Meridiana. 98, 2020. Lavoro verde

Testata: Meridiana • Anno di pubblicazione: 2020
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pp. 276, ISBN: 9788833134802
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La questione di una rivoluzione verde, soprattutto dopo l’emergenza pandemica, è sempre più urgente e mette in evidenza come crisi ambientale e crisi del lavoro siano due fenomeni quanto mai interconnessi. Pur nella pluralità delle diverse narrazioni sulla transizione ecologica, varie analisi nazionali e internazionali hanno evidenziato un impatto occupazionale significativo derivante dall’impegno verso un’economia più sostenibile. Questo fascicolo di «Meridiana», partendo da un esame critico del concetto di green economy e del suo impatto sul lavoro e sull’occupazione, mette in evidenza le pluralità delle prospettive presenti in letteratura: dal rapporto tra sviluppo dell’economia verde e crescita occupazionale; alle sfide per lo sviluppo del capitale umano nel ridisegnare ad esempio una nuova classe di knowledge worker o nell’ innovare le conoscenze nelle professioni più tradizionali; passando per la disamina delle relazioni tra comportamento ecologico e pratiche professionali; per concludere con la prospettiva degli attori collettivi, quali attori cruciali nella promozione di istanze progressiste in ambito ambientale capaci di influenzare l’agenda nazionale e internazionale sul tema. Inoltre, guardare ai cosiddetti «lavori verdi» rappresenta un osservatorio privilegiato di analisi per cogliere e ricostruire in maniera puntuale opportunità e vincoli alla transizione ecologica. I saggi contenuti in questo numero si concentrano soprattutto sulla piccola e media impresa e sui percorsi di lavoro professionale e autonomo che si sviluppano all’interno del paradigma della transizione ecologica. Tale ottica appare di gran lunga quella più fertile (e non sempre adeguatamente esplorata) per quanto riguarda la complessità del tema in esame, in particolar modo per l’Italia, caratterizzata da un tessuto di Pmi e altre forme di micro-imprenditorialità. Negli articoli si incrociano tanto la prospettiva macro, ovvero quella regolativa e quella dei territori, la prospettiva meso, riguardante settori e organizzazioni, e quella micro, dei singoli lavoratori, delle loro pratiche e dell’ethos che ne orienta l’azione ecologica. Nello specifico, i contributi analizzano da un lato alcune figure professionali (nel settore dell’eolico, dell’agricoltura e del cibo, della pesca), dall’altro alcuni ambiti di intervento (la valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale e paesaggistico per lo sviluppo delle aree interne; il parco agricolo come strumento per superare il dualismo città/campagna). Questo numero offre così uno spaccato della complessità e delle contraddizioni generate dalla sfida ecologica la cui affermazione progressiva appare comunque relativamente lenta e incontra diversi limiti e ostacoli. La sfida ecologica, nel dipanare i suoi effetti sul mercato del lavoro, più che configurare un vero capovolgimento repentino di paradigma si configura piuttosto come un processo intermittente e adattivo, in cui fattori di agency, interessi territoriali diversificati e regolazione pubblica si confrontano con una serie di ostacoli: il problema del consenso/dissenso sui territori; la combinazione tra strategie top down di regolazione e controllo e quelle di sviluppo di collaborazione e condivisione con la rete degli attori locali; la dicotomia tra prospettiva economico-politica a breve e a lungo termine; nonché il rischio di lock in tecnologico e la necessità di aggiornamento continuo di conoscenze e competenze.

Lavori verdi? Pratiche e profili professionali nella transizione ecologica
Marco Alberio, Davide Arcidiacono

The issue of a green revolution, especially after the pandemic emergency, is increasingly urgent and the relationship between the environmental crisis and the labour crisis seems strongly intertwined. In particular, various international and national analysis have highlighted a significant employment impact of all efforts towards a sustainable economy. This introduction aims to contribute to a critical examination of the concept of green economy and its impact on labour and employment, overviewing some of the studies and analysis having systematized the different narratives about the ecological transition and the relationship between work transformation and ecological transition. At the same time, we tried to analyse the heterogeneity of professional practices and social challenges for a sustainable economy through a plural approach that crosses different disciplinary and sectoral points of view. Furthermore, our contribution confirms the importance of focusing attention on small and medium-sized businesses and on professional and self-employment paths within specific local economies, which would offer a much more fertile point of view on the complexity of developing a sustainable economy.

