Housing Squats in the Pandemic: Viale delle Province 198

Authors

  • Margherita Grazioli Gran Sasso Science Institute

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v16i1p110

Keywords:

Housing squats, Pandemic, Viale delle Province 198, Rome

Abstract

The twin buildings located in Viale delle Province 198 used to be the administrative headquarters of the National Institute of Social Protection (INPS) in Rome, then left vacant since the acquisition by the real estate fund, Investire SGR. It was squatted in 2012 by hundreds of families in a condition of housing vulnerability with the political and logistical support of the Blocchi Precari Metropolitani, that are part of the local Housing Rights Movements. Given its layout and central location, Viale delle Province 198 has become a hub of autonomous infrastructures of the welfare and contentious politics from below, with a strong focus on healthcare. This vocation has been highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic, whose unforeseen challenges compounded pre-existing patterns of exclusion. On the one hand, the activists, inhabitants and local social workers have engaged to consolidate the social innovations that have been devised since the onset of the pandemic. On the other hand, they and their solidarity networks are coalescing to cope with the repercussion of the eviction procedure that started during the summer 2022, and that would cause the dissolution of the autonomous infrastructures they have generated.

Author Biography

Margherita Grazioli, Gran Sasso Science Institute

Margherita Grazioli is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Urban Studies at the Social Sciences Unit, GSSI. Previously, she was a teaching fellow in the School of Business of the University of Leicester (UK) where she also got her PhD. Her thesis was about the practices of self-organisation, mobilisation and social reproduction enacted by squatters for housing purposes and Housing Rights Movements in the capital city of Rome (Italy), investigated through qualitative and ethnographic methodologies. Her current research interest beholds the formal and informal practices of local governance of the housing emergency actioned by Rome’s local municipalities in relation to housing squatters, urban social movements and civil society’s subjects (i.e. trade unions and associations). She has published articles in international peer-reviewed journals such as Citizenship Studies, Voluntas and Quaderni U3, while co-writing and networking with other scholars concerned with the same subject area.

References

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Published

12-04-2023

How to Cite

Grazioli, M. (2023). Housing Squats in the Pandemic: Viale delle Province 198. PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO, 16(1), 110–114. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v16i1p110

Issue

Vol. 16, No. 1 (2023). Special Issue on: "Housing Crisis and Social Mobilization in times of COVID19"

Section

Short Story

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