Social Variables and Real Estate Values: The Case Study of the City of Cosenza

The appraisal discipline places the emphasis on how the characteristics related to the location strongly affect the formation of property prices. These characteristics are attributable to the territorial area of reference, which is characterized by multiple factors of a political, social, economic, institutional nature. This article, starting from this assumption, explores what is instead happening in urban areas following the advent of the “society of globalization”, which has involved the creation of multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious contexts, trying to capture possible elements of convergence between the disciplines of estimation and social research. The intent is to show and describe the feeling of social distance perceived within the peripheral areas of the urban centre of Cosenza using property prices as a narrative variable. Starting from the collection and analysis of commercial information relating to the area in question, datasets are constructed, and cartographic representations of real estate prices are created according to GIS logic. Without claiming to be exhaustive, but rather to solicit further elements for reflection and debate on the theme of multiculturalism and social distance, the article proposes the use of new types of data, analysis techniques and dynamics of cooperation between disciplines only apparently distant.