Power to the people: when culture works as a social catalyst in urban regeneration processes (and when it does not)

This article focuses upon the relationship between culture, urban regeneration schemes, and their impact on socio-cognitive assets – namely, social and human capital. It examines three major urban regeneration projects in the districts of Saint Michel (Montreal, Canada), Auburn (Sydney, Australia) and Bicocca (Milan, Italy), where culture has been invoked as a main transformational driver at the economic and socio-environmental levels, but with different approaches and results. Through comparative analysis, we develop a more general reflection on the social impact of culture-led urban transformation processes, questioning the actual role of cultural initiatives – particularly those related to the creation of new cultural facilities and the programming of big cultural flagship events – and participation as a means to improve the local social milieu. We find that a key role for social efficacy is played by projects’ capacity to elicit the commitment of residents through inclusive cultural participation, as opposed to instrumental top-down initiatives mainly addressing city and neighbourhood branding and real estate marketing purposes.     

Dealing with the Local State: The Informal Privatization of Street‐Level Bureaucracies in Senegal

Based on comparative research on the mechanisms and representations of petty corruption in West Africa, this article analyses the principal figures of administrative brokerage within the justice system, the customs and the local Senegalese fiscal services. Contractual, voluntary or informal staff mitigate the difficulties of access to bureaucratic institutions, while at the same time being used as a conduit for corrupt transactions. In the context of an opaque, under‐equipped administration, barely‐controlled and with disproportionate discretionary powers, these auxiliary staff contribute both to the daily functioning of the Senegalese post‐adjustment state, and to its circumvention. Through an ethnography of the relationships between the public services and their users, this article describes the important operational logics of the local government, which lay the foundation for the practices of intermediation and brokerage. It also evokes the emergence of new forms of informal privatization and the progressive institutionalization of the ‘informal’ as a management mode of the state in everyday life.     

Virtual anthropology and forensic arts: the facial reconstruction of Ferrante Gonzaga

In the last few years virtual anthropology has been used to solve different problems that could not be properly addressed using a traditional anthropological approach. Mainly when dealing with mummies or embalmed bodies, the virtual approach is the only solution to carry out a detailed analysis of the skeleton without jeopardizing the integrity of the physical remains.