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Across the world, states use demolitions and displacement to reorganize cities according to particular visions of society. Through the voices and experiences of former slum dwellers evicted in the 1970s from a self-grown settlement beneath a Roman aqueduct, this book examines the social consequences of forced relocation and the ways communities rebuild social life in its aftermath. It reveals the forms of sociality that emerge in the gaps of urban planning and highlights the damage caused when governments respond to grassroots urbanism with bulldozers and relocation schemes.
It is rare to read such a beautifully written book. The author is someone whose writing talent is indisputable; they can synthesize and bring together disparate sources and thoughts in a convincing narrative. Theodoros Rakopoulos, University of Oslo
This is a wonderful, compelling, thought-provoking, and profound book. It intertwines – poetically and analytically – careful attention to people’s lives, perspectives, and voices with rigor and determined argumentation. Naor Ben-Yehoyada, Columbia University
Stefano Portelli is a Senior Researcher at Madrid's UNED Department of Sociology and Political Science. He is a member of University of Barcelona's Observatory in Anthropology of Urban Conflict (OACU), and editor for the Italian independent media Napoli Monitor - Lo stato delle città. He is a Marie-Curie alumni and former postdoctoral fellow for Harvard and Leicester Universities.