A “space” of one’s own: identity and conflict in two Milan districts

Abstract

The article is based on a qualitative data collection on the city of Milan, paradigmatic city as a neoliberal city, at the centre of recent urban, economic and social transformations. In particular, the essay compares the urban space s of two districts of the city, reflecting on spatial categories, recent transformations, forced cohabitations in interclosed and in-between spaces. Drawing on the classics of sociological literature, and on the most recent theoretical proposals of urban g eography studies, the essay attempts to define how and on the basis of which factors urban conflict in the global metropolis has changed.