Vicinato

Using Simmel as a theoretical frame, the article strives to introduce the neighbourhood in the model of the city elaborated by Castoriadis (2012). Between the oikos (private space of the house) and the ekklesia (the public space of legislation) Castoriadis put only the agora, the masculine realm of economic transactions. With this paper I deem it necessary to insert, between oikos and agora, the feminine realm of the neighbourhood. Taking Rome as a case study, the article interprets the squatting movement as an attempt to open up again the space for neighbourhood, compressed between private space and commodification of the public by the contemporary city.