Cesare Di Feliciantonio | Manchester Metropolitan University (original) (raw)

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Papers by Cesare Di Feliciantonio

The Professional Geographer, 2021

Building on critical readings of the rationalities behind ethical committees and their guidelines... more Building on critical readings of the rationalities behind ethical committees and their guidelines, this article analyzes how their positivist, biomedical conception of the research process can have a negative impact on research participants who might perceive their voices erased by these institutional practices. Using examples from my recent research with gay men living with HIV in England and Italy, I show how research participants have contested the General Data Protection Regulation guidelines I was following in relation to the use of pseudonyms and the depersonalization of data and the sharing of interview transcripts. Questioning the fixity of the position of the researcher and the research participants assumed in ethical guidelines, the article explores the impact of the encounter with research participants on the researcher’s life course well beyond data collection and analysis, emphasizing the need for a different care ethics.

Documents d'Anàlisi Geogràfica

This paper provides an introduction to the smart city and engages with its idea and ideals from a... more This paper provides an introduction to the smart city and engages with its idea and ideals from a critical social science perspective. After setting out in brief the emergence of smart cities and current key debates, we note a number of practical, political and normative questions relating to citizenship, justice, and the public good that warrant examination. The remainder of the paper provides an initial framing for engaging with these questions. The first section details the dominant neoliberal conception and enactment of smart cities and how this works to promote the interests of capital and state power and reshape governmentality. We then detail some of the ethical issues associated with smart city technologies and initiatives. Having set out some of the more troubling aspects of how social relations are produced within smart cities, we then examine how citizens and citizenship have been conceived and operationalised in the smart city to date. We then follow this with a discussi...

Quality & Quantity

Economic expansion indirectly promotes class diversification at the neighbourhood scale with a co... more Economic expansion indirectly promotes class diversification at the neighbourhood scale with a consequent reduction of social divides at the regional scale. To verify this working hypothesis, the present study investigates class diversification at both spatial scales in a Mediterranean city (Athens, Greece) using the European Socioeconomic Classification based on population census data referring to 1991–2001, a phase of economic expansion and intense urban sprawl preceding the 2004 Olympic games. Results of multivariate analysis and diversity indexes outline a local-scale social mix associated to suburban expansion, and regional-scale class segregation, reflecting an increasing polarization in affluent and economically deprived urban districts. The contrasting pattern at the two spatial scales results in a complex social geography with class diversification and moderate changes over time in the economic spatial divide between urban and neighbouring rural areas. These findings contribute to design scale-dependent policies reducing social inequalities and improving quality of life in urban areas. Future paths for socio-spatial processes were delineated for sprawling metropolitan regions under economic expansion and discussed in the light of future demographic trends in both developed and emerging countries.

Gender, Place & Culture, 2017

This themed issue contributes to discussions of queer positionalities in the context of doing fie... more This themed issue contributes to discussions of queer positionalities in the context of doing fieldwork on/with queer-identified subjects. The point of departure being that the term queer has emerged to qualify a specific scholarship that contests normative orders in gender and sexuality, and that queering is a form of critique of multiple power relations that informs knowledge production. Normative sex and gender orders are reflected in the power-knowledge relations that produce ‘queerness’ as outsider, abnormal and subaltern. In order to challenge these normativities, the production of knowledge must be contested in its conception. Here we present the theoretical framework that grounds our themed issue as well a short summary of the articles in this series.

Dialogues in Human Geography, 2016

Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 2016

Dialogues in Human Geography

Recent biomedical innovations in the field of HIV prevention and treatment-namely PrEP, TasP, and... more Recent biomedical innovations in the field of HIV prevention and treatment-namely PrEP, TasP, and 'undetectability'-have completely reshaped the experience of living with the HIV virus, as well as the meanings of 'risk' and 'safety' in relation to sexual practices, leading to new forms of pleasure and sociality for gay and bisexual men in the Minority World. While human geographers have been slow to engage with the changing social dimensions brought by these innovations, scholars across the whole spectrum of the social sciences have been far more creative and responsive contributing to a critical understanding of what these processes entail in terms of subject formation as well as social and communal relations. This article proposes a distinctly geographical contribution to analysing and interpreting these biomedical technologies, exploring the ways that new spatialities and spatial relations emerge from their use and circulation. Our approach is based on provisional assemblage thinking as it offers the possibility to think the complex connections between biomedical innovations in the field of HIV, sexual practices, subjectivity, pleasure, spaces, and technologies, going beyond the subdisciplinary preoccupations and methodological reflexes of geographers focused primarily on either health or sexuality.

Housing Studies, 2020

Against the heteronormativity of the increasing field of studies around intergenerational family ... more Against the heteronormativity of the increasing field of studies around intergenerational family relations within asset-based welfare systems, the paper analyses the housing pathways of lesbian and gay young people, focusing on family intergenerational relations and the implications concerning emotional, private and sexual life. The paper focuses on Greece and Italy, two countries characterized by the so-called ‘Southern European’ model of welfare system centred around the family. Given the persistence of homo/lesbophobia, this process pushes lesbian and gay youth to negotiate between housing choices and personal lives in ambivalent ways. The housing strategies analysed are regrouped into four categories: i) the return to the family house; ii) the dependence on the family of origin to buy or rent; iii) international migration to be more autonomous; iv) the experience of alternative housing models, mostly squatting, or sharing (including Airbnb). Our categorization must not be interpreted as fixed or immutable since people might try different solutions over time.

