decade, is similarly trying to capitalize on the pandemic’s positive population effect.

“We are not yet to the point of extinction, because despite the inevitable decrease in population, Palazzolo is still lively and can offer a lot,” said Mayor Salvatore Gallo. He estimates that hundreds of newcomers have arrived since last year to the town of 8,000, a UNESCO world heritage site rated the second most beautiful borgo in Italy in 2019.

Before Covid hit, Gallo looked into bringing in the popular 1-euro houses program — where owners sell uninhabited homes in need of renovation for a nominal fee — that has been tried in dozens of emptied villages. But when he found that such incentives mostly function as holiday house give-aways, he decided that a better strategy for Palazzolo would be supporting projects and businesses that newcomers initiated.

The first of those will be a FabLab, a workshop equipped with tools such as 3-D printers as well as soldering irons and textile looms. Directed by Marie-Marthe Joly, a Swiss entrepreneur, it will open this summer inside an old monastery, which Gallo made available for free.

Enticed by the slower pace of life, Joly decided to make her move permanent after getting stuck at her holiday home in Palazzolo during the first lockdown. Through academic partnerships with the University of Geneva and the University of Catania in Sicily, she plans to use the FabLab to bring in experts to teach business, crafts and digital skills to locals.

“Moving to a borgo shouldn’t just be a selfish decision to enjoy better food and cheaper rent, but a chance to enrich and give back to the host community,” she said.

Yet the ability to work remotely at her university is what made the move possible. And that’s what she and Gallo — who has signed a contract for high-speed internet coverage for the entire town — hope will enable more arrivals to stay.

As part of South Working, Carmelo Ignaccolo, a PhD student in urban studies and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been tracking coworking hubs and places with access to high-speed internet that can cater to the needs of remote-working professionals across rural Italy; so far, the group has counted 192 locations. To better understand the level of repopulation that has taken place in some of these towns during the pandemic, he hopes to analyze mobile phone and internet use data. That could also help indicate where governments should aim for future investments, he said.

In a kind of domino effect, several areas struggling with depopulation have already begun experimenting with ways to encourage newcomers to stay for the whole year rather than just during the holidays.

Last July, Sicily’s regional government launched a program offering a grant of as much as 50,000 euros ($61,000) for people under the age of 30 to build social enterprises in culture and tourism in one of 23 designated villages, including Palazzolo Acreide. In September, the southern region of Molise announced it would offer 700 euros a month to those taking residency in a borgo with fewer than 2,000 residents. Another program launched in February in the mountainous northern region of Emilia-Romagna gives applicants up to 30,000 euros for the purchase or restoration of a house.

“We are witnessing unparalleled times for the rebirth of these disappearing, yet invaluable, spaces of our national heritage. And that gives us hope for the future,” said Anna Laura Orrico, a member of Italy’s Parliament who has previously tried to make rural revitalization a national priority. For years, the government has tried to repopulate borghis through initiatives such as the 2014 “National Strategy for Inner Areas,” which aimed to develop rural areas through targeted investments in infrastructure and urban planning. But the plan’s impact has been difficult to assess, Orrico said, due to lack of monitoring.

Now the topic has momentum. Last year, during her mandate as undersecretary of cultural affairs, Orrico’s office selected 12 villages across the country to become experimental hubs for innovative technology in the fields of environment, sustainable transportation and culture, funded through a project called “Smarter Italy.” Beginning in summer, 90 euros million will be allocated across these towns to fund diverse projects, including virtual museums and seismic monitoring.

Some of the Recovery Plan funds that Italy is set to receive later this year from the European Union to counter the negative economic impact of coronavirus are also expected to be invested in borghi, although exact amounts are yet to be determined.

Such investments are badly needed, as rural areas lack critical services such as secondary education, high-speed transportation, and health care. In ultra-remote parts of southern Italy, it takes an average of nearly 45 minutes to reach a hospital.

Modernizing infrastructure and social services is key to keeping new residents for the long-term, said Fausto Carmelo Nigrelli, a professor of urban planning at the University of Catania, who has spent decades studying the economic challenges of Italy’s small villages. He believes that at least 1 billion euros is required to make rural areas more habitable. A historic lack of follow-through by the national government — as well as the pandemic’s devastating effect on the Italian economy — makes him skeptical that this time will be different.

“This return is very encouraging,” Nigrelli said. “But if it’s not supported by concrete, effective policy planning that focuses on improving the welfare system, the risk is that, in a few years time, the emigration trend might retake its course.”

▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-21/how-covid-repopulated-rural-italian-villages?cmpid=BBD052121_CITYLAB

#renaissance #Italie #covid-19 #coronavirus #rural #campagnes #jeunes #jeunesse #travail_à_distance #Sicile #Madonie #Castelbuono #lockdown #confinement #post-pandémie #géographie #infrastructure #south_working #travail #Palazzolo #FabLab #co-working

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ajouté à la métaliste « #géographie (et notamment #géographie_politique) et #coronavirus » :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/852722

Le fonctionnement écologique des villes : et si on pensait aux sols ?
►https://metropolitiques.eu/Le-fonctionnement-ecologique-des-villes-et-si-on-pensait-aux-sols.ht

Connaît-on la diversité des sols urbains ? Écologues et pédologues montrent que l’étude détaillée de leurs propriétés est nécessaire pour un aménagement plus écologique de nos villes. La forte diversité des sols urbains Êtes-vous aménageur du territoire ou chercheur ? Urbaniste, architecte, jardinier ou pédologue ? De la réponse à cette question dépendent la définition et la perception que vous aurez du terme « sol urbain ». Pour certains, il s’agit de tout sol situé dans une aire urbaine (Blanchart et al. #Terrains

/ biodiversité, #écologie_urbaine, #nature

#biodiversité
▻https://metropolitiques.eu/IMG/pdf/met_joimeletal.pdf