Keywords: green jobs; professional practices; sustainability; small-medium firms.


Tradurre la green economy nei territori: il ruolo dei professionisti nel settore dell’eolico
Dario Minervini, Ivano Scotti

Researches show that a neoliberal framework drives the development of renewables in the green economy scenario. Policies fostering the transition are based on market assumptions, underestimating socio-territorial specificity of local contexts. This approach seems not effective in the understanding of the «patchy» spread of renewables. Scholars highlighted the relevance of the intermediation processes, and the role of the professionals, to unfold the development trajectories of green power. Indeed, these actors play a pivotal in the development of renewables plants by the «assembling» of heterogeneous elements (cultural, economic, regulatory, etc.) and translating them into territorial contexts. Because of this, it seems useful investigating the settlement process of renewables according to a procedural perspective, adopting a threefold theoretical frame. First, the sociology of translation is recalled reconstructing the energy transition. Second, insights from the sociology of professions help us to conceptualize and investigate the role, logics of action and ethics of the green collars involved in the wind power. Finally, a relational understanding of the territorial capital leads the research to detect the assemblage of socio-material identities of the transition.

Keywords: territorial context; wind farm developers; wind power.


Contadini neorurali e food startuppers. Come i lavoratori della conoscenza creano mercati etici nell’economia del cibo italiana
Vincenzo Luise

Knowledge workers are characterized for a neoliberal culture based on economic success through entrepreneurial activity, individual talent and creativity. The project-based nature of their careers and the new forms of nonstandard employment have produced precariousness and instability in their work and personal life. However, some knowledge workers refuse these neoliberal values and aim to create an ethical social and economic system. The new food economy represents a convincing alternative. There are two elements which attract them: firstly, the possibility to create their own business and secondly, the opportunity to «change the world». This ambition can be achieved in two ways: returning to rural areas and becoming a farmer; or creating a food startup and developing new technological innovations. This paper aims to explore and highlight differences and similarities between these two phenomena: neorural farmers and food startuppers. The goal is to understand the motivations, the ethical values and how these knowledge workers develop new types of subjectivity. Moreover, which role the local communities and the traditional food cultures play in creating new market niches. This work also investigates how they negotiate the conflicting logics between, on the one hand, the market profits and, on the other hand, the possibilities inherent in new forms of collaborative and ethical production.

Keywords: new food economy; knowledge workers; neorural farmer; startupper.


La (piccola) pesca in due isole afroeuropee: tra politiche comunitarie e capitalismo globale
Giacomo Orsini

Since decades, the fishing sector in Europe suffers for the decline of several fish stocks. In such scenario, top-down policies to manage fisheries as the one introduced by the European Union (EU) – i.e. the Common Fishery Policy (CFP) – accelerate the collapse of this relatively marginal economic sector. By discussing the data collected over ten-month of fieldwork in two European islands, this article presents evidences in support of a local ecosystem-based approach to the governance fisheries. One which can safeguard the economic and environmental sustainability of this relatively fragile job sector. The comparison between the cases of a small-scale artisanal fishery of the Spanish island of Fuerteventura, and the Italian one of Lampedusa, demonstrates how much bottom-up strategies to manage the access to fishing grounds can be effective in saving local traditional fisheries and the local seawaters where they fish. The fishermen association of Gran Tarajal, in Fuerteventura, offers a model of how much fishermen’ coordination and their direct knowledge of the local ecosystem can be crucial to set and implement effective rules for the conservation of maritime living resources. This becomes even more evident if opposed to the example of Lampedusa where, due to the combined effect of the EU governance and the disorganization of the local fishery, the fishing sector is close to disappear in favour of a growing tourism industry.

Keywords: fisheries; local traditions; maritime resources.


