1,721,129 research outputs found
“My Home’s a Prison”: The Impact of the Covid-19 Lockdown on the Dwelling Experience in Northwest Italy
Full text linkSince early 2020, the anthropological community has investigated the cultural and social impact of the pandemic and the exceptional countermeasures of the Italian government. This paper contributes to the debate by exploring how the lockdown experience is linked to the sense of dwelling and the changed sense of place in one's residence and home. In particular, the processes of signification of urban and rural space and the relationship between these and the perception of one's home are explored
Rural Affective Economies: An Ethnographic Approach to Local Development in Rural Italy
No full textThis book delves into the development trajectories of rural Europe, with a specific focus on Italy. The book addresses the key challenges rural communities face and explores the potential for grassroots development. The concept of affective economy is central to the book, which is introduced and utilized to analyze these dynamics.
The book assesses local food heritage and agrifood chains to showcase how these elements can serve as pillars for sustainable local development. It provides tools and methodologies for identifying and documenting food heritage, offering practical insights for public and private stakeholders interested in fostering local economic growth, and shows how emotional and social bonds within communities can drive sustainable growth. This book is a must-read for academics and practitioners passionate about sustainable development who want to envision concrete strategies for rural development
Oltre Il Verde DellaCampagna. Beyond the Countryside Green
No full textIn the past century, ethnographers have turned their gaze to the rural West, examining how communities have navigated the challenges of development and modernization (Rhoades, 2005). Italy mirrors this trajectory: once a nation of peasants at the time of unification, and where half the population still depended on agriculture after World War II, it gradually transformed into a nation of workers and city dwellers (Bravo, 2013). This shift resulted in the ruination of the agricultural landscape: a loss and concealment of agricultural history beneath the underbrush (Fontefrancesco, 2024). These verses seek to evoke that landscape through the words and memories of my informants.
Fieldwork has been ongoing since 2014 in San Giovanni in Monferrato, a small municipality of just over a thousand people, located in Monferrato, a hilly region between the Po and Tanaro valleys in Alessandria province. Like other neighboring towns, San Giovanni experienced steady depopulation and minimal industrialization during the twentieth century, benefiting only marginally from the economic boom and the emergence of industrial districts. Over the last century, its population has declined to just over 20% of its original size. This demographic collapse has been accompanied by increased commuting and aging, only slightly offset in recent decades by growing but limited tourism (Fontefrancesco, 2025, 31–34).
The verses presented here are reworkings of my field diary, transforming narrative sketches into poetic form. They can be read as an impressionist ethnographic vignette (Van Maanen, 2011), where poetic language creates an experimental space (Berlant & Stewart, 2019) that invites a more immersive and affective engagement. The goal is to convey the historical layering and interconnections that shape the rural landscape (Ingold, 2011), highlighting the significance of uncultivated land (Favole, 2024) beyond its romanticized image as an idyllic bucolic space. In doing so, the verses aim to reveal how modernization and globalization have shaped even this seemingly remote and traditional rural corner of Italy (Woods, 2007)
Storie di uno stesso cielo. Racconti di viaggio.