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 2019

Geographical analyses on protests against austerity politics using the framework of post-politics... more Geographical analyses on protests against austerity politics using the framework of post-politics have proliferated in recent years, mostly building on the work of Jacques Rancière and his conceptualization of the political and the police order. The paper continues this tradition but seeks to move beyond those analyses reducing the political gesture to a ‘rare’ and ‘heroic’ act. It does so by bridging the work of Rancière with the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, developing two main arguments. The first one concerns the local and situated dimension of the political moment; the second concerns the dialectical relation between the police order and its disruption, while at the same time viewing insurgent acts as part of part of a chain of perpetual acts that destabilise the police order, which moreover are the inevitable outcome of its excess. These theoretical arguments are developed in relation to the analysis of the trajectory of disruptive politics around vacant property in Dublin and Rome. In both cities several contentious political initiatives around property emerged as a response to the crisis and austerity politics, but they were unable to translate into bigger movements. To account for this, the paper identifies two main factors: the limited violence of the crisis in terms of evictions and foreclosures; and the instrumental use of ‘legality’ and ‘rules’ by the police order. Nevertheless, we argue, activist engagements with vacant property can be considered as examples of “world forming” (Nancy, 2007) that create the possibilities for further disruptive politics.

Centred around the life narratives of HIV-positive gay migrants in two Mediterranean cities, Barc... more Centred around the life narratives of HIV-positive gay migrants in two Mediterranean cities, Barcelona (Catalonia/Spain) and Rome (Italy), this paper frames their decision to migrate towards the big city as an active strategy to escape the “second closet”, a concept introduced by Berg and Ross in 2014 to refer to the hiding of HIV-positivity by gay men in order to avoid negative social condemnation. In line with recent literature on gay migration that has emphasized its relational and situated character, the paper focuses on several factors leading to the decision to migrate: sexual desire and the imagery of the big city; the configuration of the welfare regime allowing free access to antiretroviral therapies (ARTs); access to employment in the services sector; and the absence of strong ties in the new city. Methodologically the paper draws from in-depth interviews conducted with 24 HIV-positive gay men between 2014 and 2016.

Asserting the need to take into account the role played by the current crisis and austerity polit... more Asserting the need to take into account the role played by the current crisis and austerity politics in fostering the re-emergence of squatting initiatives in Rome, the paper bridges the literature on squatting as an urban social movement, notably Martinez’ holistic approach (2013), with a more political economy-oriented perspective analysing the current stage of ′late neoliberalism′. In doing so, I use the conceptualization of “expulsions” developed by Sassen (2014), showing how the emerging squatting initiatives in Rome represent the “spaces of the expelled”. Focusing on the case of Communia in the neighbourhood of San Lorenzo, the paper shows how Martinez approach is able to account the rapid success and support gained by Communia, because going beyond the “single-demand” perspective that has dominated much squatting literature. Indeed the main claims addressed by Communia activists concern a plurality of issues regrouped around the concept of urban commons, declined as both a practice and a goal. Methodologically, the paper is the result of eighteen months-fieldwork based on an activist/participatory action research (PAR) approach, made of participant observation/observant participation, in-depth interviews and questionnaires.

In this paper we analyze the historical roots of neoliberal housing policies, mottos and principl... more In this paper we analyze the historical roots of neoliberal housing policies, mottos and principles in Italy and Spain, two countries with a Mediterranean welfare regime, showing how they are embedded in the twentieth century fascist-dictatorial regimes of Mussolini and Franco. To stimulate economic growth in a situation of autarchy, both regimes saw the construction sector and the promotion of homeownership as keys to fuel the accumulation process while believing this guaranteed social order. After acknowledging these long-standing roots, we show how the current phase of neoliberalism, characterized by severe austerity policies, relies on similar principles, the main reforms approved in both countries proceeding mainly towards cuts to service provisions and resources, while the promotion of homeownership remains unchallenged.
Keywords: neoliberalism; housing policy; austerity policies; Mediterranean welfare regime; Italy; Spain

The politics of positionality in relation to sexuality and desire has remained unquestioned when ... more The politics of positionality in relation to sexuality and desire has remained unquestioned when investigating autonomous and alternative spaces, these studies mainly focused on political positionality through the adoption of militant and action-based methodologies. The article tries to fill this void by discussing issues of positionality related to sexuality and desire when doing research on squatting. The main aim is to discuss how entering the field in social movements research through an action-based approach can lead the researcher to involve every aspect of their life, including sexuality and desire. By discussing the case of my PhD research project focused on the re-emergence of squatting initiatives in Rome, the article is aimed at showing how my sexuality, notably my previous engagement in queer politics, has represented an important issue when negotiating with my research partners. When discussing the strategies and activities I adopted, the article plays with the tensions between being queered by the fieldwork and queering it, showing the possibilities of contamination as well as the limits of the politics of positionality.