Ricerca del profitto e protezione dell’ambiente. Un binomio possibile? Il settore della pesca in Québec
Marco Alberio, Emanuele Lucia

In public opinion, fishing as an industry has very often been associated with various environmental issues. In this article, we focus on the environmental discourse of fishers, as well as their behaviour and professional practices. Our reflection is based on a qualitative research project, which took place between 2016 and 2018 in the Gaspésie region of Québec, Canada. The professional «ethos» of fishers is strongly linked to nature and the environment. Their proximity to nature makes them witness to many environmental issues, thus developing an environmental awareness. The captain-owner’s discourse on the environment revolves mainly around their vulnerability to changes in the ecosystem. Our analysis focused on two main categories of environmental behaviours: voluntary and imposed actions. Voluntary environmental actions are mainly motivated by the desire to protect the marine resource in order to ensure the sustainability of fishing sector. Environmental behaviour imposed by fisheries regulatory bodies mainly concerns fishing quotas, fisheries management zones, fishing gear and bycatches. The degree of acceptability of these imposed actions may greatly vary.

Keywords: commercial fishing; environmental behaviour; environmental attitudes; work practices.


Valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale e paesaggistico nelle aree interne della Valle del Simeto in Sicilia
Gianni Petino, Luigi Scrofani

In this paper the authors support the thesis that each territorial system is characterized by tangible and intangible resources. In particular, the first group refers to the cultural and landscape heritage, while the second relates to the relationships between individuals, businesses and institutions. Over time, this dynamic process of accumulation of resources constitutes a specific territorial capital of each system. The governance, which is careful to sustainable economic processes, is most important respect to all other aspects of the territorial system. This model is even more valid for inner areas, characterized by depopulation, delayed development and accentuated processes of environmental degradation. With these premises, the authors first studied the regional programming of EU funds and then, particularly, they deepened the character of the inner area of the valley of the Simeto River. The results show that the social and institutional relationships and the governance of the area are able to influence not only the development processes but above all the identity of the territorial system.

Keywords: development; landscape; cultural heritage; governance.


Oltre il dualismo città/campagna: il parco agricolo come strumento di politiche e nuove economie
Valentina Anzoise, Matilde Ferretto

The expectation of greater opportunities and a better life was, and still is, the main reason for the migration of large number of people from rural to urban areas, and it has led to the growing urbanization of large portions of the territory. Compared to the past, however, the expansion of the city and the retreating of the countryside have given rise to the proliferation of new suburbs, residual agriculture and uncultivated spaces, a sort of third space, where it is no longer possible to identify a border that separates the two realities, often inhabited by communities indifferent to both the city and the countryside. As a matter of fact, lost the motivation of a hierarchy between the two, cities and countryside need – even in contemporary societies – one each other and this third space can become a vital space, where the services and infrastructures, typical of the urban areas can favour the life of those people still tied to the rural environment, and these in turn can offer to the city both public and consumer goods and services (respectively, such as ecosystem and landscape services and short-chain products and leisure services). However, it is necessary that proper governance policies and tools are adopted that can support the management of the needs and the valorisation of the resources of those who work in this space, i.e. all those who in recent decades have experienced the need and the opportunity to re-invent this sector, diversifying its activities and introducing new skills for their management. If managed in a virtuous way, the agricultural park can be a valid tool to develop the potential of these areas and this sector.

Keywords: periurban landscapes; planning; agricultural park.


L’isola del «Gatto selvatico». La Sicilia nella rivista dell’Eni (1955-65)
Carlo Verri

The article analyzes the communication strategy of Eni to promote its expansion in Sicily in 50s and 60s, when it builds the petrochemical plant in Gela. The author studies the house organ «Il gatto selvatico» (1955-65), where many intellectuals write. They maintain that humanistic culture can coexist with technical-scientific culture, and this coexistence is represented by the contemporary discovery of oil and archaeological finds of the ancient Greek city. In that time, they are sure that the industrial development will resolve all the difficulties of Sicily, and they confirm the fallacy of the archaic island, forever stop in the same position, and in doing so, they show some contradictions. Not surprisingly, these intellectuals will soon be disappointed by their collaboration with large-scale industry. The article focuses on the most emblematic case of the Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia. He, writing in the «Gatto selvatico» and working on a documentary by Eni on Gela, already in the mid-sixties criticizes the industrial development in Sicily, and in particular in Gela, for its negative effects in the territory.