No full textQuesti racconti nascono in quattro anni di viaggio, nati per illustrare, come in un diario letterario, realtà che stavo vivendo ad amici e lettori di diverse riviste e blog. Furono un esercizio per dare un senso ad un’esperienza e una poetica etnografia di paesaggi nuovi di cui, a casa, così poco si conoscev
Traiettorie inesplorate di antropologia del cibo: lo stato dell'arte dell'antropologia della birra in Italia. Narrare i Gruppi
No full textGli antropologi sono sempre stati interessati al consumo di alimenti che prediligono le società per il loro sostentamento e, non ultimo, a come attivino ritualità che
dicano sia alla produzione che del consumo di questi alimenti. In questa direzione l’antropologia culturale si è sempre concentrata sull’analisi delle relazioni, dei significati e
delle pratiche che ruotano attorno al consumo del cibo e alle ritualità inerenti allo scambio di questi beni. Tuttavia, nonostante il crescente interesse verso l’antropologia del
cibo, la birra è stata oggetto di minor attenzione da parte della comunità antropologica,
a dispetto del suo ruolo sempre più prominente nelle relazioni gruppali e ludiche ormai
diffuse a livello globale. In Italia, poi, la birra ha avuto uno sviluppo recente, ma, malgrado ciò, ha superato velocemente il consumo del vino. Allo scopo di approfondire la
conoscenza su questa tematica, ai limitati, seppur interessanti studi italiani a disposizione, vengono affiancati anche i contributi internazionali. L’obiettivo del contributo si
concentra però su una revisione sistematica della letteratura antropologica italiana sul
tema, evidenziando gli ambiti di analisi principali e delineando possibili direzioni future
di ricerca. L’articolo conclude sottolineando l’importanza di approfondire gli studi
sull'antropologia della birra proprio allo scopo di comprendere meglio la sua rilevanza
culturale e storica
Modes and Forms of Knowledge of Farming Entrepreneurship: An Ethnographic Analysis among Small Farmers in NW Italy
Full text linkThis article investigates the modes and forms of knowledge underpinning farming entrepreneurship through an ethnographic case study of Alessandria province in NW Italy. It shows that farming entrepreneurs base their decisions on explicit and implicit knowledge encompassing forms of knowledge linked to the environment where they live, their trade, the characteristics of their firms, issues concerning their family and private life, and even the emotions linked with their surroundings. All these forms of knowledge inform their vision of their future and guide them in their choices in terms of investments and crop selection. Accordingly, the article argues that farming entrepreneurship is embedded in the locale
Jogging during the Lockdown: Changes in the Regimes of Kinesthetic Morality and Urban Emotional Geography in NW Italy
Full text linkJogging is the most practiced physical activity in the west. This form of light running appears a solution to the health problems caused by the sedentary of contemporary dwelling and affirmed the role of the extensive use of urban space as a key to individual well-being and health. The COVID-19 pandemic and the imposition of lockdowns imposed a new form of kinesthetic morality based on domestic confinement; a morality that is in open contrast to that of jogging. The article explores this conflict and its consequences in terms of perception of the urban environment and the society among joggers. Based on case study research conducted in 2020 in Alessandria, NW Italy, this study delves into this abrupt change and explores how the urban spatiality changed for the joggers. In so doing, it asks what this event teaches us about the development of new, more effective, urban policies
Making Typicality: The Birth and Rebirth of the Torta Mattone of Bressana Bottarone, Italy
Full text linkThis article addresses the concept of “typicality” in community products, proposing a performative interpretation of this category. It ethnographically demonstrates how identifying products as “typical” is a process that involves a community in constructing both the product and its meaning. To illustrate this, this study delves into the case of Torta Mattone from Bressana Bottarone (PV) and its history. It highlights how, over 50 years, this dessert has been created and recreated as a symbol of the community in response to the pressing needs it faced amidst socio-economic changes. In doing so, this paper details its micro-gastronomic history, illustrating how the Torta Mattone has become instrumental in maintaining the social and cultural cohesion of the Oltrepo Pavese area
Moving Away from Rural Marginality Through Food.
No full textThis chapter explores some of the most successful grassroots initiatives undertaken by small farms to counter rural marginalization’s impact. In particular, it explains how small farmers redesign the space between the farm and the fork by exploring new channels of commerce, new forms of relationship with consumers, and a structural entanglement with food tourism. In so doing, the chapter outlines a new and emerging business model that can open a way forward for the development of small farms and rural development. After clarifying what a “from farm to fork” strategy means in the context of this discussion, the chapter presents the functioning of different types of initiatives. Specifically, it looks at farmers’ markets, e-commerce, community-supported agriculture, adoption programs, ethical purchase groups, business visits, agrirestaurants, and alliances with local restaurants used to disintermediate the market and create new relationships with the final consumers. It emerges that small farms are moving away from the entrepreneurial paradigm based on intensification and specialization to embrace a model based on disintermediation and diversification
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