SELF MADE URBANITY

Research on Contemporary Informal Settlements in Europe

SELF MADE URBANITY is a multidisciplinary, collaborative and participatory research project initiated by urbanXchange.
The project observes the city of Rome as a cross point where urban phenomena of the Northern and Southern hemisphere are very near together.

Researching along a spatial axis of the Roman consular streets Casilina – Prenestina, in the territory of the municipality of Rome our aim is to focus on different cases of informality, such as informal economies, informal housing, informal settlements, self organization and and self-organized planning by the inhabitants. Smu connects at the same time the different “cases” to related phenomena within the City of Rome or other European and extra European cities.

The project will build a network of researcher, artist and  activists to share and compare similar phenomena as well as the correlations between different European realities.

SELF MADE URBANITY looks at the different phenomena of self organized urbanism, self construction, alternative city building and the production of public space from the point of view and „learning from“ the protagonists of such phenomena, including them in the process of knowledge production in a partecipative exchange.
Researching and reflecting on the complex historical, sociological, anthropological and political situation from this point of view will provide, in our opinion, a new consciousness and understanding of contemporary European urban space.