Abstract
Whereas studies on subcultural styles have mainly focused on objects, actions, attitudes and language, this chapter explores how the use of urban space represents a constitutive and distinctive dimension of some youth cultures. The main interpretive perspective is that a shift is potentially occurring from a “spatialisation of styles” to a “stylisation of space”, from youth cultures using urban space as a necessary context in which their activities are performed and staged to gain visibility and recognition to youth cultures actively interacting—both symbolically and materially—with (and not only within) urban space as a key element of their style’s construction. Empirically, the chapter draws on comparative research conducted in Turin on skateboarding, parkour, graffiti writing and squatting.
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- 1.
Therefore, there is no universally accepted definition of youth cultures: in this chapter, however, adopting an operational approach, youth cultures are understood as sets of cultural practices through which young people express shared sensibilities, identities, identifications and social positioning (Buchmann, 2001). On these issues, and in particular on subcultural theories, strictly connected with the study of youth cultures, see Berzano and Genova (2015).
- 2.
Sections 1 and 4 are written together by the two authors, Section 2 is written by Raffaella Ferrero Camoletto and Section 3 is written by Carlo Genova.
- 3.
The chapter is mainly based on data collected in Turin (Italy)—through qualitative interviews with youth involved in the four practices, ethnographic observation in their places, analysis of their documents, videos and web/social network pages—in a wider research project into youth cultures and urban space.
- 4.
In Italy, the “occupations” movement has a long history, and over time, different approaches have emerged among its activists. One of the main distinctions is between “centri sociali” and “squats”, the former label being adopted by groups with a Marxist background and more involved in political activities, the latter being adopted by groups with an anarchist background and more active in artistically connoted activities. In the following pages, the chapter uses the term “squatters” for all the activists involved in the occupations, this term being widespread in international literature (a lot of research also uses this term also to refer to people who occupy buildings to use them just as personal dwellings—or plots of land to be cultivated—whereas the places we talk about here are always connected with a project of public activism).
- 5.
In the late 1980s, a “Guide to the places to be occupied” had been printed and diffused by the activists with a list, a map and a description of interesting buildings in the city “available” for occupation.
- 6.
On this process of social and spatial containment, see De Martini Ugolotti and Moyer (2016).
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Ferrero Camoletto, R., Genova, C. (2019). Alternative Spatial Styles: An Exploration of Socio-Spatial Youth Cultures in Turin. In: Fisker, J., Chiappini, L., Pugalis, L., Bruzzese, A. (eds) Enabling Urban Alternatives. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1531-2_9
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