Peripheries and Practices of Consumption in the Naples Metropolitan Area

Abstract

The article analyzes the impact of the new attractors of shopping and leisure in the suburbs of the Metropolitan Area of Naples. After an introduction on the different features of today’s suburbs, the focus shifts on the transformations in the area to the north of Naples along an important axial highway (the Circumvallazione, officially the SP1). This axial road, as well as the so-called “median axis” (Asse Mediano), are analyzed as retail and consumption spaces. This case study demonstrates the complex reality of a suburb too hastily considered as uniform and anonymous: although in this area there is chaos, decay and forms of illegality, it is also characterized by a relative centrality thanks to new retail and consumption spaces which represent key-places for their users, places where the rhythm of life is slowed down and socialisation is somewhat recovered.

The Method of Coexistences in the University-Territory Interface

“…Over the years, there has been a strong emphasis in our projects on participatory social cartography because it is essential to identify territorial references and their meanings, including mental maps (Dansero et al, 2019;Amato & Matarazzo, 2023). Through social cartography, collective data and representations are recorded; it also serves as a tool for defending the rights of indigenous peoples based on their identities and territorialities (Pelegrina, 2020;Bonfá Neto & Suzuki, 2023).…”