Constantly evoked but under-researched: the conundrum of vertical stratification in Naples

For centuries Naples has been renowned as a dense, high-rise and socially promiscuous city. Focusing on the city’s vast historic centre, the chapter charts the history of vertical stratification – a residential pattern characterized by the coexistence of different social groups in the same buildings – and considers the ways in which this was problematized during the post-war era as a sign of the city’s backwardness. The second part examines how vertical stratification has been reconfigured over the last forty years by processes such as international migration, regeneration and tourism and considers how the recent rise of a short-term rental market has transformed previously undesirable dwellings into attractive investment opportunities, thus threatening to accelerate the displacement of vulnerable local residents.