BACKGROUND This study tries to evaluate, through a multidisciplinary approach, the relationship between urban structure, isolation and distribution of social determinants of health, in the so-called "formerly-Bastogi, a compound, with more than 1,500 inhabitants, located in north-western Rome, Italy. METHODS The architectural-urban analysis, conducted through site visits and evaluations of urban situation, showed how strongly the compound is isolated from the neighbourhoods, and structurally degraded. The socio-demographic analysis, based on the National Census data, showed significant differences in the distribution of the social determinants of health between "formerly-Bastogi" and the surrounding areas. RESULTS The area under study appears to be isolated from the surrounding urban space, both because of social and architectural factors. This situation could have some association with inhabitants' health. CONCLUSIONS If our preliminary investigation was useful f...

Symposium organised by the Ecole Française de Rome, joint with Géographie-Cités (CNRS), Calhiste (Université de Valenciennes), and « Culture, politica e società » (Università di Torino), Rome, Ecole Française de Rome Piazza Navona, 62 June 8-9 2015

Vertical social differentiation is presented in the recent literature as an important element of reduced segregation in South European cities, and the supporting evidence originates mainly from Athens. The authors of this article question the claim about the common form and function of vertical social differentiation across South Europe, as well as its opposition to community segregation, and try to reveal the specificity of the processes leading to its formation in Athens. Since the mid-1970s, the dominant process of urban growth in Athens has been middle-class suburbanization. This process has reinforced community segregation and, at the same time, has triggered a filtering-down process in wide areas around the CBD, formerly occupied by upper and mainly intermediate professional categories. Interclass vertical segregation has subsequently appeared in these areas, where intermediate professional categories and lower middle-class households are now predominant. The fact that these areas do not represent a real choice for any of their resident groups shows that this vertical cohabitation has been the unintended consequence of changing segregation patterns, and hardly the outcome or the corollary of a growing process of sociospatial homogenization.Dans les textes récents, la différenciation sociale verticale est présentée comme un facteur important dans la réduction de la ségrégation urbaine en Europe du Sud, les éléments probants provenant essentiellement d’Athènes. Cet article conteste l’idée que la différenciation sociale verticale ait une forme ou une fonction commune en Europe méridionale, et qu’elle entrave la ségrégation horizontale; de plus, il tente d’exposer la spécificité des processus qui conduisent à sa formation à Athènes. Depuis le milieu des années 1970, l’expansion urbaine de la capitale grecque se caractérise par l’implantation en banlieue des classes supérieurs et moyennes. Ce processus a renforcé la ségrégation dans les quartiers et, parallèlement, a déclenché un processus de filtrage vers le bas dans de vastes zones entourant l’hypercentre, précédemment occupées par des catégories de professionnels libéraux supérieures et surtout moyennes. Une ségrégation verticale interclasse est ensuite apparue dans ces quartiers, des catégories de libéraux moyennes et des ménages de la petite bourgeoisie y prédominant désormais. Or, quel que soit le groupe de résidents, ces zones ne représentent pas un choix réel; cette cohabitation verticale est donc bien la conséquence imprévue de la modification des schémas de ségrégation, plutôt que le résultat ou le corollaire d’une homogénéisation socio-spatiale accentuée.