SO 345 CULTURE AND URBAN CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY ITALY IES Abroad Rome DESCRIPTION: The course is designed to introduce students to the transformation of Italian culture and society from the time of unification to the present through the lens of urban change. Focusing on the case of the city of Rome, the program will present and discuss the different phases, challenges, and trends in the development of Italian contemporary cities: from the time of unification and the fascist era to the period of the economic boom in the late 1950s and early 1960s; from the moment of local progressive governments during the 1970s to the period of economic restructuring and postmodernity beginning in the 1980s. Emphasis will be placed on urban planning and politics, immigration, social movements, consumption and mass culture. CREDITS: 3 credits CONTACT HOURS: 45 hours LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION: English PREREQUISITES: An introductory level course either in sociology or anthropology. METHOD OF PRESENTATION: Lectures Discussions Course-related trips Films REQUIRED WORK AND FORM OF ASSESSMENT: Participation (20%); Midterm exam (20%); Final paper and presentation (30%); Final exam (30%). EXAMS: based on short answer questions and brief essays. Both the Midterm and the Final Exam draw from course lectures, reading assignments, field studies. ASSIGNMENTS: distributed as follows: field research data gathering and week readings. PAPER: a research paper on a significant urban contect in the city of Rome (detailed informations on the paper will be provided in class). SUGGESTED MATERIALS: Map of Rome (1/10.000 minimum); spiral notebook for note-taking during on-site excursions; loose-leaf notebook for handouts and supplemental materials; writing support and writing utensil while on site; camera. LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of the course students will be: recognize the cultural and social changes since 1870 and through the last fifty years, with particular attention to the rise of mass culture and new social movements; identify immigration waves and their urban effects, from the internal migration of the 1950s-1960s to the external migrations of the 1990s-2000s; distinguish urban planning and political issues of modern Italian cities, in Rome in particular; apply basic skills of urban fieldwork: observation, description, analysis. ATTENDANCE POLICY:
Attendance is mandatory for all IES classes, including field studies. If a student misses more than one class, 2 percentage points will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical emergencies or family emergencies. CONTENT: Week Content Readings Week 1 Session 1 Session 2 Week 2 Session 3 Session 4 Week 3 Session 5 Session 6 Week 4 Introduction to the course and background on main trends and structures of Contemporary Rome Introduction to the course, presentation of main course topics, required and recommended readings, roles of engagement, field visits and field research projects. Presentation and discussion of main trends and structures in the evolution of contemporary Rome. Rome after reunification. The city as the political capital vs. the city of the working class: Roma Capitale between the XIX and XX centuries The implementation of major urban plans in the city of Rome as the showcase of the new unitarian state and the first projects of housing policy for both the bureaucratic middle-class and the working class. Field study to the Garbatella area with Dr.Sandra Annunziata Key words: city planning, capital city The city as the political capital vs. the city of the working class: Roma Capitale in the fascist era Mussolini s plans to make the city the capital of a new empire. Sventramenti and the relocation of the underclass in the new borgate to be built outside the established city boundaries. The city as a scene of new mass organizations and propaganda efforts set up by the regime. Course-related trip to the EUR Key words: displacement, garden city Rebuilding the cities: urban reconstruction and postwar society Forgacs & Lumley, pp. 52-71. Agnew, pp. 42-69. Piccinato, (1) pp.213-225, Painter, pp.21-38; 59-90. Piccinato, (2) pp.237-259.
Session 7 Session 8 The Second World War left many Italian cities devastated and countless people homeless. Between building speculation and planning efforts Italian cities start to grow again. Conference Middle Class Housing in Postwar Rome by Dr Bruno Bonomo Week 5 Session 9 Session 10 Week 6 Session 11 Session 12 Week 7 Session 13 Session 14 Key Words: Developer, General plan Italian cities and the boom In 1962, for the first time in its history, Italy reached full employment of its labour force. With increasing prosperity, many Italians were able to purchase such consumer goods as cars, tv sets, scooters. The popular economy car, FIAT 500, and scooters like Vespa and Lambretta became a symbol of modern lifestyle based on mass motorization. Course-related trip to Parioli Ginsborg, pp. 210-217, 229-253. Key words housing tenure, homeownership, condominium Review and Midterm Exam Mass Migration and Urbanization Starting with the 1950s, new mass migration waves bring millions of people from the rural south to the industrial north and to the capital. While inhabited shacks were still to be found in Milan and Turin, the borgate informal neighbourhoods were sprawling around the centre of Rome. The cultural and social effects of this great transformation and social contradiction have been the subject of extensive intellectual debate. Course-related trip to Torre Maura Key words: informal housing Ginsborg, pp. 210-217, 229-253. Foot, 37-70; Ginsborg, 217-228.
