Messina Earthquake, 1908 (2024)

Writing the history of "natural" disasters. The case of Messina

2019

Though they are called “natural” disasters, earthquakes have a social, political and economic dimension; it is therefore possible to write their history. The 111th anniversary of the Messina earthquake is an opportunity to reflect on the multi-dimensionality of such events, and to outline avenues for historical research on “natural” disasters.

Earthquake and People: The Maltese Experience of the 1908 Messina Earthquake

Earthquakes and Their Impact on Society, 2015

Excerpt Chap. 4 - Farinella D., Saitta, P. (2019) "Messina, From"the"Earthquake to"the"Present", in D. Farinella, P. Saitta, The Endless Reconstruction and Modern Disasters. The Management of Urban Space Through an Earthquake (Messina 1908-2018)". Palgrave Macmillan.

2019

Following the 1908 earthquake, the establishment of new channels for financing reconstruction and the creation of special agencies for the financial management of economic flow casted Messina into the hands of small groups of interest that reconfigured the city both socially and physically. In particular, the considerable extension of the post-disaster city is seen as the result of speculative processes encouraged by the financial mechanisms of reconstruction. This chapter, thus, explores the post-disaster processes that led, on the one hand, to the emergence of new forms of spatial segregation and the rise of a new urban underclass, and, on the other hand, to the consolidation of mechanisms that contributed to the rise of a number of families that transmit their power and influence from generation to generation.

"The Endless Reconstruction and Modern Disasters. The Management of Urban Space Through an Earthquake – Messina, 1908–2018, 2019

This is a study on the long-lasting consequences of a disastrous earthquake that hit the city of Messina, Sicily, in 1908. The quake killed about 86,000 people, and destroyed one of the most important portal cities of the Mediterranean. The book investigates both the forces that shaped that event and made it possible – firstly, urban speculation processes at the end of the nineteenth century – and the role of that occurrence in creating a complex event that, on the one hand, accelerated trends and tendencies that were already in motion; and, on the other, produced an entirely new social space based on social separation and the rise of a widespread marginal class. Such a class developed within urban borders and spaces that, over the decades, grew according to the same logic and directions that followed the reconstruction. Especially the shacks, still a visible presence in the city, represent the space of reproduction both of a class and the whole of the social relations stemming from the disaster. It shows how key-concepts in contemporary scientific analysis, such as “shock economy” and “economy of disaster,” can be aptly backdated. Above all, this study broadens the normal analyses of disasters by showing the stratification of institutional techniques and economic forces that, over the decades, intervened and (re-)shaped the site of a disaster and its social structure.

Introduction (Chapter 1) - Farinella D., Saitta P. (2019) "The Endless Reconstruction and Modern Disasters. The Management of Urban Space Through an Earthquake (Messina 1908-2018)". Palgrave Macmillan.

2019

This chapter presents scopes and themes of the book. Above all, it introduces the case of Messina (Sicily, Italy), a city hit by a disastrous earthquake in 1908. With figures comprised between 65,000 and 86,000 victims, the scale of the event was apocalyptical. The Messina earthquake was the first massive disaster that hit Italy after the Unification. The event, thus, acquired symbolic and political meanings for the national government of the time, and it was intended by the State as an occasion to perform according to very modern notions of efficiency and effectiveness. The chapters suggests that this old crisis provides many familiar elements for today’s readers, and it can be considered an event to be re-visited—especially because it is a catastrophe that has never really ended and continues until now.

Excerpt Chapter 7 - Farinella D, P. Saitta (2019) "Messina Today: Representation, Identity, and Mobilization for Change", in D. Farinella, P. Saitta,The Endless Reconstruction and Modern Disasters. The Management of Urban Space Through an Earthquake (Messina 1908-2018), Palgrave MacMillan.

2019

Starting from an analysis of the public discourse, identitarian representations, and practices, this chapter aims to show that stereotypical and essentialist representations can sometimes be changed, challenged, adapted, and politically activated by the subaltern in order to make specific claims and can also often be reversed. In particular, this chapter analyzes the objectivation strategies put in place by the “outsiders” (those who do not live in the slums), in line with their role (journalists, politicians, strangers, or the citizens of Messina), and the tactics used by the slum residents to resist, subvert, or exploit such stereotypical representations according to their needs and the political framework in a given time.

Messina 1908: the invisible city

1990

Introduction The initial purposes of this work were to build a 31) model of the old city of Messina and to reconstruct a walk through it; to understand the "Ghost city," the parts that form it, and the rules of its plan, which are explicit in some cases but hidden most of the time; to measure its space, appreciate the similarities to and differences from modern city plans, and use the information to improve the plans of tomorrow. It might seem a useless study of a nonexistent city, and yet during the months of detailed work, of patient reconstruction from the surveys and photographs of the city destroyed in 1908, we began to consider how it was still possible to obtain spatial values of and to project behaviors in the lost city, in other words, to practice tests on memory that are very interesting for people working in a context in which memory no longer exists. The work presented here is the first stage of a more complex research project still to be carried out on Messina...

Catastrophe and Photography as a “Double Reversal”: The 1908 Messina and Reggio Earthquake and the Album of the Italian Photographic Society [2015]

The Earthquake and the Shanty: Post-disaster Social Order in a Sicilian Town (1908-2013). In: J. Teixeira Lopes , R. Hutchison (eds.) Public Spaces: Times of Crisis and Change. Bingley: Emerald, pp.345 - 372.

This study explores the historical development of a deprived class in Messina, a Southern Italian city. By means of 85 in-depth interviews and the analysis of the most important phases of the reconstruction following a disastrous earthquake which took place in 1908, the authors investigate the forces that, over the course of a century, shaped the formation process of an “underclass” living in shanties and deprived project areas within the city. The authors’ hypothesis is that the “economy of disaster” and the “shock economy” are not a specific feature of the current period. On the contrary, the elements characterizing the contemporary disaster-related speculative processes were largely active at the very beginning of the past century. This chapter, then, explores the long-lasting social consequences of speculative approaches to the management of disasters, and reflects on the forms of resistance of subaltern populations to an organization of life that started in the aftermath of a remote earthquake, and still affects their living conditions and ways of reproduction.

Industrial Urbanization as a Pattern of Development: Disaster Explanation and Reconstruction Strategy in the Aftermath of the Belice Valley Earthquake, Sicily, 1968.