ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at the symbolic and material practices of coping with stigma. It explains the demonstrations of place attachment that prevail in the face of 'common sense' understandings. The book focuses on a number of methodological reflections revolving around contemporary geographical research that has examined the stigmatisation of urban space. It also focuses on the neighbourhood of Brixton, in Johannesburg, South Africa, in which redlining was pursued as a result of territorial stigmatisation. The book shows that the stigma of belonging to Roma communities, both in France and in Italy, is imposed onto the land where these communities reside. It highlights the everyday appropriations of territorialised space and to confront these to recent policy making decisions that are being taken in the French context, much of which have tended to promote the demolition of social housing neighbourhoods.