The Endless Reconstruction and Modern Disasters: The Management of Urban Space Through an Earthquake – Messina, 1908–2018

This is a study on the long-lasting consequences of a disastrous earthquake that hit the city of Messina, Sicily, in 1908. The quake killed about 86,000 people, and destroyed one of the most important portal cities of the Mediterranean. The book investigates both the forces that shaped that event and made it possible – firstly, urban speculation processes at the end of the nineteenth century – and the role of that occurrence in creating a complex event that, on the one hand, accelerated trends and tendencies that were already in motion; and, on the other, produced an entirely new social space based on social separation and the raise of a widespread marginal class. Such a class developed within urban borders and spaces that, over the decades, grew according to the same logic and directions that followed the reconstruction. Especially the shacks, still a visible presence in the city, represent the lieu of reproduction both of a class and the whole of the social relations stemming from the disaster. It shows how key-concepts in contemporary scientific analysis, such as “shock economy” and “economy of disaster,” can be aptly backdated. Above all, this study broadens the normal analyses of disasters by showing the stratification of institutional techniques and economic forces that, over the decades, intervened and (re-)shaped the site of a disaster and its social structure.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction.- 2. Researching Disasters: Theories for a Case Study.- 3. History Seen Through the Slums: The Southern Question and the Current Crisis.- 4. Messina, From the Earthquake to the Present.- 5. Working and Dreaming at the Margins of the City.- 6. Formal and Informal Housing in Today's City.- 7. Messina Today: Representation, Identity, and Mobilization for Change.- 8. Conclusion.

About the Author :
​Domenica Farinella, PhD, is a Lecturer in Economic Sociology at the University of Messina, Italy. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Naples Federico II (2004) and has worked at the Universities of Naples and Cagliari as a researcher, and at ISPO-Tuscany Region as a fellow researcher.

Pietro Saitta, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Messina, Italy. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Urbino (2004) and has worked in many national and international university and research institutions, including the Cuny-Graduate Center, Columbia University, Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, and WHO.