The Hostile City of Love and Antibodies of Hate

Ipek Demirsu is a research fellow at the University of Milan, Department of Social and Political Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science (Sabanci University, 2015) and a second Ph.D. in Sociology (University of Padua, 2022). Among her various publications in international journals such as the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Global Networks, she is also the author of the monograph Counter-terrorism and the Prospects of Human Rights: Securitizing Difference and Dissent (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

Preface


List of Figures and Tables


Abbreviations


Introduction: Cartographies of Belonging in a Mid-sized Italian City


1 Social Space, Belonging, and Mobilization: The Role of Spatial Identities in Social Movements

 1 Space, Territory, and Place-Based Identities


 2 The Configuration of the City and Belonging in Cityspace

 2.1 Public Space, Contending Identities, and Everyday Struggles of City-zenship




 3 Social Movements in Social Space: Identity of Place and Place-Based Identities in Collective Action

 3.1 Collective Identity and Identity Politics


 3.2 Social Movements, Spatialized Belongings, and Urban Mobilization


 3.3 Progressive Movements and Transformative Placemaking: Expansive Place-Based Identities


 3.4 Sovereignist Identitarianism and Far-Right Movements: The Defense of Territory, Tradition, and the ‘Native’ Identity




 4 Conclusion




2 One City, Two Movements, and Contending Constructions of City-zenship: A Multimethod Qualitative Research

 1 Extended Case Method and the City of Verona

 1.1 The Extended Case Method


 1.2 The Case of Verona and the Comparative Analysis of Competing Movements




 2 Doing Ethnographic Research, Offline


 3 Doing Ethnographic Research, Online


 4 Qualitative Interviews


 5 Documents and Archival Data


 6 Visual Methods


 7 Data Analysis


 8 A Final Note on Reflexivity and Limitations of the Research Design




3 ‘Veronesi Tuti Mati’: A Historical Analysis of Social Processes Shaping Identity of Place and Place-Based Identities

 1 A Brief Historical Account of Verona and the Making of Veronesità


 2 A Different Neighborhood, a Different Spatial Identity: The Evolution of Veronetta


 3 The Legacy of Fascism and Antifascist Resistance in Verona

 3.1 The Imprints of Nazi-fascism on Urban Space


 3.2 Local Resistance and the Legacy of Anti-fascism




4 ‘We Hate Everyone’: Exclusionary Territorial Identity in the Making of a Laboratory of Intolerance

 1 The Vestiges of Fascism and the Birth of Far-Right Movements in Verona

 1.1 Post-war Fascism in Italy and the Years of Lead in Verona


 1.2 Proliferation of Far-Right Groups in the Veronese Urban Space


 1.3 Competition to Territorialize the City: Extreme Right Groups Today




 2 Territorial Belongings and Right-Wing Populism of Lega Nord


 3 City Administration and the Institutionalization of Far-Right Movements since the 1990s


 4 A ‘Holy Alliance’: Catholic Fundamentalism (Integralismo) and the Far-Right


 5 Hellas Fandom and the Stadium as a School of Hate


 6 Identitarianism Is the New Black: The Identitarian Label and Territorial Belongings




5 The Antibodies of Hate in Verona: Spreading Expansive Place-Based Identity in an Outward-Looking Space

 1 The Roots: A Historical Background of Secular Dissidence


 2 The Constitutive Elements of the Antibodies of Hate

 2.1 La Sobilla and the Heritage of Collective Memory


 2.2 The Evolution of a Social Center ‘Alla Veronese’: La Chimica Before and After


 2.3 Circolo Pink and the Protracted Struggle for City-zenship of Sexual Minorities


 2.4 Paratodos: Workshop of the Multitude in the Movement Scene of Verona


 2.5 Non Una di Meno Verona: Introducing Transfeminism in the City


 2.6 Veronetta 129: Making Cultures Cross Paths in Verona


 2.7 AfroVeronesi: Challenging Latent Claims of Whiteness in Belonging




 3 Collective Identity and Collective Action in Urban Space: Core Values, Issue-Based Formations, and Tactical Alliances of the Antibodies


 4 The Neighborhood as Movement Space and Everyday Hubs of Counterculture

 4.1 Giardino Ex-Nani: From ‘Casa del Fascio’ to Social Street


 4.2 The Red Triangle: Osteria ai Preti, Circolo Arci Cañara, and Malacarne Barassociazione


 4.3 Archival Space of the Collective Struggle: Info-Spazio 161 and the Legacy of Giorgio Bertani


 4.4 Antifascist Bookstore: Libre!




6 Movement-Countermovement Dynamics in and through the City: Practices of Territorialization and Competing Inscriptions of Belonging

 1 One City, Two Territories, and Two Identities of Place: Veronetta and the Historical Center


 2 Acts of Territorialization between Adjacent Social Spaces of Verona

 2.1 Guarding the Borders of the Historical Center


 2.2 Deterritorializing Practices in the Historical Center


 2.3 Revanchist Reterritorialization and ‘Ethnic Resistance’ in Veronetta


 2.4 Everyday Rituals of Placemaking as Resistance to Reterritorialization


 2.5 Naming as Territorialization


 2.6 Urbs Picta: Rewriting Belonging on Urban Space through Street Art




 3 Gentrification, the Far-Right, and Future Projections


 4 Struggle over the Representation of the City: Verona, the City of …

 4.1 Verona Vandea of Europe


 4.2 Verona, the Transfeminist Open City




Conclusion: (Re)spatializing Collective Action between Identity of Place and Place-Based Identities


Bibliography


Index