Valsaviore. Differenziali di potere tra il mondo sociale urbano e quello montano. Uno studio empirico sullo spopolamento delle Alpi Italiane.

Industrialization of the Italian rural territories during the 20th century and the urban development of Po Valley modified the relations between the areas that surround it, especially the Alpine social world. Traditional alpine cultures, interpreted as complex totality of practices that allowed human life on the mountains through history, were deeply influenced by the development of modern urban cultures. These cultures forced rural areas to assimilate their patterns of interpretation and experience of their social reality. This imposition justified the processes of exploitation of environmental and human resources of mountains by urban economic actors, and dramatically decreased the abilities of the governance of local administrations and the autonomy of local communities. This weakness was shown by the hiatus between human beings and environment, that if once used to represent a source of life for mountain inhabitants, nowadays is a precious resource to exploit by external economic actors. This kind of changes halved the population of Valsaviore between the 1960s and the beginning of the 21st century. Through a gradual but deep process of redefinition of traditional culture and activities, during the last 25 years inhabitants of Valsaviore were able to define new limits of their subordinated position, and to create new spaces of action and of political and cultural claimings. Even if there are obstacles and contradictions, Valsaviore is becoming a living good-practices workshop. The local community is able to create a new cultural heritage where traditions and contemporaneity, needs of resources and the safeguards of natural environment, find their position within a new pattern of experience of mountain social world in its complex.