The Production of Alternative Urban Spaces: An International Dialogue (Regions and Cities)

Alternative urban spaces across civic, private, and public spheres emerge in response to the great challenges that urban actors are currently confronted with. Labour markets are changing rapidly, the availability of affordable housing is under intensifying pressure, and public spaces have become battlegrounds of urban politics. This edited collection brings together contributors in order to spark an international dialogue about the production of alternative urban spaces through a threefold exploration of alternative spaces of work, dwelling, and public life. Seeking out and examining existing alternative urban spaces, the authors identify the elements that provide opportunities to create radically different futures for the world’s urban spaces. This volume is the culmination of an international search for alternative practices to dominant modes of capitalist urbanisation, bringing together interdisciplinary, empirically grounded chapters from hot spots in disparate cities around the world. Offering a multidisciplinary perspective, __The Production of Alternative Urban Spaces__ will be of great interest to academics working across the fields of urban sociology, human geography, anthropology, political science, and urban planning. It will also be indispensable to any postgraduate students engaged in urban and regional studies. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of figures 8 List of tables 9 List of maps 10 List of contributors 11 1. Conceptualising the production of alternative urban spaces 14 Introduction 14 What is an alternative urban space and how is it produced? 16 A three-act dialogue 22 References 27 PART 1: Alternative urban spaces of work, exchange, and consumption 34 2. The production of rurbal space: alternative food provisioning in Denmark 36 Introduction 36 The Danish territory of food provision 38 The case of alternative food provisioning in Copenhagen 38 Discussion and conclusion 49 References 51 3. Framing alternative urban spaces in unstable contexts: a view from Beirut 54 Introduction 54 Urban spaces in unstable contexts 55 Framing urban spaces for change 56 The Lebanese context 58 Framing Souq El Tayeb’s alternative spaces 60 Challenges to positive change 64 The re-signified spaces and transformative potentials 65 Conclusion 66 Acknowledgements 67 Notes 67 References 68 4. New workspaces in Milan and Berlin: coworking spaces between defensive strategies and transformative potential 71 Introduction 71 Coworking spaces in the knowledge economy 72 Coworking spaces and urban economies 73 Coworking spaces and urban space: location matters 76 Coworking spaces and political emergence 79 Conclusions: under which conditions can coworking spaces be considered alternative urban spaces? 81 References 82 5. Deus ex machina: makerspaces in Milan and their transformative potential 86 Introduction 86 Makerspaces and the dreams of a coming revolution 87 Makerspaces in Milan 89 Dreams of revolution in the cold light of the empirical 96 Conclusion 99 Notes 102 References 103 Sitography 105 PART 2: Alternative urban spaces of dwelling 106 6. Producing refugee spaces: disruptive spatial practice and the everyday in Cairo 108 Introduction 108 Theorising the production of refugee spaces 110 Critical urban ethnographies of refugee spaces 112 Socio-spatial polarisation and uneven development in 6th of October City 113 The double marginality of Syrians in Beyt al-‘Ayla 115 Hyperlocal practices as disruptive interventions 117 Defiance and diversion in the production of refugee urban space 119 Conclusion 121 Notes 122 References 122 7. The struggle for the right to housing in Spain 126 Introduction 126 Mobilising for housing rights 127 Theoretical framework 128 An antagonist’s right to housing 131 Conclusion 137 Note 138 References 138 8. The production of slums: old Fadama as an alternative space of urban dwelling 143 Introduction 143 Urban dwelling on the blind side of the state 145 The production of Old Fadama as an alternative urban space 148 Concluding discussion 160 References 163 9. In-between the planned grid: kothi se xuality, domesticity, and urban interstitiality in Chandigarh, India 166 Introduction 166 Urban interstices: intersection of sexuality, domesticity, and urban interstitiality 167 Kothi identity 169 Methodology 169 Kajheri: an urban interstice in Chandigarh 170 Life in Kajheri village 172 Conclusion 177 Notes 178 References 178 PART 3: Alternative urban spaces of public life 182 10. Reclaiming democratic (public) spaces through music: the case of Viaduto Santa Tereza in Belo Horizonte, Brazil 184 Introduction 184 Sound, music, and the production of (political) spaces 185 Belo Horizonte: from segregated city to the crisis of public spaces 187 The Viaduto Santa Tereza 190 Through music: claiming space, creating new places 191 Concluding remarks 196 Notes 197 References 199 Online sources 201 11. Alternative spaces emerging from the Gezi protests: from resistance to alternatives 202 Introduction 202 Struggle against neoliberal urbanism and national conservatism 202 Investigating the radical afterlives of Gezi 204 A squat in Kadikoy: Don Quixote Social Centre 208 A guerrilla garden in Uskudar: Imrahor Garden 212 Discussion: tracing the routes of Gezi ripples 216 Conclusion 219 Acknowledgements 220 References 221 Videos 222 12. Citizen-led micro-regeneration: case studies of civic crowdfunding in London and Milan 223 Introduction 223 Civic crowdfunding: a brief history 224 Crowdfunding through the lens of actor-network theory 225 Political economies of civic crowdfunding 227 The civic crowdfunding context in the United Kingdom and Italy 228 Stories of micro-regeneration from London 230 Stories of micro-regeneration from Milan 233 Discussion 235 Conclusions 237 Acknowledgments 237 Notes 238 References 238 13. An international dialogue on the production of alternative urban spaces 240 Introduction 240 Revisiting the key themes 240 Breaking other grounds 247 Conclusions 253 References 255 Index 257 Alternative urban spaces across civic, private, and public spheres emerge in response to the great challenges that urban actors are currently confronted with. Labour markets are changing rapidly, the availability of affordable housing is under intensifying pressure, and public spaces have become battlegrounds of urban politics. The contributors brought together here aim to spark an international dialogue about the production of alternative urban spaces, through a threefold exploration of alternative spaces of work, dwelling, and public life. The volume is the culmination of an international search for alternative practices to dominant modes of capitalist urbanization, bringing together interdisciplinary, empirically grounded chapters from hot spots in disparate cities around the world. Alternative urban spaces have emerged in response to the great challenges that urban actors are currently confronted with. This book aims to spark an international dialogue about the production of alternative urban spaces, through a threefold exploration of alternative spaces of work, dwelling, and public life.