Living with austerity, rebuilding care. Social infrastructures in crisis and practices of self-organization in Antico Corso, Catania. – This paper examines how the dismantling and partial rebuilding of care-related social infrastructures in the Antico Corso neighbourhood of Catania has reshaped everyday life and local power relations. The closure of three historic hospitals—an outcome of prolonged urban austerity—has profoundly altered the neighbourhood’s sense of place. Drawing on a qualitative approach that includes ethnography, interviews, document analysis, and participant observation, the paper shows how institutional narratives present these closures as inevitable and beneficial, legitimizing top-down “urban regeneration” while excluding residents from meaningful decision-making. Many inhabitants respond with a mix of anger and resignation, perceiving the loss of the hospitals as a wound to the neighbourhood’s identity. At the same time, feminist collectives, civic committees, and grassroots organizations are developing alternative narratives and practices of social and territorial care. These initiatives contribute to redefining the neighbourhood from below and contest the spatial consequences of austerity. The paper argues that the crisis of social reproduction manifests not only as an economic issue, but as a spatial and political struggle that generates both new forms of marginalization and innovative practices of resistance and belonging. The case of Catania highlights the specificities and contradictions of austerity urbanism in Southern Italy.

“Oltre la strada”, within the neighborhood. Grassroots initiatives for the urban periphery in Fiumicello, Brescia. – The paper deals with the urban regeneration of the western periphery of Brescia (Lombardy’s second largest city). More specifically, the work focuses on “Oltre la Strada”, one of the winning projects of the “Bando Periferie” in 2016. Conceived as a tool against urban decay, the project seems to have only partially achieved the object of solving the urban fragmentation, and there are still several doubts and concerns among residents and local associations from the area where the redevelopment processes took place. In particular, the paper analyzes the case of Fiumicello – a neighborhood characterized by an industrial past, immigration and grassroots initiatives – and of the association Via Milano 59, which carries out every day the mission of encouraging dialogue and filling in the institutional gaps in this small neighborhood.