The Endless Reconstruction and Modern Disasters The Management of Urban Space Through an Earthquake – Messina, 1908–2018 Domenica Farinella · Pietro Saitta The Endless Reconstruction and Modern Disasters “Deftly interweaving theoretical, historical, spatial and social analysis, the authors illustrate powerfully (with global relevance) the irony of capitalist modernity embodied in the century-long national post-disaster reconstruction project in Messina: the creation through bureaucratic territorial “development” of the con- ditions of precarity and dependency for which those inhabiting and reworking for generations that “temporary” politically and physically constructed landscape are blamed.” —Ann Kingsolver, Professor of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, USA “Disasters last a long time. The interminable reconstruction of Messina was pre- cursory of the spatial and social configurations of inequality that still characterize the city. In 1908, Messina prefigured contemporary disaster relief. For its acute analysis, its compassionate ethnography, its theoretical skill in weaving space with social class and state with financial capitalism, Farinella and Saitta’s book is essen- tial reading.” —Magali Sarfatti Larson, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Temple University, USA “Domenica Farinella and Pietro Saitta have written a powerful analysis of the 1908 Messina earthquake that reveals its long-lasting impact on the destinies of the city and its people. They show how the earthquake remade Messina, as the fitful rebuilding both ensured the development of an impoverished working class and a bourgeoisie devoted to a rentier economy. Astonishingly clear, acutely written—an important contribution.” —Michael Blim, Professor of Anthropology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA [email protected] Domenica Farinella • Pietro Saitta The Endless Reconstruction and Modern Disasters The Management of Urban Space Through an Earthquake – Messina, 1908–2018 [email protected] Domenica Farinella Pietro Saitta Dipartimento Scipog Dipartimento Cospecs University of Messina University of Messina Messina, Italy Messina, Italy ISBN 978-3-030-19360-7 ISBN 978-3-030-19361-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19361-4 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the ­publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and ­institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Alex Linch shutterstock.com This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland [email protected] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank Fillea-Cgil of Messina for their moral and material assistance in the conduction of some important segments of this work. In particular, we thank Daniele David and Domenico Carnevale who have wholeheartedly promoted a study on the condition of the working class in a depressed Sicilian city. We are also extremely grateful for the support and the patience shown by our editors at Palgrave Macmillan: Kyra Saniewski, Madison Allums, and Rachel Daniel. We thank, in particular, Ann Kingsolver for her invalu- able help and her reading of early versions of this manuscript as well as Deborah Kay and Donatella Sutera for their linguistic and editorial consultancy. Last but not least, we thank Valeria Farinella for her graphic support. v [email protected] CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Messina: A Modern Catastrophe 1 1.2 The Organization of the Book 8 References 14 2 Researching Disasters: Theories for a Case Study 19 2.1 The End of the World 19 2.2 Civility in the Post-disaster City 23 2.3 Blaming the Victims 26 2.4 Public Memory and Latent Forces in Local Society 27 2.5 Public Responses to Disaster 29 2.6 The “Productive” Role of Disasters 31 2.7 Bureaucratic Classifications and Social Responses 34 References 38 3 History Seen Through the Slums: The Southern Question and the Current Crisis 43 3.1 Messina, No South and No North 43 3.2 A Southern Question? Beyond the Myth of Development 50 3.3 Is an Agricultural Question at the Root of the Southern Question? 