Topic of the thesis: Immigrants' participation and self-organization in Turin. The field research was conducted in Turin over 8 months through the joint use of the network analysis method, applied to the study of the relationships between the different actors of civil society, and the participatory observation method, applied to the study of political integration processes in the housing occupation known as Spazio Popolare Neruda.
Abstract: The research investigates the different faces of immigrants’ participation in the city of Turin, moving from an interdisciplinary theoretical framework in which anthropological and politological perspectives are combined. In order to define a theoretical framework through which to arrive at a precise understanding of the forms of collective action adopted by the various actors of civil society, the concepts of "hegemonic strategy" and "counter-governmental strategy" are then proposed, which in turn are developed from the reflections of Gramsci and Chatterjee, Indian author of the current known as “Subaltern Studies”. The research focuses primarily on the devices through which the institutional order defines the role of immigrants, tracing a genealogy of migratory governmentality and investigating how the various government agencies active in the territory have included the immigrant population in their governmental strategies. Secondly, the study focuses on the incorporation of immigrants by local actors historically rooted in Turin civil society and on the strategies adopted by the most recent associative actors born within the different diasporic communities, often oriented by organizational traditions linked to the associative culture of the emigration countries. The links and influences between the various actors are then investigated through network analysis and numerous semi-structured interviews. Finally, the study focuses on associative subjects that can hardly be considered part of the legitimate civil society, like the “Housing Rights Movement” (Movimento per la casa) and a squat known as "Neruda Popular Space" (Spazio Popolare Neruda), in which several dozen of families, predominantly of foreign origin, still live. In those circumstances the practices typically associated with citizenship are not central and, on the contrary, political practices such as self-organization and informal cooperation, often outside and opposed to legality, are opposed to the exclusive forms assumed by citizenship and are often used to impose exceptional policies to institutions and government agencies. In this context, the field research, conducted through numerous interviews and a long period of participant observation, focused, on the one hand, on the hegemonic and counter-governmental strategies used by the “Housing Rights Movement” and, on the other, on the complex relations between militants and occupiers. The research ends by analyzing the ambivalence of these relationships, characterized at the same time by instrumentality, due to the different roles played in the political organization of the squat, and by the affectivity that characterizes the relationships of daily life cohabitation.
Research interests: Urban and Migration Studies – Post-Colonial Studies – Migration and agro-industrial economy – Sociology of Social Movements.
Graduated from: University of Trento (BA) – Ecole de Gouvernance et d’Economie de Rabat, EGE (MA) – Université Mohamed VI Polytechnique (UM6P), Marocco, Università degli Studi di Torino (MA).
Degrees obtained: BA in Sociology – MA in Analyse Comparée des Sociétés Méditerranés – MA in Anthropology and Ethnology.
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