The Concept of Neighborhood according to Chicagoans and Its Socio-spatial Evolution over Time: The Case of Milan

Pioneers of urban sociology Park and Burgess defined the concept of urban neighborhood in this way: "Proximity and neighborly contact are the basis for the simplest and most elementary form of association with which we have to do in the organization of city life [...] The neighborhood is a social unit which, by its clear definition of outline, its inner organic completeness, may be fairly considered as functioning like a social mind. " Emphasis has been highlighted on three fundamental aspects: spatial proximity, recognizability, and autonomy. The intuition of the two pioneers of urban sociology deserves to be tested today after a century characterized by a sequence of shocks that have transformed the face of cities, both exogenous (conflicts, socio-economic transformations, technological revolutions, global economic crises and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic) and endogenous (gentrification, deindustrialization of urban centers, etc.). This paper will explore how the concept of the neighborhood has changed from a sociological point of view over time since Park and Burgess, and will present different types of Milan's neighborhoods subdivision according to administrative definitions as a way to understand this evolution.