The Wiley Studies in Urban and Social Change series is published in association with the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. It aims to advance theoretical debates and empirical analyses stimulated by changes in the fortunes of cities and regions across the world. Among topics taken up in past volumes and welcomed for future submissions are:

• Connections between economic restructuring and urban change
• Urban divisions, difference, and diversity
• Convergence and divergence among regions of east and west, north, and south
• Urban and environmental movements
• International migration and capital flows
• Trends in urban political economy
• Patterns of urban‐based consumption

The series is explicitly interdisciplinary; the editors judge books by their contribution to intellectual solutions rather than according to disciplinary origin. Proposals may be submitted to members of the series Editorial Committee, and further information about the series can be found at www.ijurr.org:

Interwoven in every page of this book is the unwritten story of the cities where I have lived, those I still dream about and, above all, the people I have been fortunate to encounter. I am an architect from Milan and I am a migrant. Perhaps ‘il luogo ideale per me é quello in cui é piu naturale vivere da straniero’ (‘The ideal place for me is the one in which it is most natural to live as a foreigner’, Calvino 1994, vii).

The journey of this book started almost three decades ago, in 1990, when I moved to Madrid to work and study. The Madrid of the early 1990s was an exhilarating place; a constant Almodovarian movida sparked by the democratisation process and the pursuit of a renewed society where, ultimately, ‘el sol sale para todos’ (‘the sun shines for everyone’). The shared feeling of possibility, of being able to steer urban and social change, was even stronger in Barcelona, a city I have often returned to and where I lived for a spell (2012–2014) while writing this book.

I re‐encountered that idea of reconstruction in Porto, a city I moved to in 1993. Society was changing in ways I could not yet understand. But urban transformations were unfolding in slow motion revealing the processes beneath; not only in Porto but also in Lisbon (which is now my second home). Portugal was, and I believe it still is, one of the most welcoming places for immigrants. There is a special Lusophone kindness exhibited towards strangers and an appreciation of other cultures that I have yet to encounter elsewhere. As in Spain, elective affinities among Southern Europeans permeated daily life and yet these were somehow contradicted by the unfamiliar distinctiveness of the city: its people, its colours and its history.

The diversity of the Southern European context was striking. Every time I visited Italian cities, their differences seemed more pronounced and their paths diverging from the rest of the region. Busy with the Second Republic, following the Milanese urban affair (Tangentopoly), they were not experiencing a second ‘miracolo Italiano’ (the ‘Italian miracle’ of the 1950s and 1960s) but the beginning of a home‐made neoliberalisation (the Berlusconi phenomenon).

In 1997 I left for New York, a multi‐ethnic city that I love and that had a profound impact on me and, indirectly, shaped the direction of this book. Living and working in a society without a welfare state – which until that moment I had taken for granted – made me feel utterly vulnerable. Not having access to public health, the heightened sense of precarity at work, the commodification of many aspects of everyday life and the absence of an institutional safety net was hard to bear. I suddenly saw myself for what I had become: an alien stranded at the margins of an unequal and divided society.

While the Anglo‐American neoliberal discourse resonated loudly in Europe and elsewhere, this type of society encapsulated everything I did not wish the future to be. There were and there are alternatives, plenty of them. It became clear to me that even those European welfare regimes – so distinctive and much criticised because allegedly expensive and unfit to embrace the ‘future’ regimes of accumulation – were alternatives worth fighting for. These experiences changed my perspective and interests.

Another defining moment was my move to London in 1998, where I still live and work. It was here that I stopped practising as an architect and ventured into the academic world, which gave me the opportunity to meet and work with some extraordinary people. This book would not exist without the intellectual generosity of the many academics and friends, in London and overseas, who have helped shape many of the ideas presented in the pages that follow.

Michael Edwards, a beautiful soul and an incredible inspiration to myself and others inside and outside the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (my alma mater and current intellectual home). His contagious enthusiasm encouraged me to embark on this massive comparative pursuit, seeking explanations in uncharted territories across disciplines and regions of Europe. Michael has a special talent to take ones concerns and intuitions to another level. His support has been critical and enduring and has helped me develop the original body of work present in this book. To him, I would like to extend my dearest thanks.

My relationship with London and the British academic scene is one of ‘odi et amo’ (‘I hate and I love’, Catullus 65 BCE, 85), whose intrinsic contradictions I have grown fond of. Ironically, it was a frustration with the Anglo‐Saxon ethnocentrism rooted in certain disciplines, its contempt towards peripheral countries and secondary centres of scholarship, that spurred me to look (and travel) for sources of inspiration elsewhere. This opened up unexpected encounters with wonderful scholars in the United Kingdom and abroad, many of whom have since become close friends.

I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Judith Allen, Frank Moulaert and Thomas Maloutas, who have been pursuing common denominators and shared lexicons between the different corners of Europe and the Anglo‐Saxon world. To Judith, for her marvellous conceptual brilliance in understanding how societies work and for being the only scholar in the United Kingdom who was really interested in Southern Europe while dealing with the welfare‐housing puzzle. To Frank, for his elegant mind that brings light in the darkest moments with his prism of elective affinities. To Thomas, for his wonderful intellectual wisdom that recentres any debate where it matters the most.

