Temporary Citizenship to Reimagine our Cities

From the "Grand Tour" to "tourism," the term and the act of traveling as tourists have not changed much. Paradoxically, we remain anchored to a worldview that emerged with the birth of the modern state and the creation of the industrial city. Later, in the 19th century, we invented the humanities disciplines with which we established the foundations of our political identity: museums, academies, schools, libraries, etc. In this way, a system of knowledge was generated with a specific place within the city, which gradually moved to the outskirts, in most cases industrialized.

Why do we go so far back in time? Because even with the profound transformations of the 20th century, we remain obsessed with the idea of "what must be visited," with tourists invading our spaces in search of cultural beauty, concentrating in the center, longing for stories of the past.

According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), today there are approximately one billion tourists traveling around the world, and we will be close to two billion (almost a quarter of the world's population) in 10 years. The number of tourists has experienced slow growth since the 1960s when, thanks to the conquest of workers' rights, the concept of "vacation" became a civic victory, and it will double in just a few years.

Cities are on the verge of collapse: Venice has almost succumbed to hordes of visitors while its residents struggle to find housing; Amsterdam is beginning to warn tourists not to visit; and Barcelona has created strict regulations to avoid being overrun.

Tourism has ceased to be a way of life open to the concept of leisure. In the past, traveling was somehow relegated to the "after work" period—you could enjoy your free time once your duties were fulfilled—but today, something has changed.

First, because the 20th century was the century of work. Now its configuration, even in terms of citizens' rights, has changed: certain professions are disappearing; jobs are becoming more precarious; "after work" time is more fragmented. The dissolution of industrial cities has changed our lives and the way we inhabit cities.

Paradoxically, our fascination with industrial archaeology has led to the trend of transforming old industrial buildings into trendy new places, which also certifies the end of the Industrial Revolution. By using them as tombstones for the modern city, we forget that these places should serve as a reminder of the meaning of workers' rights and could be a tool for creating new professions.

Therefore, we must rethink our cities in light of the pressure of tourism, and consider if tourists are becoming a significant new political/social “gender.” In the process of becoming the European Capital of Culture, here in Matera we invented a new term for them, “temporary citizens.” This is not only a fancy catchphrase, instead it’s a way of switching the focus from the place being visited to the community that inhabits that place. A definition that also looks at the concept of citizenship not in a static way—trapped within legal borders—but rather as a fluid classification. Our contemporary cities must reimagine themselves as capable of dealing with increasing flows of citizens passing through, including migrants.

We have to stop concentrating on the selfies of our past, as stagnant stories of “what we were” if those conditions are no longer viable. What do we see in Venice, which by the way, became famous exactly for its fluid economy? A celebration of the dead past? Where is the vision of the future? How can the past transform itself, abandon the rhetoric of empty storytelling and generate the foundation for a new polis?

We need to change the immobile “monuments” of cultural heritage: culture must be redefined from something “to be seen” to a platform that starts from the past and rethinks the future. I often say, provocatively, that Western thought has invented one specific element: public space, and the continuous dialogue between the public and private will redesign our cities. Now we have to redraw public space according to the new concept of “temporary citizenship,” abandoning the old concept of centers and peripheries; generating public spaces for new communities beyond the old borders; and dismissing the ancient cartography.

New narratives must be produced, where wandering memories can be captured also at the limits of the cities themselves, to feed the imagination of a new way of inhabiting the space. And with these flowing energies, we must also invent new economies, which are not limited to restaurants, bars, hotels and B&Bs, to also be able to create a new concept of labor.

But can we support the growing pressure of “overtourism”? How can a city physically sustain the feared horde of “invaders”? New rules must be conceived that abandon the idea of defense walls built to protect the old image of the city: a new concept of “humanities” must be established, to redefine the space where we live, to challenge a new concept of public space, to develop a new idea of open citizenship.

MAIN IMAGE: Purgatory, Public Call for the “Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri for the European Capital of Culture 2019, Teatro della Albe, Matera 2019. Photo courtesy: Matera 2019