"All or nothing", Alison Sanchez-Hall, book review

2019

2019

Book review of Alison Sanchez Hall, All or none: Cooperation and sustainability in Italy’s red belt , New York-Oxford, Berghahn, 2018, pp. 300.

This is the English version of the article published by "Etnografia e ricerca qualitativa", issue 2/2014 with the title «Introduzione» to the special section on Nuovi studi etnografici sulle questioni meridionali.

Sustainability

For the last ten years, Social farming (SF) has become an innovative practice able to connect multifunctional agriculture and novel social services for urban and rural areas in Italy and the EU. By looking at the experience from Italy, it is possible to note that SF has not developed homogeneously along the national territory. It is characterized by a wide range of practices and activities related to the development of a welfare in which several topics such as subsidiarity, the value of relationship, and co-production find multiple meanings and applications. This paper provides a further contribution to the knowledge on this type of activity and opens the way to deeper considerations on the topic. The information reported in this study refers to a project born in 2018 and carried out by Fondazione Campagna Amica, a foundation promoted by Coldiretti, the main organization of agricultural entrepreneurs in Italy. This paper focuses on the analysis of data collected during this project,...

ANUAC 8(1), 2019

book review

Debate on the antimafia movement has placed the phenomenon mainly in the urban civil society tradition of new Italian social movements. While acknowledging the resonance of antimafia mobilization in this context, this article explores a different tradition, wherein struggles against the mafia in Sicily are analysed alongside, and in constant interconnection with, the development of the agrarian cooperative movement of the island. Focusing on the Alto Belice area of western Sicily, the article argues that antimafia politics evolved from an association with agricultural workers’ cooperativism in an anti-middleman direction after the 1950s land reform. Moreover, it assesses ethnographically how this tradition has influenced actors in the contemporary, largely successful, movement of antimafia cooperatives that cultivate land confiscated from the mafia by the Italian state. It examines how these actors link to this genealogy, associating their contemporary activity, in largely imaginary ways, to this history of struggles, and claiming inheritance over it.

This article presents a case study of the solidarity economy in Italy: the Italian G.A.S. – Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale, which I translate as Solidarity Purchase Groups. GAS are often conceptualized as "alternative food networks". Beyond this categorization, I highlight their novelty in relational, political, and ecological terms, with respect to their capacity to forge new partnerships between consumers and producers. Introducing an ethnographic study that I have developed in a recent monograph (Grasseni 2013), I dwell here in particular on how the solidarity economy is embedded in practice. I argue that gasistas' provisioning activism is something different to mere "ethical consumerism." Activists use the notion of "co-production" to describe their engagement as a concurrent rethinking of the social, economic, and ecological aspects of provisioning. Building also on a quantitative survey of the GAS movement in northern Italy, I pursue an ethnographic understanding of "co-production." I argue that producers and consumers in GAS networks "co-produce" both economic value and ecological knowledge, while re-embedding their provisioning practice in mutuality and relationality. Cet article présente une étude de cas de l'économie solidaire en Italie: le G.A.S. italien - Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale, que je traduis comme les groupes de solidarité d'achat. G.A.S. sont souvent conceptualisée comme «réseaux alimentaires alternatifs». Au-delà de cette catégorisation, je souligne la nouveauté en termes relationnels , politiques et écologiques , par rapport à leur capacité à forger de nouveaux partenariats entre les consommateurs et les producteurs. Je présente une étude ethnographique que j'ai développé dans une monographie récente (Grasseni 2013), et je me concentre sur la façon dont l'économie solidaire est intégré dans la pratique. Je soutiens que l'approvisionnement de l'activisme de gasistas n'est pas la même chose que «la consommation éthique». Les militants utilisent la notion de «co- production» pour décrire leur engagement comme une remise en question des aspects sociaux, économiques et écologiques de l'approvisionnement. En s'appuyant également sur une enquête quantitative du mouvement de G.A.S. dans le nord de l'Italie, je poursuis une compréhension ethnographique de «co- production». Je soutiens que les producteurs et les consommateurs dans les réseaux G.A.S. «co- produire» à la fois une valeur économique et les connaissances écologiques , tout en reembedding leur approvisionnement alimentaire dans la réciprocité et relationnalité. Este artículo presenta un caso de estudio de economía solidaria en Italia: el G.A.S. italiano –Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale, el cual traduzco como Grupos de Compra Solidaria (Sodarity Purchase Groups). GAS son frecuentemente conceptualizadas como "redes de comida alternativa". Más allá de esta categorización, deseo resaltar su novedad en términos relacionales, políticos, y económicos, con respecto a su capacidad de forjar nuevas sociedades entre consumidores y productores. Introduciendo un estudio etnográfico que he desarrollado en una monografía reciente (Gasseni 2013), enfatizo en particular en cómo la economía solidaria es llevada a cabo en la práctica. Argumento que el activismo provisionado por gasistas es algo diferente al mero "consumismo ético". Los activistas usan la noción de "co-producción" para describir su compromiso con un replanteamiento concurrente de los aspectos sociales, económicos, y ecológicos de aprovisionamiento. Con base también en un estudio cuantitativo del movimiento GAS en el norte de Italia, busco un entendimiento etnográfico de de "co-producción". Argumento que productores y consumidores en las redes GAS "co-producen" valores económicos y conocimiento ecológico, mientras re-formulan sus prácticas de aprovisionamiento en mutualidad y relacionalidad.

Berghahn Books, 2024

Anthropologists working in Italy are at the forefront of scholarship on several topics including migration, far-right populism, organised crime and heritage. This book heralds an exciting new frontier by bringing together some of the leading ethnographers of Italy and placing together their contributions into the broader realm of anthropological history, culture and new perspectives in Europe.

This paper critically analyses the contemporary political economy of labour migration with a particular focus on the agricultural sector of Southern Italy (i.e. Campania, Calabria, Puglia and Sicily). Adopting as an “entry-point for critique” the emergence of grievances among immigrants — the revolt in Rosarno in January 2011 and subsequent resistant movements —, the work primarily investigates which are the structural sources of domination at their roots and explores how they triggered the social conflict. Secondly, it attempts to evaluate the potential role migrants have as agents of social change, asking whether they have been successful in addressing and reducing the sources of their oppression.