59 3.4 The Fund for the South 72 vii [email protected] viii CONTENTS 3.5 Italian Neoliberalism 76 3.6 Conclusion 81 References 86 4 Messina, From the Earthquake to the Present 99 4.1 The Roots of a Speculative Economy: State, Market, and the Messina Community 99 4.2 Proto-financialization and Decadence 102 4.3 Reconstructing Inner Circles: Geographies of Separation and Exclusion 110 4.4 Fascism and the Consolidation of the Shacks 118 4.5 A Speculative Capitalism Based on Construction (1950–1990) 128 4.6 Continuity, the Neoliberalization of Building 137 References 147 5 Working and Dreaming at the Margins of the City 155 5.1 A Study on the Present-Day City 155 5.2 Getting by in an Informal World 160 5.3 The Public Sector and the Circularity of Formal and Informal 170 5.4 Cynicism and Nostalgia: Being Unemployed in a Time of Crisis 177 5.5 Subaltern Politics 186 5.6 Final Remarks 193 References 195 6 Formal and Informal Housing in Today’s City 199 6.1 The Reproduction of the Shanties 199 6.2 The Shack and the Neighborhood: Talking on Spatial Segregation 203 6.3 At the Border Between Formal and Informal: Strategies to Get a Home 206 6.4 Living at the Margins: Between Public Constraints and Resistance 218 6.5 Conclusion 225 References 228 [email protected] CONTENTS ix 7 Messina Today: Representation, Identity, and Mobilization for Change 233 7.1 The Shacks as a “Performative” Space: The Subalternization of the Slum-Dwellers from an Institutional Point of View 233 7.2 The “Shanty Tour”: Come in, Come and See the Conditions We’re Living in! 245 7.3 The Right to Be Here: Making the Invisible Visible 252 7.4 The Messina Residents Observe the Slum-­Dwellers: Who Is Truly Deserving? 255 7.5 From Salvini to De Luca: The Political Party of the Slums 260 References 269 8 Conclusion 273 8.1 Transcending Events 273 8.2 Continuity 274 8.3 Integrated Analytical Frameworks 275 8.4 Events Rooted in an Epoch 278 References 284 Index 287 [email protected] LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 4.1 A portion of the “Fondo Fucile” shanty town seen from above. Social housing blocks of Villaggio Aldisio are also visible in the background. Source: Photo by D. Farinella, 2019 122 Fig. 4.2 “Casette di Mussolini” in Gazzi, informally restored and overhead by the inhabitants. Source: Photo by D. Farinella, 2019 123 Fig. 4.3 “Casette di Mussolini” in Gazzi, informally restored by the inhabitants. Source: Photo by D. Farinella, 2019 123 Fig. 4.4 Aerial map of the city of Messina. Source: Our elaboration of ©OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-­ShareAlike 2.0 license (CC BY-SA) (30-01-2019). OpenStreetMap.org 133 Fig. 4.5 Total number of dwellings, inhabited and uninhabited, 1931–2011. Source: Our re-elaboration of Istat Census Data (different years) 140 Fig. 4.6 Resident population according to accommodation in use (1931–2011). Source: Our re-elaboration of Istat Census Data (different years) 141 Fig. 5.1 Survival tactics: different stabilizing anchors to help contain social insecurity and marginality. Source: Our elaboration on the in-depth interviews 163 Fig. 6.1 Shanties of “Fondo Fucile” seen from above, with public housing blocks in the background. Photo by D. Farinella, 2019 203 Fig. 6.2 Old shanties in Viale Giostra. Public housing blocks in the background. Photo by D. Farinella, 2019 204 Fig. 6.3 Typical shanty, Viale Giostra. Photo by D. Farinella, 2019 204 xi [email protected] xii LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 6.4 Social housing and shanties in the Santa Lucia area—a view from the speedway. Photo by D. Farinella, 2019 205 Fig. 6.5 Old shanty “refashioned” by the inhabitants; on the right, shanties with the courtyards fenced by the public sidewalk. Photo by D. Farinella, 2019 221 Fig. 6.6 Old “Casette” in Camaro (Torrente Zaera) restored by the inhabitants. Tangled up electric wires suggest the presence of illegal connections to electricity supply. Photo by D. Farinella, 2019 222 Fig. 6.7 Social housing “Case Arcobaleno” in Santa Lucia “refashioned” by the inhabitants. Photo by D. Farinella, 2016 223 Fig. 6.8 Social housing “Case Arcobaleno” in Santa Lucia “refashioned” by the inhabitants. Photo by D. Farinella, 2016 223 [email protected] LIST OF TaBLES Table 4.1 1901 census: workers for sector (> 9 y.o) 105 Table 4.2 Comparison between restored areas over the years 1960, 2002, and 2018 125 xiii [email protected] CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 MESSINA: A MODERN CATASTROPHE1 Very early on the morning of December 28, 1908, the city of Messina was hit by a devastating earthquake, measuring magnitude seven on the Richter scale, and lasting for about thirty seconds.