Moving Territories. The Srilankan Community in the Neapolitan Spatiality

Abstract

Considering the implications of transnational mobility dynamics within the urban space, the city of Naples shows growing fluidity since territorial reconfigurations intersect with the influx and stabilization of foreign communities. However, forms of socioeconomic vulnerabilities also emerge, associated to filtering-down housing processes, residential differentiation, or even deprivation and spatial segregation. From this case, and in the frame of the cosmopolitism approach, it is possible to discuss, on the one hand, how these socio-spatial dynamics, deriving from global processes, reverberate on the urban fabric reshaping and reinterpreting its functions, traits and characteristics and, on the other hand, which kind of practices may contribute (or not) to a bottom-up social cohesion. This enquiry is the result of a micro-scale qualitative analysis of the urban practices of the Sri Lankans in the Cavone area and Stella neighborhoods, which present the highest incidence of the community within the city, highlighting the evolution of the group’s strategies and interactions.