Inhabiting Liminal Spaces: Informalities in Governance, Housing, and Economic Activity in Contemporary Italy

This book explores how dynamics of rule-bending take shape in Rome today, combining a political economy lens with ethnographic research in informal housing, illegal moneylending, unauthorized street-vending, and waste collection. It shows that informalities are not marginal or anomalous conditions but an integral element of the city's governance logics, but they are ultimately unable to reconfigure historically rooted power dynamics and hierarchies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 220 pages
Publication date: 10 February 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book is a groundbreaking exploration of the dynamics of rule-bending in modern-day Rome, drawing upon two emerging fields of study: liminality and informality studies. By adopting a multiscalar and transdisciplinary approach, the author delves into the intricate ways in which gaps and contradictions in institutional rulemaking and application force many residents into protracted liminal states characterized by intense vulnerability. Through a fusion of political economy analysis and ethnographic research in informal housing, illegal moneylending, unauthorized street-vending, and waste collection, the author demonstrates that informalities are not mere anomalies or marginal conditions but rather an integral element of the city's governance logics.

The book highlights the collaborative efforts of multiple actors, including local authorities, community organizations, and informal workers, in constructing local cultural norms, conventions, and moral economies that shape rule-negotiation processes. However, despite these practices' potential for reconfiguring power dynamics and hierarchies, they ultimately fail to address the deeply entrenched historical roots of inequality and marginalization. Instead, they often exacerbate the difficulties faced by weak urbanites in accessing rights and services.

This study challenges prevailing assumptions that informalities are predominantly found in developing economies or limited to specific groups and sectors. Instead, it offers a critical approach and innovative methodology that will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, social theory, urban studies, and liminality. The book provides valuable insights into the complex interplay between formal and informal institutions, the dynamics of power and resistance, and the experiences of marginalized communities in contemporary urban landscapes.

Weight: 590g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367373634