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Abandonment as a Social Fact

The Problem of Unused and Unmaintained Private Buildings in a Neo-institutional Perspective

  • Includes original and updated estimations of abandonment phenomena at multiple levels (i.e., Italy and Milan)
  • Provides operative taxonomies for policy interventions
  • Consists of original mappings, images, pictures that can be used to improve current and future research

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Geography (BRIEFSGEOGRAPHY)

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
  2. Introduction

    • Anita De Franco
    Pages 1-11
  3. Theoretical Framework

    • Anita De Franco
    Pages 13-19
  4. Analytical Schema

    • Anita De Franco
    Pages 21-38
  5. Discussion

    • Anita De Franco
    Pages 39-55
  6. Conclusions

    • Anita De Franco
    Pages 57-62
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 63-89

About this book

This book provides a multidisciplinary approach for the study of the “abandonment” problem at the inter-section among urban studies, neo-institutionalist perspectives, and social ontology. An analytical framework (based on descriptive and operational issues, factors, reasons, policies) has been built to interpret the phenomenon of abandonment and possible ways of intervening.

The work considers the Italian situation in general terms and examines the case study of Milan in depth. This case is interesting because it triggered public discussions on the problem of abandonment in a non-shrinking context. Moreover, recently, specific policies to cope with abandonment problem have been introduced.

The purpose of the book is to show that the problem of the “abandonment” of urban buildings should be understood as a social fact and not as a brute fact. Thus, in this work the “abandoned” state of buildings is considered as not directly related to certain physical variables; rather, it entirely depends on human evaluations. Crucial information in this regard is how institutional frameworks (e.g. sets of rules of conduct) influence individual behaviour and actions through time. In this view, we may identify abandonment as a phenomenon intertwined with the actions of both private and public entities. The neo-institutional approach helps to highlight how the problem of abandonment is articulated with respect to property rights, formal constraints, reasons behind policy decisions, intervention strategies and implementations.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DASTU), Polytechnic University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Anita De Franco

About the author

Anita De Franco has a PhD in “Urban Planning, Design and Policy”. She is a teaching assistant at the Polytechnic University of Milan and a member of the executive team of “Normactivity: research network on human and non-human normativity”. Her main research activity is revisiting urban studies and policies in light of a neo-institutional perspective.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Abandonment as a Social Fact

  • Book Subtitle: The Problem of Unused and Unmaintained Private Buildings in a Neo-institutional Perspective

  • Authors: Anita De Franco

  • Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Geography

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90367-1

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-90366-4Published: 04 December 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-90367-1Published: 03 December 2021

  • Series ISSN: 2211-4165

  • Series E-ISSN: 2211-4173

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VI, 89

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 17 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Geography, general

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access