Giorgio Osti

• Sociology, University of Trento, Italy
• Professor (Associate) at University of Padua

The city of Mantua, in northern Italy at the intersection between Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, was founded on one of the widest wetlands of Italy. Water has been at the heart of the development of the city and its population for centuries, making the lakes and the city what has been described as a global environmental artefact (Galliani & C...

The paper aims to verify whether volunteering and environmentalism are two phenomena that overlap both conceptually and empirically. The actions for the protection and enhancement of rivers in Italy are taken as a testing ground. Two packages of literature are used to understand the overlap between volunteering and environmentalism, one on neo-inst...

È utile inquadrare lo studio sulle filiere agroindustriali italiane in una prospettiva generale di sicurezza e giustizia alimentare. Per questa ragione, la scaletta delle analisi partirà da un inquadramento globale, in cui situare l’Italia (Paragrafo 2); guarderà poi alla sua posizione nel commercio mondiale (Paragrafo 3), per poi analizzare la sit...

The paper aims to illustrate the different roles that social sciences can play in the study of the energy transition, intended as an emblematic case of human systems sustainability. To this end, a scheme is developed that frames the relative position of the social sciences with respect to other disciplines (metaframe). Secondly, socialization is id...

The environmental crisis, so looming and diverse (climate change, pollution, loss of biodiversity), requires the social sciences to make every effort to identify attitudes and actions suitable for mitigating it. Empathy towards plants, animals and ecosystems appears to be a powerful category both analytically and pragmatically. The paper focuses on...

Cultural paths, in their tumultuous and recent development, represent a positive sign for the well-being of marginal rural areas and society as a whole. They possess structural elements that make them catalysts for sustainable development and providers of meaning starting from the common goods 'territory'. While their cultural and economic signific...

Secondo volume della trilogia su 'Fiumi e città. Un amore a distanza' relativo ai corsi d'acqua di Italia Centrale e Liguria. Prosegue la raccolta di casi di capoluogo di provincia che si confrontano con fiumi che li attraversano o sono tangenti o addirittura 'lontani'. Il quadro complessivo conferma una caduta nel dimenticatoio dei tratti fluviali...

The article offers a survey of the main families of theories on territorial marginality, wondering if and how they have been undermined by the advent of the pandemic. The pan-demic, in fact, introduces the theme of the vulnerability of the territories and highlights the characteristics of the intermediate territories between urban and rural. These...

Rivers as catalysts for environmental mobilisation: a test in the eastern Lombard plain The paper concerns a case of environmental mobilisation in the Chiese basin, a medium-length river that flows between Trentino and Lombardy. The case seems to contradict the idea that ecological mobilisation is almost absent in semi-rural areas due to cultural a...

Since the referendum on Brexit on 23 June 2016, many observers have highlighted the territorial dimension of the profound political changes that have taken place in Western countries in recent years. In every country where citizens have been called to the polls, a significant difference has emerged between urban and rural areas, between large and m...

The paper addresses the issue of political representation of peripheral rural areas. The key to understanding is represented by corporatism, a doctrine and a socio-institutional practice that has had mixed fortunes in Italy and around the world. In any case, classic or sectoral corporatism has long been considered as the main form of representation...

Because of climate change, the basins formed by torrential rivers are under stress. Heavy rains combined with densely urbanized areas are an increasingly frequent threat. A solution are flood water detention basins to be built upstream of cities and industrial districts. However, these artificial basins are the subject of much criticism. A river in...

The paper aims to illustrate the different roles that social sciences can play in the study of the energy transition. To this end, a scheme is developed that frames the relative position of the social sciences with respect to other disciplines (metaframe). Secondly, socialization is identified as a charismatic category capable of providing an origi...

The social practices triggered by the Encyclical Laudato Sì (LS) are an excellent test to understand whether and how the attitude of believers, especially Christians, has changed with respect to the environmental issue, moving from a phase of hostility or indifference, to a phase of cognitive mobilization which has now even become a stimulus factor...

The welfare situation in fragile rural areas has ambivalent features. In the face of the dominant dynamic determined by the spiral of marginality, where the downsizing of welfare is at the same time a consequence and cause of depopulation, there are signs of new ways of organizing services, which put the community at the center. The article reflect...

The tendency to imagine the environmental crisis as a mere technical-financial question drastically reduces the possibility of finding solutions. We end up neglecting both the necessary redistribution of common resources and the ideal of humanity below. The specific purpose of this paper is to define some criteria for analyzing the environmental is...

The article introduces a set of research works collected through a call for paper entitled «water socialisation». The call had two main purposes: to stimulate study and research in Italy on water issues; and to check if there is a distinct social sciences position. The two ends are justified by the observation of a limited number of sociological st...