On one of my trips to Lisbon, I met Jorge Malheiros, shortly after he published the first comparison of ethnic segregation in Southern and Northern European cities (2002). Expecting a venerable ‘catedrático’ (full professor), I encountered a young scholar with a venerable wit. A heartfelt thank you to him for all of the joyful collaborations and discoveries; for showing me the fun part of migration studies (paradoxically, one of the most insular of disciplines); and for introducing me to a network of great scholars. Among them, Lucinda Fonseca and her research group and Paul White whose brilliant work and theoretical approach influenced the framework of this book.

Everyone has secret sources of inspiration. Though an unorthodox practice, I would like to disclose the names of a few people who have been crucial to this research. I would like to extend my appreciation to Sako Musterd, Ronald van Kempen, Stuart Lowe, Jim Kemeny and Gøsta Esping‐Andersen among other comparative thinkers; Antonio Tosi, Enzo Mingione and a particular stream of (young) scholars from Italy and from the much‐admired Franco‐German and Scandinavian region who I met through the RC21 and ENHR conference circles.

But the one I cherish the most is Jesús Leal Maldonado, a reference for many in housing, segregation and urban studies in Southern Europe and the Spanish‐speaking world of the Americas. I deeply appreciate that he transformed what was a brief encounter at a conference at Cambridge into opportunities to continue the conversation. I am thankful to him for sharing ideas and questions while wandering together through new and familiar cities; for opening the hermetic doors of Spanish academia and introducing me to some wonderful scholars, particularly those of his research group in Madrid. Many passages of this book are a legacy of his intellectual kindness and beautiful friendship.

Despite my periodic escapes, I have always returned to London because of the generous colleagues and close friends I have had the fortune to meet at the Bartlett School of Planning, my intellectual family. My infinite gratitude goes to Claire Colomb, an unending source of inspiration and incredible support throughout every step of my academic journey. She made me believe this book was possible and lent her critical eye to the introduction and conclusion. To my sisters‐in‐arms, Elisabete Cidre, Elena Besussi and Alexandra Gomes, who helped me join the dots on sunny and rainy days; to Penny Koutrolikou and Nikos Karadimitriou who showed me the complex beauty of Athens and Greek society. A kind thank you to Nick Gallent and Matthew Carmona for providing moral and financial support (and lots of patience). To my closest colleagues and those I met at University College London (Laura Vaughan, Pablo Mateus, Ben Campkin, Ger Duijzings and Paul Watt from our neighbourly Birkbeck) for their collaborative and intellectual spirit.

While writing this book, several scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds helped me shape my thoughts via formal collaborations and informal conversations. They have generously shared their personal knowledge of their cities and of local issues, especially during walks and culinary experiences. An affectionate thanks to them all.

In Barcelona: Teresa Tapada‐Berteli one of my friendly co‐authors, and Albert Terrones (UAB); Dirk Gebhardt, Elena Sánchez and Blanca Garcés Mascareñas (UPF‐GRITIM Migration centre); Pilar Almiral and Blanca Valdivia (UPC‐ETSAB); Marisol García Cabeza, Cristina López Villanueva, Gemma Vila Bosqued and Anna Alabart (UB); Oriol Nel.lo and Ismael Blanco (UAB‐IGOP); Marcela Terra and Padi Padilla from ‘all walks of art’, and a special thanks to Dirk, Zoe and little Matilda.

In Madrid: Marta Domínguez Pérez and Andres Walliser (UCM); Almudena Martínez Olmo, Daniel Sorando, Elena Martínez Goytre, Elisa Brey, Luis Cortés Alcalá and Pedro Uceda among others of the urban sociology research group (UCM).

In Milan and other Italian cities: Massimo Bricoccoli, Roberta Cucca and Paola Briata (PoliMi); Silvia Mugnano and Alberta Andreotti (UNIMIB‐Bicocca); Alfredo Alietti and Antonio Tosi (Fondazione ISMU); Yuri Kazepov, Sandra Annunziata and Emanuele Belotti.

In Lisbon: Sandra Marques Pereira and Isabel Guerra (ISCTE‐IUL Dinâmia), João Mourato (ISCTE‐CIES) and other researchers at the Centro de Estudos Geográficos (CEG‐UL) and Centro de Estudos de Sociologia Aplicada (SociNova‐FCSH).

And finally, in Athens: Pavlos Delladetsimas (HUA) and Vassilis Arapoglou (UOC).

I would like to end with a very special thanks to those who helped me develop this book. To Jennifer Robinson, the editor of this series, and to Chris Pickvance and Thomas Maloutas, the reviewers. Their thorough comments, suggestions, care and dedication I consider an incredible gift. I am indebted to them all. To Sue Balding for her careful and patient editorial support throughout the writing process; to Bora Trimcev for her ad hoc editorial assistance; and to Terpsi Laopoulou for her help in polishing some of the figures.

Financial support was strategic, and I owe thanks to the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Technology (FCT/PRAXIS 1998–2003) and the Marie Curie Intra‐European Research Fellowship (FP7‐PEOPLE‐2011‐IEF) that funded parts of this research at different stages.

My deepest gratitude to Juliana Borowczyk Martins, not only a colleague but my partner in life, for her precious intellectual companionship, endless help in clarifying my ideas and turning them into intelligible thoughts and for providing a secure port in tempestuous days with humour and generosity.

To my mum and my brother; you are always in my thoughts.