THE EMERGENCE OF A FRAGILE SOCIAL FABRIC
Neighbourhoods with their own identity: close neighbourhood ties and solidarity
Fight for the improvement of living conditions
After the extreme precariousness of the years of the post-war and rationing,
some of shantytowns became veritable neighbourhoods with their own identity
and a differentiated history. The fight for respectable living conditions in
neighbourhoods lacking basic services and infrastructures and the use of the
street as an extension of the dwelling led to close neighbourhood ties. The
life of the inhabitants moved between solidarity and tensions within some
neighbourhoods which were ignored by the rest of the city.
Political networks
were built up to fight for the improvement of living conditions and for a shantyfree
future, in which the social workers and the organisations in contact with
the shanty-dwellers played an important role. The risk that a reaccommodation
would involve the dissolution of valuable human relations was also a subject of
debate, both among shanty-dwellers and in various professional spheres.
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