‘Landscape of exception’: Power inequalities and ethical planning challenges in the landscape transformation of south-eastern Sicily

Abstract

In some marginal contexts of Southern Italy, in light of specific economic, political and social conditions, certain relationships between ‘strong powers’ and ‘weak powers’ produce a suspension of norms/rights that is, paradoxically, ‘normalised’. This creates a particular spatial variation of Agamben’s (2005) state of exception concept: the ‘landscape of exception’. With respect to the possible conditions of ‘exception’, this article describes the ‘landscape of exception’ of the greenhouse system in South-Eastern Sicily. This ‘landscape of exception’ is generated by the greenhouses, in particular those dedicated to vegetable production, through an effective mechanism of spatial manipulation of the landscape and social control of migrant workers. In relation to these considerations, this work reflects on the ethical challenges and responsibilities of planning, highlighting (explicit and latent) conflicts and power inequalities in the ‘landscapes of exception’, where issues of environmental sustainability, social justice and the suspension of norms are closely intertwined.

Planning by Exception: The Regulation of Nairobi’s Margins

“…Our own interest draws on Martin Murray’s sense that exceptionality is not an escape from regulation but rather the result of “a meticulously orchestrated dynamic designed to create alternative regulatory regimes” (2017: 306). Agamben’s concept does resonate with our own analysis, particularly its focus on the creation of spaces in which and subjects for whom liberal rights do not apply (Gray and Porter, 2015; Lo Piccolo and Todaro, 2021; Roy, 2005). We complement this here by illuminating the way that entangled regimes of exception come to produce not just specific spaces but the entire urban fabric, with implications for all urban dwellers.…”

“…As urbanization processes become progressively deregulated, it is through exception , rather than through regulation , that most urban planning decisions are made. Some scholars whose contributions we discuss here (such as Goldman, 2011; Lo Piccolo and Todaro, 2021) mobilize Agamben’s “state of exception” (2005) for their analysis, while other scholars who engage with exception in planning do not (e.g., Fawaz, 2016). A wider debate as to whether the “state of exception” concept should be stretched to explain phenomena that might relate only loosely to the original concept is ongoing in urban and planning studies (cf.…”

Excluir para reterritorializar: exclusões urbanas de culturas tradicionais na Região Norte do Brasil

“…Além disso, a apropriação espacial do território cria uma ideologia de exclusão (Davy, 2019) e narrativas de poder (Shepherd et al, 2020). A paisagem de exceção é um meio de controle social e territorial, e um meio de enfrentar os desafios de planejamento na transformação urbana (Piccolo & Todaro, 2021). A reflexão dessas questões envolve os aspectos e dimensões do processo de desenvolvimento urbano-regional, a diversidade histórico-cultural do território, as estratégias e os instrumentos de gestão e de planejamento urbano-territorial.…”