Gli scarti e i recuperi nelle trasformazioni urbane: le pratiche di pulizia e di riapertura degli spazi nella Città vecchia di Taranto

How do urban transformations shake people's daily lives? The answer to this question requires an analysis of the interdependencies between urban expansion and contraction. As Lefebvre's thesis on the 'implosion-explosion' process highlights the recursive links between capitalist forms of accumulation and broader spatial transformations, this article examines transformations through social practices, seeking to understand how individuals and social groups interpret processes of social and spatial change. The ethnography in the context of the old city of Taranto, focusing on the relationship between abandonment and spatial reclamation, has highlighted the social forces and interests that move in opposite and interactive ways. Abandonment and physical degradation make access to spaces critical and threaten the housing continuity of those marginalised by the city's industrial modernisation. The recovery of spaces reveals its nature as an action and a social issue concerning the ability to give continuity to housing processes and maintain social relations. By recovering the spaces of an abandoned church, the inhabitants of the Old City find themselves challenging both abandonment and forms of urban development, tracing specific buildings and streets forces of social connection.