Abitare il sacro e diritto alla città. Percorsi di costruzione della soggettività giuridica: da clandestini a cittadini attraverso le chiese cristiano-ortodosse

This essay offers an interdisciplinary analysis that investigates the connections between religious freedom, the regulation of places of worship, migration phenomena also in relation to the experience of work, and the protection of fundamental personal rights. All of these are analyzed focusing on the processes of the construction of legal subjectivity within the Italian legal system. The starting point is the analysis of the doctrine’s current regulations on the construction and management of places of worship in urban space. Such space will be analyzed in its semantized dimension and in its action as a signifier for those who inhabit it. In this sense, a categorical myopia emerges, compromising the lawmaker’s ability to create inclusive norms that acknowledge and respect the diverse pluralities within the territory. This exclusionary approach to otherness is equally evident in other legal contexts, ranging from labor law to migration regulation. The second part of the article is devoted to empirical field study. When we speak of space, we are never speaking of a mere ‘set’ in which human experience takes place, but rather of an integral part of that experience. For this reason, it is not possible to speak of a single space, but of spaces of experience, particular not universal, subjectified by the experience of the individual and communities. Fully understanding the mechanisms that generate the space of experience and thus subjectivity has—now more than ever—become the challenge of the modern state, and thus of democratic experience as such. Intercepting the mechanisms of territorial inhabitation by migrant communities and others becomes essential to be able to both respond to the demands dictated by the principle of effectiveness of norms with specific regard to places of worship, and to guarantee the presence of a discourse for the self-determination of religious freedom. After all, the moment a freedom is constitutionally granted, it is no longer hetero-deterministically definable, as such designating the failure of the very principles—democratic and constitutional—the state is supposed to protect. In short, the essay aims to highlight the shortcomings of processes of construction of legal subjectivity associated with religious experience with respect to the principles of universal dignity and equality enshrined in the Constitution.