Everyday Tuscany and the Politics of Landscape Purification

Keywords: Tuscany, landscape purification, peripheries, social justice, landscape ideology
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 65

Abstract

'Peripheries', 'urbanized countryside' and 'sprawl' are 'the third wheel' of urban policies in Tuscany: an uncomfortable reality substantially ignored by the regional political discourse, and neglected by urban and regional policies. This is the result of a deep-rooted way of polarizing the conceptualization of Tuscany between utopia and dystopia: countryside and historical centers on one side and suburbs on the other. This way of structuring the discourse has its roots in the ideology of the nineteenth-century landed aristocracy and fascism, whose purified territory has now become the Tuscany of the VIPs. However, it is still a harbinger of heavy implications in terms of spatial justice. Most of the attention and resources are in fact directed on the one hand to the preservation of the 'beautiful landscape' and on the other hand to the progressive 'purification' of historical centers, often equated in the local political discourse to 'living-rooms' (salotti urbani). With this contribution we intend to deconstruct the urban planning discourse dominant in Tuscany today as a prerequisite for the achievement of territorial and urban policies more balanced both in terms of spatial justice and in terms of ability to adhere to real needs.