The current paper analyses the issue of energy retrofitting of buildings in Italian cities. In particular a mixed-method approach is used combining the socio-spatial analysis of data on the most relevant policy tool, namely tax deduction, together with qualitative analysis of three case studies of middle-sized cities. The results show that on the o...

This paper is an attempt to test the importance of nested markets in Italy. The concept of nested markets, born in agricultural settings, has been expanded to other sectors and to urban areas. It is focused on two aspects of rural development literature: the prominence of exchanges of resources and services on their ownership/availability, and the...

This Crossing Boundary hosts contributions accounting for ex-periences and theoretical perspectives which may look distant for how they address the socio-technical transition in the energy field but, we believe, when put in conversation, help common questions and tentative answers come to the fore. Giorgio Osti, Paul Upham, Paula Maria Bögel and Pa...

The article intends to describe the social evolution of Italian countryside through the lenses of eco-gentrification. The term was born in urban contexts, but can also be fruitful for the study of processes in rural areas. Although there is a large international literature on rural gentrification, the combination with the 'eco' suffix is less frequ...

"La qualità della vita nella bassa padana è peggiore che nel resto del Nord Italia” è la domanda che viene posta in questo testo. L'ipotesi di lavoro è la seguente: nella pur ricca pianura padana esiste una frattura politico-ambientale, poco tematizzata, fra la 'Bassa', identificata con le aree a ridosso del Po, da Pavia al mare grosso modo, e i du...

La sfida dei cambiamenti climatici sorprende per la diversità dei livelli di analisi che chiama in causa. Anche le scienze sociali possono contribuire al dibattito, suscitando alcune domande: con quale retroterra culturale affrontiamo il fenomeno? Quale gestione economica dei territori è più appropriata al nuovo sce-nario? Quali misure di sicurezza...

The article aims to add a ludic perspective to those generally used for studying environmental issues in social sciences. To introduce in the debate a play/game metaphor enriches the interpretations of environmental crisis and provides a further motivation to action. The ludic perspective has a sociorelational background. That tradition of studies...

The processes of respatialisation and reterritorialization of migration have progressively involved rural areas, leading to significant dynamics of change that also involve residents, institutions and the local economy. The concept of nested market is applied to frame the reconfiguration of the forms of economic-productive organization in relation...

Energy is a basic issue for cleaner production and more sustainable consumption. A transition to renewable sources and massive energy savings face several problems: technological lock-ins, energy companies' oligopoly, unsteadily governments' policies. These problems are especially severe in small island developing states or regions. For these terri...

Migrants in Italy often form the majority of the labour force in the primary sector; their residential and work conditions are generally of low quality, and their entrepreneurship is limited. How are the presence and action of migrants in Italian rural areas to be interpreted? The question is tackled with a framework based on the social movements l...

The paper examines three social dimensions of energy, especially what sociology of territory can provide to the issue. Three approaches of are presented. The first one is cognitive: energy is a way of knowing, a macro-concept which works as a frame. The second concerns energy as organization: energy is an instrument used by human beings in order to...

It is a retrospective analysis of a water detention basin project on the river Tagliamento (Friuli, Italy). The infrastructure should help prevent floods in the downstream area (Latisana, San Michele); but it was never constructed because of strong opposition of people living in the upstream area where the detention basin has to be built. The confl...

The purpose of this text is to contribute to the analysis of the social processes that are generated after an environmental disaster, with particular reference to the earthquakes occurred in recent years in central Italy. The contribution is an attempt to obtain insights from spatial sociology (Mela 2006, Osti 2015). Post-disaster situations are in...

This chapter outlines a theoretical framework in which to incorporate the role of associations in development. This framework is then used as a schema from which to derive a series of indicators. Three approaches to the study of associations seem of particular relevance when endeavouring to grasp the role of organisations in development. The first...

An increased number of floods have affected the thick urban network located in Northern Italy. The towns traversed by the many rivers descending from the Alps and Apennines must address the problem of retarding water overflow. Detention basins have been envisaged as a good means to achieve more secure protection against floods for thick urban setti...

In the face of dramatic meteorological events, the institutions dedicated to the flood safety push for the adoption of two relatively new measures: social participation and the creation of reservoirs in which temporarily store the excess water. The article aims to verify how really innovative the two measures are, and how these relate to each other...

Nella critica all’attuale sistema economico e sociale, il settore dell’energia assume un’importanza strategica. Il modello energetico prevalente, ancora legato principalmente allo sfruttamento e all’utilizzo di fonti fossili, è fondato su produzione e distribuzione dell’energia centralizzate e sull’accumulo di capitale in poche mani. Come favorire...

