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Environmental gentrification and emerging collectives in uncertain times

Project description

Urban gentrification and collective reappropriation

Cities in the Global North require sustainable improvements. However, top-down approaches like gentrification can lead to environmental privilege and the exclusion of lower-income and minority groups. Scholars are exploring the consequences of evictions and displacement, as well as the outcomes when grassroots organisations reclaim urban spaces. The MSCA-funded TAKEBACK project is dedicated to investigating emerging forms of collective care amidst crises in capitalism, democracy, and the environment. This project employs a comparative case study approach to analyse various urban mobilisations, with a focus on the collective reappropriation or utilisation of former industrial areas in Canada and Italy. TAKEBACK will contribute to discussions about the evolving concept of urban citizenship.

Objective

In the Global North in the face of the looming threats of manifold environmental “crises”, there is an increasing sense of urgency to enhance cities’ sustainability. Yet, top-down paradigms of urban regeneration can contribute creating enclaves of environmental privilege, thereby excluding lower income and minority groups from their benefits. Much recent scholarly debate has focused on the multiple effects of evictions and displacements, as well as on active practices of resistance. But what happens if, after years of protests, grassroots groups become the main actors in processes of collective re-appropriation and management of urban spaces?

TAKEBACK is an anthropological study of emerging forms of collective care at a moment where the interlocking crises of capitalism, democracy, and the environment have become more apparent than ever before. It follows a comparative case study design, through the analysis of different urban mobilizations focused on the collective reappropriation and/or use of ex-industrial areas, in North America (Montreal, Canada) and Europe (Turin, Italy). It is based on in-depth ethnographic research, which will include the analysis and production of visual materials. By exploring evolving practices and understandings of care within activism, TAKEBACK will contribute to debates on the shifting meanings of urban citizenship in an increasingly vulnerable world.

The project will be based at Polytechnic of Turin, with an outgoing phase at Concordia University, Montreal. TAKEBACK will allow me to gain new knowledge in the areas of urban geography and visual ethnography, to combine this with my previous expertise in political anthropology and ethnographic research, and it will act as a pilot for my own ERC starting grant. Ultimately, the project will expand theoretical and practical knowledge about grassroots solutions to the challenge of building more equal and sustainable urban environments.

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

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Coordinator

POLITECNICO DI TORINO
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 280 202,88
Address
CORSO DUCA DEGLI ABRUZZI 24
10129 Torino
Italy

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Region
Nord-Ovest Piemonte Torino
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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