Gentrification and Diversity Rebranding Milan's Chinatown

This book examines lived experiences of making, inhabiting and appropriating space, in relation to the upscale commercial gentrification of the Milan Chinatown. It inquires about the significance of diverse neighborhoods as emerging multicultural spaces? Are we talking about neighborhood entrepreneurs providing services and entertainment to create local urban culture, or are we talking about political/economic forces in the commodification of ethnic and cultural diversity? Starting from these questions, this book uses innovative visual ethnography and critical urban research to understand the relationship between community-based entrepreneurs, local politics, residents’ sense of belonging, and patterns of city branding strategies in Milan, the fashion capital of Italy.This book is intended for researchers and students in the fields of sociology, anthropology, urban studies, geography, and urban planning. Additionally, it is appropriate for practitioners in the fields ofurban planning, housing policies, and community development.

Introduction.- Milan Chinatown: The defamation of place in the making of territorial stigma.- Hybridity and Chineseness in the global city.- Diversity in neighborhood change: Conflict and resistance.- Gentrification in multiethnic neighborhoods.- The “style” of Milan (new) Chinatown.- Appendix: Engaging with multiple voices: Video ethnography and urban critical research.

Lidia Katia C. Manzo is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Department of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Mediations at the University of Milan. She has been recently awarded with the Marie Sklodowska Curie European Individual Fellowship 2020–2023 to develop the project CITY-OF-CARE at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the same University. She is interested in the application of ethnography and participatory methods in critical urban cultural studies to reinforce our knowledge of how discrimination, segregation, and hegemony work spatially.