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AbstractAsserting the need to acknowledge the role of the current crisis and austerity politics in fostering the re‐emergence of squatting initiatives in Rome, this article brings together the literature on squatting as an urban social movement, notably Martínez López's holistic approach, with a political economy perspective analysing the current stage of 'late neoliberalism'. In so doing, I use the conceptualization of 'expulsions' developed by Sassen to show how emerging squatting initiatives in Rome represent the 'spaces of the expelled'. Focusing on the case of Communia in San Lorenzo neighbourhood, the article shows how Martínez López's approach is able to account for the rapid success and support enjoyed by Communia, going as it does beyond the 'single‐issue' perspective that has dominated much of the squatting literature. Indeed, the main claims addressed by Communia activists concern a plurality of issues grouped around the concept of urban commons, as both a practice and a goal. Methodologically, the article is the result of 18 months of fieldwork based on an activist/participatory action research (PAR) approach, comprising participant observation/observant participation, in‐depth interviews and questionnaires.

Il contributo analizza il ritorno della pratica delle occupazioni a Roma in seguito all'acuirsi degli effetti della crisi economica e dell'adozione delle politiche di austerità. La tesi principale sostenuta è che tali iniziative che coinvolgono gli "espulsi" dal sistema di welfare (Sassen, 2015) non hanno rivendicazioni settoriali ma sono spazi del comune. A tal proposito il contributo si fonda su una critica del modello proposto recentemente da Pruijt (2013) in relazione a tre aspetti: la scelta delle categorie tracciate; gli attori che danno vita a tali iniziative; le rivendicazioni portate avanti attraverso una pratica eminentemente spaziale.

Geographical analyses on protests against austerity politics using the framework of post-politics have proliferated in recent years, mostly building on the work of Jacques Rancière and his conceptualisation of the political and the police order. The paper continues this tradition but seeks to move beyond those analyses reducing the political gesture to a 'rare' and 'heroic' act. It does so by bridging the work of Rancière with the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, developing two main arguments. The first one concerns the local and situated dimension of the political moment; the second concerns the dialectical relation between the police order and its disruption, while at the same time viewing insurgent acts as part of a chain of perpetual acts that destabilise the police order, which moreover are the inevitable outcome of its excess. These theoretical arguments are developed in relation to the analysis of the trajectory of disruptive politics around vacant property in Dublin and Rome. In both cities, several contentious political initiatives around property emerged as a response to the crisis and austerity politics, but they were unable to translate into bigger movements. To account for this, the paper identifies two main factors: the limited violence of the crisis in terms of evictions and foreclosures, and the instrumental use of 'legality' and 'rules' by the police order. Nevertheless, we argue, activist engagements with vacant property can be considered as examples of 'world forming' that create the possibilities for further disruptive politics.

Neoliberal rationality appears as common-sense (Hall and O'Shea, 2013) in almost every geographical region, forging political and economic agendas, as well as investing every domain of social and personal life (Brenner et al, 2010, Cooper, 2008, Harvey, 2005). In this respect, the affirmation of austerity politics as the main response to the global financial crisis originated in the US mortgage market from 2007 marks the triumph of the neoliberal order, its key-principles being intensified and unchallenged transnationally (Aalbers, 2013, Dardot and Laval, 2014, Peck, 2013). At the global scale the impact of the neoliberal reason on welfare regimes seems to be inescapable: cuts in services and public expenditure, the emergence of new contractual forms of public/private partnership (and ownership of assets), homeownership promoted as the key towards an asset-based welfare provision through the expansion of credit and the consequent raising of indebtedness for the consumer-citizen (Aalbers, 2008, Ascoli and Ranci, 2002, Rolnik, 2013, Ronald, 2008, Watson, 2009). The main consequences of this global trend are rising inequalities, and increasing poverty, unemployment and indebtedness; whilst the hegemony of the neoliberal principle of selfresponsibilization has led towards the progressive criminalization and blaming of people living in poverty (Taylor-Gooby, 2013, Wacquant, 2009). How do such processes impact on sexuality and sexual politics? The answer is at least twofold, highlighting the contradictory character of capitalism, defined by Bassi (2006) as the tension between capture and escape. [Opening Paragraph] ; Peer-reviewed ; Publisher Version

