Città neoliberale e forme di resistenza. Il caso dei manteros a Barcellona

Author: Michele Longo

Abstract

This paper analyzes resistance practices activated by Senegalese street vendors, known as manteros (or top mantas), to resist police repression in Barcelona. The idea for this work stems from a brief field experience during my Erasmus period in the Catalan metropolis. Both my experience and the reference literature have allowed me to understand resistance practices as an exemplification of broader trends, typical of the neoliberal city. In the analysis of my field observations, I will pay attention to the symbolic mechanisms of the relational construction of places and the role that the bodies of the involved actors play in these processes. In the neoliberal metropolis, two mechanisms emerge. On the one hand, places are subjected to specific interests, determining their functions and forms. On the other hand, a process of subjectification of places is evident, i.e., the construction of shared social sense among vendors starting from their resistance practices.

Keywords: neoliberal city, manteros, resistance practices, social control, ethnography

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13131/c76e-rk07

Notes on contributors

MICHELE LONGO è laureato in Sociologia presso l’Università di Torino. Tra i suoi interessi, i movimenti sociali e il pensiero di Pëtr Alekseevič Kropotkin.
Email: michele.longo111@edu.unito.it