Joanna Paxton Federico, "Finding the Center(s): Insitutionalizing the Science of Violence Prevention at the CDC (1977-1992)
Abstract: This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of Milan's historical urban divisions and their enduring impact on contemporary air quality management strategies. It examines how Renaissance theories of disease transmission and the consequent need for atmospheric purification influenced early efforts to manage the urban environment. This period saw significant measures by local health boards to regulate the sensory environment, leading to the exclusion of certain populations from the city and forming a physical division between the centre and its extramural territories. The paper argues that the methods employed in Milan for managing the atmosphere were not only about combating disease but also about managing social order and constructing a civic identity that distinguished between the 'clean' and 'polluted' spaces and people. Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection and Peter Sloterdijk's theory of sphereology are used to analyse how these historical practices produced the spatial segregation and the creation of urban identities. Milan's long-standing division into centre and periphery has led to distinct environmental 'spheres' within the city marked by particular aesthetic and economic identities, creating pockets of disparate air quality levels and exacerbating spatial and environmental inequalities. This paper will argue that attempts to formulate air quality policies along these historically segregated lines has been a failure. Despite ongoing and significant interventions, there has been little substantive change in overall air quality in Milan. This paper will thus offer a unique perspective on the challenges of air quality management in a historically segregated city.