Diversity in the Maps of a Lisbon Neighbourhood: Community and ‘Official’ Discourses about the Renewed Mouraria

Abstract

Abstract:The neighbourhood of Mouraria in the center of Lisbon is today home to three main groups of residents: traditional residents, new gentrifiers, and immigrants. This diversity is simultaneously a strength of and a threat to its social cohesion and its current urban rehabilitation process, undertaken by the City Council of Lisbon (CCL). This study has three main goals: 1) to analyze how the 'community identity' maps of the neighbourhood are constructed by residents' discourse; 2) to analyze how the 'official' cultural map of the neighbourhood is constructed in the discourses of the press and the CCL; and 3) to compare the 'official' and the 'community' maps. In drafting the 'community' maps, 22 interviews were conducted with traditional residents (14), new gentrifiers (6), and immigrants (2). The 'official' cultural map was re-constructed through a press analysis (four articles from two reference newspapers: Público, 2014; Expresso, 2013) and an in-depth interview with the coordinator of the CCL office in Mouraria. Findings show that the rehabilitation program is represented in the 'official' discourse in a more positive way than in residents' discourses. The main divergence concerns the targets of the intervention. However, in both discourses there is agreement regarding the social problems of Mouraria. The stories of the past told by traditional residents, although mentioning the loss of the traditional character of Mouraria, show the importance of public spaces for place attachment and place identity. The discourses of new residents highlight the role of places in building connections between past and present, and in helping maintain a sense of continuity. We discuss the importance of community identity mapping in understanding the 'battle of ideas' around urban rehabilitation and the impact that different perspectives can have. The study can be a source of information for decision-makers, helping strengthen the communication bridge between them and the community.Keywords: community identity maps, official cultural map, place relations, multicultural community, rehabilitated neighbourhood Résumé : Le quartier de Mouraria au coeur de Lisbonne est aujourd'hui habité par des habitants provenant de trois catégories sociales, soit : la population traditionnelle du quartier, les populations gentrifiées et les migrants. Cette diversité est à la fois une opportunité et un défi au 24 Culture and Local Governance / Culture et gouvernance locale, vol 5 (1-2) processus de régénération urbaine développé par le Conseil de la ville de Lisbonne (CVL). Cette étude a trois objectifs : 1) comprendre l'identité communautaire et en faire une cartographie à partir des discours des différents résidents; 2) analyser comment la cartographie culturelle opérée par la presse et le CVL; 3) comparer les deux cartographies, soit la cartographie officielle et celle des résidents. Pour les fins de cette recherche, la cartographie des résidents a été produite à partir de 22 entrevues, dont 14 entrevues réalisées auprès de résidents dits...

Can regenerated inner‐city areas remain sites of public‐place sociability? Psycho‐social processes predicting public sociability in a changing neighbourhood

“…In the inner‐city neighbourhoods of many European cities, particularly southern cities, public places are central to the daily lives and relationships of their residents – as illustrated, for example, by research conducted in Barcelona (Di Masso, 2015), Granada (Padilla et al, 2014), Cagliari (Zoppi & Mereu, 2015), or Lisbon (Bettencourt & Castro, 2015; Malheiros et al, 2012; Tulumello, 2015). As places of sociability and identity, the streets and squares of these areas traditionally served as extensions of the dwelling, acting as transitional or secondary spaces where borders between private and public are porous (Korosec‐Serfaty, 1990; Rapoport, 1985).…”

“…Mouraria was chosen because of its traditionally lively public place sociability (Bettencourt & Castro, 2015), and because it has undergone a program with a mixed/bottom‐up regeneration strategy since 2010 (CML, 2010). The program – conceived “under the overarching slogan of ‘requalify the past to build the future’ ” (Oliveira & Padilla, 2017, p. 5) – has involved both the direct intervention of the municipality, community consultation and the active participation of local organizations (Bettencourt & Castro, 2015; Tulumello, 2015). Local organizations have offered, for instance, input for developing local jobs and legal support for preventing tenant displacement (Tulumello, 2015).…”

“…Local organizations have offered, for instance, input for developing local jobs and legal support for preventing tenant displacement (Tulumello, 2015). The regeneration policy also explicitly sought to de‐stigmatize the area by constructing an image of it as renewed but still traditional – attempting to break the associations with negative dimensions of poverty, but keeping those with positive ones (e.g., an authentic community; see Bettencourt & Castro, 2015; Tulumello, 2015). For many years, due to this stigmatized image of poverty and insecurity, the neighbourhood did not come up as a choice for new residents to settle in, namely young people of medium or high academic qualifications (Malheiros et al, 2012).…”

“…This model thus brings social diversity by imposed gentrification (Bailey, Miles, & Stark, 2004; Freeman et al, 2016; Heath, Rabinovich, & Barreto, 2017; Pissourios, 2014). In contrast, in bottom‐up/mixed models, authorities directly assure the regeneration of public places and buildings (Gainza, 2016; Padilla, Azevedo, & Olmos‐Alcaraz, 2014), but offer subsidies and/or fiscal incentives to owners assuring renewal of their decaying properties, and implement community consultation for supporting the creation of local jobs, helping fight poverty and stigmatization (Bettencourt & Castro, 2015; Oliveira & Padilla, 2017; Pissourios, 2014; Tulumello, 2015). This brings diversity by initiating small‐scale gentrification, that is, influxes of new residents of low‐medium income but higher academic qualifications than long‐time ones (Davison et al, 2012; Malheiros, Carvalho, & Mendes, 2012; Oliveira & Padilla, 2017).…”

The Revival and Restructuring of a Traditional Folk Festival: Cultural Landscape and Memory in Guangzhou, South China

“…The government set a goal for the Qiqiao Festival and took many powerful measures to achieve that goal. As a result, the selection of the festival landscape was influenced by political authority [48]. To maintain landscape memory, the government stressed the importance of the history traced back to the Qiqiao Festival cultural communities, renewed festival rituals, handicrafts, and built a museum and memorial arch to create a harmonious environment for the festival.…”