Lo svuotamento delle aree produttive: storie e pratiche di abbandono, trasformazione e adattamento

Today, great emphasis is attached to closure-related topics, as well as to (scarce) resources’ protection and efficient use. This study focuses on underuse, abandonment and post-fordist industrial crisis, both as regards the diffused production network and larger enterprises. Over the years, the brand Made in Italy and the expanding small enterprises and production districts experienced a significant success– based on decentralization and self-management processes – which is currently undergoing a sharp decline in the Northern industrial areas. Indeed, the recent financial crisis and the consequent austerity measures (IMU is an example ) hit the SMEs very hard, though Italy’s main concern seems to be due to longstanding processes of a structural nature. Globalization led to general work reorganization, thus increasing competitiveness between Italy and developing countries. Which is why several businesses delocalisated their production, benefiting from cheaper labour. Due to the environmental crisis, countervailing measures also had to be taken. At the same time, the traditional settlement pattern of urban sprawl is not adequately responding to social issues: mobility costs are no longer sustainable (the increase in the cost of petrol highlighted Italians’ dependence on automobiles). The family structure has changed and citizens need more services and public spaces for socializing. Moreover, closures have changed too. In the 1970s and 1980s things were different. Large enterprises close, and so do individual local businesses. Working places undergoing closure today are, among others: industrial districts, the diffused production network and the new plants opened after the Tremonti Incentive , often unfinished and unsold. Using relevant case studies, this study (work in progress of the P.h.D thesis) sets out to identify significant ongoing changes in Northern Italy. Some individual adaptation practices allow identifying useful examples of alternative local development, as opposed to the main development pattern, which is rather based on “growth” and necessary redevelopment of disused sites.