Week 8 Sessions 15 & 16 Week 9 Session 17 Session 18 Week 10 Session 19 Session 20 Week 11 Session 21 Cities in movement: social movements and cultural change While economic growth brings mass culture and consumerism to wider sectors of Italian society, new social and political demands arise in factories and universities. Large cities will be the setting for a longlasting presence of social and cultural movements challenging established political hierarchies and cultural values. In Rome, housing and urban issues are at the core of new social movements agenda. Key words: Social Movements, Rent control, Housing policy Healing the fractured city. The left and the new urban policy Between 1970s and 1980s, under the left tenure of City Hall, borgate in Rome were eventually reclaimed through recognition of property titles and massive public expenditure. Many new public and social housing projects were intended to respond to housing shortages and to help integrate borgate in the city. Course-related trip to Nuovo Corviale Key words: Local Government, Le Corbusier, Social Housing The post-modern city/international migrations and neighbourhood change. The urban problems faced by a society with high living standards for many Italians but with dramatic poverty levels for immigrants coming from the Mediterranean area, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, have become a relevant issue both at the political and social levels. The question of a globalized and multiethnic Italy will be addressed. Course-related trip to Pigneto Keywords: Ethnic Enclaves The post-modern city: the new Suburban sprawl. During the 1990s and 2000s, a new wave of growth brings to the development of suburban areas through new housing, shopping malls and entertainment facilities. The quality of new developments and their Ginsborg, 298-347. Piccinato (2), pp. 237-259; Costa, pp. 263-294. Mudu, pp. 422-440; Annunziata (1), 601-622; Ginsborg, pp.406-425. Annunziata (2), pp. 63-81.
social and environmental sustainability is currently under scrutiny by academic circles and opinionmakers. Session 22 Course-related trip to Porta di Roma Keywords Sprawl, Suburbanization, Gentrification Week 12 Student presentations Sessions 23 & 24 Week 13 Final Exam COURSE-RELATED TRIPS: Eur, Garbatella, Parioli, Torre Maura, Nuovo Corviale, Pigneto, Porta di Roma REQUIRED READINGS: Text book: Ginsborg, Paul. A History of Contemporary Italy 1943-1988. London: Palgrave McMillian, 2003. Other readings: Agnew, John. Rome, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1995, pp.42-69; Annunziata, Sandra (1). The desire of ethnically diverse neighbourhood in Rome: the case of Pigneto in Rome, in The Ethnically Diverse City, Frank Eckardt and John Eade (eds), in Future Urban Research Series, vol. 4. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, 2011. Pp 601-622; Annunziata, Sandra (2). Evolving neighbourhood: public sphere without public space in a newly built private neighbourhood in Rome in Cremaschi M., Eckardt F. (eds), Changing Places, Urbanity, Citizenship, and Ideology in the new European neighbourhoods,tekne, Amsterdam, 2011. PP 63-81; Costa, Frank J.. The Evolution of Planning Styles and Planned Change: The Example of Rome, Journal of Urban History, 3,3, 1977. Pp. 263-294; Foot, John. Milan since the Miracle. City, Culture, Identity, Berg, Oxford, 2001. Pp 37-70; Foot, John. Italian Cityscapes: Culture and Urban Change in Italy from the 1950s to the Present Day, with Robert Lumley, Exeter University Press, 2004 Forgacs, David, and John Lumley, eds. Italian Cultural Studies: an introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, pp- 52-71; Ginsborg, Paul. A History of Contemporary Italy 1943-1988. London: Palgrave McMillian, 2003; Lumley, Robert. States of emergency: cultures of revolt in Italy from 1968 to 1978, Verso, 1990 Moliterno, Gino, ed. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture. London: Routledge, 2000. Moliterno, pp. 130-131, 272-274, 504-505, 612-616. Mudu, P., 2006. Patterns of Segregation in Contemporary Rome, in Urban Geography, vol. 25, n. 5, pp. 442-440; Piccinato, Giorgio (1), Rome: Where Great Events not Regular Planning Bring Development. In Gordon, David LA, Capital Cities in the Twentieth Century, Routledge, 2006, pp.213-225;
Piccinato, Giorgio (2), A brief history of Italian town planning after 1945, Town Planning Review, Centenary Volume 1910-2010, 81, 3, 2010, pp. 237-259; Painter, Borden, Mussolini's Rome. Rebuilding the Eternal City, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 21-38, 59-90; Film viewings Francesco Rosi, Le mani sulla città (1963); Pier Paolo Pasolini, Accattone (1960); Luchino Visconti, Rocco e suoi fratelli (1960); Daniele Lucchetti, La nostra vita (2010).