“Why do they think we're different?” The making of an inhabited ruin and residents' perceptions of tourism

This paper dialogues with scholarship on both ruin tourism and the production of stigmatized, inhabited urban ruins by examining the Vele of Scampia, an iconic public housing complex on the northern periphery of Naples (Southern Italy). It explores how such spaces function as lived homes while emerging as sites of touristic interest. Specifically, the study pursues two aims: first, it conceptualizes the Vele as inhabited ruins, analyzing how political dynamics, material decay, and processes of symbolic degradation have jointly shaped the built environment and inhabitants' everyday lives. Second, it investigates how inhabitants perceive and navigate the presence of tourists, a dimension largely overlooked within ruin tourism literature. Findings reveal a central paradox: while tourism can bring visibility and a sense of inclusion to a marginalized community, it simultaneously risks reproducing social stigma and reinforcing feelings of otherness. The paper calls for closer attention to how inhabitants experience and negotiate tourism within lived spaces of ruination.