Keywords: Gela; oil; Eni; Il Gatto selvatico.


Francesco Crispi e le amministrazioni locali tra due rivoluzioni (1848-60)
Fabrizio La Manna

The essay focuses on the Francesco Crispi complex character and the local power management during the revolutions of 1848 and 1860. In 1860 Crispi plays a central role in Garibaldi dictatorial government in Sicily. Many of the most important and drastic choices made by the secretary of the dictatorship are a direct consequence of the experience he gained during the months preceding the failed revolution which occurred a decade before. During this revolution, Francesco Crispi expressed various interests that he will develop later. This critical step, his high legal background and his uncommon nature are the prerequisites for the stabilization and success of a very uncertain revolution which try to find a difficult balance point in the principle of «tanto ordine con tanta libertà».

Keywords: Crispi; Sicily; 1848; 1860.


Da Veltroni a Italia viva. Una lettura a partire dal territorio add | su giù «« »» | edit
Terenzio Fava

The article focuses over a 10-years period of the history of the Italian Partito Democratico, since its foundation in 2007 until the election of Nicola Zingaretti as the party’s secretary in 2019. Analysis doesn’t deal with the party’s present situation or with its future. It rather concerns its past pathways over the time. In particular, it focuses on Matteo Renzi’s leadership, which shows some aspects of similarity with the style of guidance pursued by Walter Veltroni, the first party’s secretary between 2007 and 2009. The article analyses the period 2009-16, when Renzi’s leadership reaches its peak while, at the same time, his decline begins. Through a qualitative methodological approach, the essay takes shape starting from the local dimension and reconstructs the path from the American Party model to the Party of the Nation model through the voices, evidences and insights coming out from the bottom-level, namely from local, regional and municipal party executives. Analysis keeps the territory at its center and is carried out in order to study and deeply understand a political organization’s life, its features and history, and to focus upon certain aspects, such as the party model, its inner relationships, its myths, as well as its relations with the local dimension, the party activists and electors and with the civil society.

Keywords: Partito Democratico; territory; local politics; leadership.


Energia, democrazia, sviluppo: il movimento antinucleare in Italia (1976-86)
Catia Papa

This article analyzes the antinuclear movement between the 70s and 80s in Italy. It devotes particular attention to the antinuclear protest in the areas of Mantua and Reggio Emilia, which were threatened by a nuclear power plant. The article highlights the marked politicization of the nuclear energy issue, connected to a demand for participatory democracy and to the criticism of the development model. In the lower Po Valley – as well as in Molise, Lazio, Puglia and Piedmont – committees of citizens, environmental associations, political and cultural circles mobilized against nuclear energy, also managing to build a dialogue with trade union representatives and exert constant pressure on local and regional authorities.

Keywords: nuclear energy; antinuclear movement; participatory democracy; development model.


L’Italia dei tanti populismi
Vittorio Mete

The article deals with the theme of populism in Italy, starting from the volume Multiple populisms. Italy as democracy’s mirror (eds. Paul Blokker and Manuel Anselmi). Compared to other European countries, in Italy populist leaders and parties have conquered very relevant political and institutional roles. As a result, the scientific debate is also very broad. The article presents the main topics contained in the volume and discusses three aspects in more depth. The first point concerns the link between antipartyism and populism, which in Italy is not a new phenomenon. Already after World War II parties were born, like Guglielmo Giannini’s «common man», that contested parties, political professionalism, the rules of politics and institutions. The second theme concerns populist intellectuals, or rather, intellectuals who stand alongside populist leaders and parties. Finally, the third aspect discussed in the article concerns the forms of political participation promoted by Italian populists.

Keywords: Italy; populism; anti-politics; political culture.