Salt city: the neighbourhood as a refuge and threat. Appropriations of public space and resistance of young people in Salt in the face of exclusion and stigma

Abstract

The municipality of Salt, on the outskirts of Girona, is the subject of strong media and political pressure that has contributed to its stigma as a city of immigrants and insecurity, and to its use as a form of «laboratory» for the implementation of public policies In this context, the death of an underage immigrant, in January 2011, during a police chase, led to public expressions of anger by certain groups of young people, along with a new episode of media reaction to criminalize these groups. The anger was expressed by youngsters who have few opportunities to access formal education or the labor market, see their paths blocked, and are surrounded by blaming rhetoric.

Social and racial discrimination regarding access to private space, the lack of financial resources, and poor conditions of housing in some areas turn the streets into the only available and accessible space to be «occupied» for meetings and socialization. But these actions are also subjected to criminalizing and stigmatizing dynamics. Salt City is the name certain groups of young people have given to their city, and specifically to a symbolic, appropriated space in an urban and segregated environment. What is Salt City? Where and in which interactions does it become a reality? This important space can be seen as an environment of resistance and protection that articulates new rules and values of a particular inclusive and identifying «street culture» that confronts external stigma. On the other hand, it lies in the middle of a threatening space, where conditions of marginality abound. This work represents a qualitative approach to the social conditions of young people and their lives: between the safe environment and the threatening space where the regulatory and symbolic control mechanisms of segregation, stigma and criminalization are deployed.