Citizens without a City: Destruction and Despair after the L’Aquila Earthquake Hardcover – February 1, 2022 by Jan-Jonathan Bock

Description

Author: Bock Jan-Jonathan

Package Dimensions: 0x229x788

Number Of Pages: 274

Release Date: 01-02-2022

Details: Product Description
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.
Review
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
About the Author
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.