The Social Neighborhoods Seen by themselves: images, conflicts and insecurity

Abstract

This article is the result of a survey carried out within the scope of the Observatory of Housing, a study commissioned by the Lisbon City Council to CET since 1992 and developed in a phased way, continuing in time. The sixth phase of this Observatory took place between October 1998 and January 2000, and its main objectives were to deepen the knowledge of the structuring processes underlying negative identities and public images in five social housing neighbourhoods, which had already been questioned in previous phases of the Observatory. This article takes up this study, trying to focus on the articulation between the processes and the factors that structure the public image of the neighborhoods and the type of local social dynamics, since the study in question demonstrates the strong connection between interiorization of a negative image and the perception of conflicting dynamics, generating feelings of insecurity, conflicting practices and attitudes of marginalization of the "others" considered responsible. On the other hand, it highlights the processes of identity construction and the actors' identity  in order to perceive how the interiorization of a negative image about a place of residence is also reflected in the construction of a negative identity, leading to neighbourhood becoming a true stigmatization device, eventually the place for social and urban exclusion.