Hardback : £57.50
In 2009, after seismic tremors struck the Italian mountain town of L'Aquila, survivors were subjected to a "second earthquake"-invasive media attention and a relief effort that left them in a state of suspended citizenship as they were forcibly resettled and had to envision a new future.
In Citizens without a City, Jan-Jonathan Bock reveals how a disproportionate government response exacerbated survivors' sense of crisis, divided the local population, and induced new types of political action. Italy's disenfranchising emergency reaction relocated citizens to camps and sites across a ruined townscape, without a plan for restoration or return. Through grassroots politics, arts and culture, commemoration rituals, architectural projects, and legal avenues, local people now sought to shape their hometown's recovery. Bock combines an analysis of the catastrophe's impact with insights into post-disaster civic life, urban heritage, the politics of mourning, and community fragmentation.
A fascinating read for anyone interested in urban culture, disaster, and politics, Citizens without a City illustrates how survivors battled to retain a sense of purpose and community after the L'Aquila earthquake.
Show moreIn 2009, after seismic tremors struck the Italian mountain town of L'Aquila, survivors were subjected to a "second earthquake"-invasive media attention and a relief effort that left them in a state of suspended citizenship as they were forcibly resettled and had to envision a new future.
In Citizens without a City, Jan-Jonathan Bock reveals how a disproportionate government response exacerbated survivors' sense of crisis, divided the local population, and induced new types of political action. Italy's disenfranchising emergency reaction relocated citizens to camps and sites across a ruined townscape, without a plan for restoration or return. Through grassroots politics, arts and culture, commemoration rituals, architectural projects, and legal avenues, local people now sought to shape their hometown's recovery. Bock combines an analysis of the catastrophe's impact with insights into post-disaster civic life, urban heritage, the politics of mourning, and community fragmentation.
A fascinating read for anyone interested in urban culture, disaster, and politics, Citizens without a City illustrates how survivors battled to retain a sense of purpose and community after the L'Aquila earthquake.
Show moreAcknowledgments
1. Introduction: The L'Aquila Earthquake
2. The State of Emergency
3. Disaster Politics and the War Among the Poor
4. Contesting Urban Recovery
5. Activism and Grassroots Politics
6. Culture and Social Recovery
7. Mourning in Court
8. Conclusion: A Future for L'Aquila
Bibliography
Index
Jan-Jonathan Bock received his PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. He is editor (with Sharon Macdonald) of Refugees Welcome? Difference and Diversity in a Changing Germany and (with John Fahy and Samuel Everett) of Emergent Religious Pluralisms. Jan currently directs the Business Council for Democracy (BC4D) for the Hertie Foundation, Germany.
"Riveting and nuanced."—Christian Sorace, author of Shaken
Authority: China's Communist Party and the 2008 Sichuan
Earthquake
"Set in the aftermath of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake in central
Italy, Citizens without a City tells of how civic life is
negotiated in the post-disaster context. Through intricate court
cases, civic activities, artistic performances, and invented
traditions, Aquilani strive to regain their city and their
citizenship. Through eloquent ethnography and innovative conceptual
insights, Bock portrays life rising from rubble where versions of
collective pasts and futures are intensely disputed. Providing the
definitive line on everyday orientations after
catastrophe, Citizens without a City is a fascinating study of
life in post-disaster contexts which has repercussions for the
anthropology of crisis, temporality, and urban politics."—Daniel M.
Knight, University of St Andrews, author of Vertiginous Life:
An Anthropology of Time and the Unforeseen
"This is an extraordinary book. Jan Bock in Citizens Without a City
provides us with an unflinching and fascinating account of the
aftermath of the devastating earthquake in L'Aquila. Pathbreaking
in its approach, which moves across disciplines, this account
provides us with a deep analysis of the way that citizens reacted
to the earthquake, and the protests, divisions, spatial changes and
political controversies that followed. Bock draws out the
contradictory outcomes to this traumatic event at a local and micro
level. The overall story, perhaps surprisingly, is one of division
as opposed to reconciliation and solidarity. An urgent and
troubling book, which is beautifully written, organised and
illustrated which will be of interest to historians,
anthropologists, sociologists and the general reader."—John Foot,
author of The Archipelago: Italy since 1945, University of
Bristol
"Citizens Without a City is a masterpiece of scholarly empathy. In
ethnographically probing the deep factionalism that official
autocracy, condescension, and mismanagement inflamed among the
long-suffering survivors of a catastrophic earthquake, Bock deftly
steers analysis away from both politically sterile recrimination
and equally unproductive utopianism. In its place, he suggests an
inclusive partiality – hard, realistic choices leavened by the
social recognition and cultural representation of the losers'
durable distress – as the precondition for the very possibility of
genuine participation."—Michael Herzfeld, author of Evicted from
Eternity: The Restructuring of Modern Rome, Harvard University
"Richly detailed, thoughtful, and full of evocative
accounts, Citizens without a City offers a razor-sharp
analysis of a pivotal period in Italy's recent history, showing how
well-intentioned attempts at disaster relief can leave recipients
feeling divided and disenfranchised. Importantly, the book shows
that while citizens may turn to grassroots politics or legal
redress in an attempt to get their voices heard, these arenas often
prove unsatisfying or counterproductive. By contrast, the cultural
realms of cinema, theatre and autobiographical writing offer more
hopeful prospects for social recovery. Bock's analysis makes for
urgent, timely and stimulating reading as we collectively reckon
with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the states of
emergency implemented to mitigate it. It is also a fine testament
to the way that anthropological research can itself provide a
platform for hitherto silenced voices."—Nicholas J. Long, London
School of Economics and Political Science
"The picture of Italy that emerges from the pages of this book is
in some ways a familiar one, with its ability to recover in the
face of tragedy, shaped by spontaneous expressions of solidarity
among citizens afflicted by catastrophe. And yet there is more. In
this sensitive account of the L'Aquila earthquake and its
aftermath, constructed out of careful observation and
participation, there is a desire to understand and to overcome the
veil of 'tragedy' in order to grasp, collectively, a sense of
'responsibility' and the depth of the idea of society."—Piero
Vereni, University of Rome Tor Vergata
"This book is not just about the city of L'Aquila. Although
Jan-Jonathan Bock reconstructs, grounded in in-depth fieldwork, the
unique experiences that followed the horrific earthquake of 2009,
many readers will detect further issues that are common in other
democratic societies. This account addresses a conundrum across the
West, especially in the face of the pandemic: the crisis of
dialogue between citizens and institutions. Emergencies always
reveal the relationship between citizens and power. Citizens
Without a City stimulates further reflection on this subject
through its richly detailed analysis of grassroots actions and
political context. This book is of significant value for scholars
and a general readership in many countries, and also for the
Italian public, since 'states of emergency' too often become the
norm in disaster management in Italy."—Mattia Diletti, University
of Rome La Sapienza
"In Citizens Without a City (2022), Jan-Jonathan Bock follows
various modalities of protest and legal challenges by local
residents to the postdisaster measures implemented by the Italian
government to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake in L'
Aquila, Italy. Through a detailed ethnography, the book shows how
such post-disaster programs can divide survivors and how forms of
protest and resistance by those affected by the disaster do not
always succeed."—Smoki Musaraj and Matt Canfield, PoLAR: Political
and Legal Anthropology Review
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