The Dark Side of Urban Informality in the Global North: Housing Illegality and Organized Crime in Northern Italy

Abstract

This article deals with housing illegality/informality in Italy, where it represents an established aspect of urban development. It presents a case study focused on Desio, a town close to Milan in northern Italy. Here housing illegality occurs by virtue of the well‐established presence of a mafia‐type criminal organization (the ‘Ndrangheta). Three examples of illegal construction in Desio are analysed, forming the basis for a discussion on the distinctive features of illegal house‐building in Italy. In particular, institutional incentives encouraging illegal housing are investigated, with reference to both formal institutions (e.g. planning laws, rules preventing unauthorized housing and building amnesties) and informal institutions (e.g. organized crime). The case of illegal housing in Italy contributes significantly to the wider international debate on urban informality, highlighting the critical need for research along avenues as yet only partially explored (e.g. informal housing in Western countries and the role of criminal activities and actors in the spread of informality) and challenging some common assumptions such as the geographical dualism (‘global North’ versus ‘global South’) which, implicitly, results from the international literature.

Postcolonial narratives and the governance of informal housing in London

“…The changes to the planning system proposed by national government illustrate Roy's insights into informality being a general mode of urbanization ( 2009) when, in order to address an affordability crisis, authorities push for less regulation whilst at the same time not tolerating informal practices that take place outside of the 'official' sphere. This also chimes with a growing body of literature that is questioning the value of simple separations of formal and informal planning in European countries and examines the ways in which informality is both tolerated and forms a core part of the functioning of urban economies and welfare systems (Chiodelli, 2019;Rogers et al, 2019).…”

“…In particular, there has been a resurgence of interest in the differences between Mediterranean systems of urban planning and those that have emerged in northern Europe (see Allen et al, 2004;Arbaci, 2019). Chiodelli (2019), for instance, draws on the Italian context to argue that Mediterranean countries act as 'transition zones' that reflect neither the practices found in the Global South, nor those that exist in the North. He highlights some of the structural features of the Italian system and argues that most forms of informality are found amongst land-owning middle-class households who build extensions without permissions.…”

The “Souths” of the “Wests”. Southern critique and comparative housing studies in Southern Europe and USA

“…The rationale for this terminological twist is twofold: On the one hand, the shift from North to West displaces the symmetrical relation implicit in North vs. South (cf. Romine & Graeson, 2016;Chiodelli, 2019); and, on the other, referring to a plurality contributes to overcoming the understanding of a spatially stable, historically given dichotomy between one North/West and one South.…”

“…Not in geographically deterministic fashion I call these regions the Souths of the Wests. Sure, they are located at the southernmost edge of their continents and are "geographical fringe areas" (Chiodelli, 2019) with, respectively, Africa and the Middle East, and Latin America-think of the role of the Mediterranean in mediating Europe/African relations or the strategic location of Memphis, home of the second world's busiest cargo airport, for the Latin American operations of logistic giant FedEx.…”

Evolution and Management of Illegal Settlements in Mid-Sized Towns. The Case of Sierra de Santa Bárbara (Plasencia, Spain)

“…In addition, the Mediterranean basin presents particularities such as the role of the massive middle-class that illegally builds on its own plots (mostly secondary homes), a phenomenon shared in countries like Italy and Greece, among others [27,28]. For this reason, more attention needs to be paid to illegal urbanization, as its magnitude can be significantly increased under this context.…”