Migration Landing Spaces

Martina Bovo is an architect and postdoc researcher at KU Leuven, with a PhD in Urban Planning, Design and Policy obtained at Politecnico di Milano (Italy). Her research focuses on the territorial dimension of migratory arrival processes, and broadly on urban and welfare policies and ethnographic approaches to urban analysis.

With 'landing', Martina Bovo provides a much needed concept that opens up the possibility to ethnographically grasp the complex temporalities of arrival processes. Through the way Martina herself describes landing in the Italian urbanised coast, she provides a brilliant example of how the diverse geographies of that process can be vividly portrayed.Bruno Meeus, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, the NetherlandsMartina Bovo has given us a beautifully written new way of conceptualizing human migration that blends ethnography with architecture and urban studies. Her spatial starting point results in her and us questioning many fundamentals of migration and, moreover, how we think of and govern our cities. A refreshing, exciting book!Howard Duncan, Carleton University, CanadaMigration is radically challenging traditional processes of change in our societies. Martina Bovo's precious work focuses on migrants' landing in places of destination, where the hope of those who arrive clashes against the resistance of spaces and institutions. As she suggests, we may see alternatives and solutions also for spatial planning by changing perspective and looking at those moments and places.Alessandro Balducci, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

• Preface: The Pilot Book 1: Introduction 2: Landing as an open-ended process 3: Palermo as crossroads in the central Mediterranean route 4: Urban spaces as landing infrastructures 5: Working perspectives