Contested land and blurred rights in the Land of Fires (Italy)

Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of contested land and the clarification of blurred rights concerning urban environments with weak public sector territorial control and the entrenchment of organized crime in the Global North. Adopting a grey spacing approach, we focus on urban informalities in the urban region of Naples (south of Italy) such as uncontrolled land use, ranging from unlawful waste disposal to unauthorized building. We argue that in-depth field research may be helpful in unravelling the entanglement of the formal and the informal, and its findings may become a resource for planning. On the one hand, this is possible by leveraging the informal in order to carry out forward-looking policies and, on the other, by channelling informal practices into suitable formal tools benefitting the public interest. In conclusion, modifying current balances and powers concerning land is a political action, as it helps treat conflicts, unravel the dispute between real and presumed rights, and uncover hidden rights in the public arena.