Globally, Smart Cities initiatives are pursued which reproduce the interests of capital and neoliberal government, rather than wider public good. This book explores smart urbanism and 'the right to the city', examining citizenship, social justice, commoning, civic participation, and co-creation to imagine a different kind of Smart City.

Cities around the world are pursuing a smart cities agenda. In general, these initiatives are promoted and rolled-out by governments and corporations which enact various forms of top-down, technocratic governance and reproduce neoliberal governmentality. Despite calls for the smart city agenda to be more citizen-centric and bottom-up in nature, how this translates into policy and initiatives is still weakly articulated and practiced. Indeed, there is little meaningful engagement by key stakeholders with respect to rights, citizenship, social justice, commoning, civic participation, co-creation, and how the smart city might be productively reimagined and remade.This book fills this lacuna by providing critical reflection on whether another smart city is possible and what such a city might look like, exploring themes such as how citizens are framed within it, the ethical implications of smart city systems, and whether injustices are embedded in city systems, infrastructures, services and their calculative practices. Contributors question whether the need for order, and the priorities of capital and property rights, trump individual and collective liberty. Ultimately considering what kind of smart city do individuals want to create, and how we create the most sustainable smart urban landscape.

This paper provides an overview of a transnational research project exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and public health responses to it, on sexual and gendered politics. It sets out a framework for rethinking sexual and intimate citizenship during the COVID-19 pandemic, and draws on examples from India, Italy, Mexico and the UK to illustrate our analysis. We examine how the pandemic has impacted on the everyday negotiation of intimacy and highlighted material inequalities that impact on the lives of women and LGBTQ+ people. We argue that the pandemic has produced new faultlines between women and different groups of LGBTQ+ people, as well as amplifying existing tensions. In addition to identifying these faultlines, we explore the cracks opened by them which might reveal possibilities for new coalitions and alliances in relation to sexual and gendered politics.

Abstract: This paper reviews current concepts from the social sciences and humanities through which to understand and interpret the sexual and gendered politics of the COVID-19 pandemic. We revisit Sedgwick's 'epistemology of the closet' to think about the ways in which sexuality and gender have become known and understood in new ways through a different form of containment, the experience of COVID-19 lockdowns. This paper sets out a framework for rethinking sexual and intimate citizenship during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine how the pandemic has impacted on the everyday negotiation of intimacy and highlighted material inequalities that impact on the lives of women and LGBTQ+ people.Non-technical summary: This working paper provides an overview of concepts from the social sciences and humanities which might contribute to an analysis of the sexual and gendered politics of the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw parallels between the metaphor of 'the closet' to think about the ways in which sexuality and gender have become known and understood in new ways through a different form of containment, the experience of COVID-19 lockdowns. This paper sets out a framework for rethinking sexual and intimate citizenship during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine how the pandemic has impacted on the everyday negotiation of intimacy and highlighted material inequalities that impact on the lives of women and LGBTQ+ people.

Following the development of anti-retroviral therapies (ARVs), many people affected by HIV in the 1980s and 1990s have now been living with the condition for decades. Drawing on perspectives from leading scholars in Bangladesh, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ukraine, the UK and the US, as well as research from India and Kenya, this book explores the experiences of sex and sexuality in individuals and groups living with HIV in later life. Contributions consider the impacts of stigma, barriers to intimacy, physiological sequelae, long-term care, undetectability, pleasure and biomedical prevention (TasP and PrEP). With the increasing global availability of ARVs and ageing populations, this book offers essential future directions, practical applications and implications for both policy and research