The aim of the paper is to verify whether energy transition, seen as a development of renewable energy sources (RES) and energy savings, has an impact on welfare in rural areas where green energy infrastructures have been installed. The study is based on two assumptions: the first is that RES generally need wide spaces more frequently located in op...

In an era of abundance, at least part of humanity has stopped thinking about the future provision of basic vital resources such water, energy and food. Storage actions, with all their variants whether real or imagined, are sources of innovation in the provision and treatment of crucial resources. This book deals with cases of water, food, energy an...

The aim of this paper is to describe welfare in fragile rural areas in Italy with especial attention to health conditions, considered as factors crucial for understanding people's wellbeing. The diversified development trajectories of Italian rural areas would require welfare services calibrated on specific disadvantages. Yet Italian rural welfare...

The aim of this chapter is to understand in what terms LEADER is a case of local democracy. To this end, three questions are addressed. First question is whether the March and Olsen (1989) integration/aggregation dichotomy is useful for interpreting the issue or would a triadic model be more appropriate. Second one is, if the concept of ‘local demo...

Il testo tratta del retrofit energetico-ambientale degli edifici al fine di introdurre una ricerca sociologica sulle politiche e sui campi organizzativi che presiedono a tale fenomeno in Italia e, in particolare, in tre citta di media grandezza (Alessandria, Bolzano e Padova). L’ambito di indagine viene inserito in una breve rassegna dell’urbanizza...

There is a great effort to include relational attributes within a space perspective. This concerns two current interpretative tendencies: the first is related to the idea of de-territorialisation due to the high mobility of people and goods; the second is centred on the idea that social relations are increasingly loose and fragmented, giving rise t...

The article deals with different manifestations of localism in Italy. The beginning of research on localism, with the exclusion of older backward community studies, can be dated to the 1980s. It has three main areas of meaning: as the space directly controlled by the senses; as the source of a special economic development; as the desirable level of...

Il ritorno alla terra come fenomeno sociale va anzitutto distinto fra il movimento che avviene all'interno della biografia di un individuo e quello che avviene nella sua fami-glia. Come per gli emigrati, un eventuale ritorno alla terra di origine può infatti riguar-dare l'emigrato stesso, i suoi figli (seconda generazione) o nipoti (terza generazio...

The paper examines three social dimensions of energy. The first one is cognitive; energy is a way of knowing, a macro-concept which works as a frame. Moreover, energy is conceived as a social product; its physical aspects are inextricably bound up with human interactions and meaning attributions. The second dimension is energy organisation. Energy...

This article provides an introductory description of Italian green social cooperatives which are democratic nonprofit organizations specializing in the provision of environmental services. The background to this topic is the literature on the "third sector," usually called social entrepreneurship, and the "sociology of environment," mainly that par...

The aim of this paper is to show the importance of wind energy in the development of Italian rural areas. The frame in which to pursue this objective is twofold: on the one side, there is the literature on regional or local development; on the other, the shift towards more flexible forms of administration. The two perspectives can perhaps be unifie...

Although some rural areas of Italy are close to the country's most developed regions, in recent decades they have entered demographic decline: today, these areas are characterised by very high percentages of old people and very small numbers of family members. In some mountain villages the relational web is so weak as to represent a severe form of...

The delta of the Po river in Italy shows a typical situation of rural areas: a higher presence of agriculture in the local economy, low density of population, lower income and education levels, high presence of not formally registered jobs. At the same time, the connection between land and sea has created a unique environment, made up of lagoons, s...

Nature protection organisations in Italy have a long history, albeit one that is often overlooked in recent accounts of the green movement. A number of quasi-national organisations that focused on protecting nature for recreational and scientific purposes were founded during the last decades of the Nineteenth Century, and their legacy is important...

The paper frames environmental conflicts thanks to the actualization of Stein Rokkan's cleavages. This scheme is particularly useful because it allows to show the multiplicity of sources of conflict. The scheme is still innovative above all in conceptualizing the territorial axis or centre-periphery. Nonetheless, it was designed for modern but rath...

This paper focuses on the Local Action Group as a partnership and considers how such entities fit within the Polanyian triadic model of social order. The rhetoric of leader and endogenous development would suggest that lags are a manifestation of the principle of reciprocal relationships. Osti concludes, however, that although there is a shift away...

This chapter outlines a theoretical framework in which to incorporate the role of associations in development. This framework is then used as a schema from which to derive a series of indicators. Three approaches to the study of associations seem of particular relevance when endeavouring to grasp the role of organisations in development. The first...

The gift is a kind of exchange to strengthen social bonds. It is neither a masked tool of power nor a symbol of unilateral pure love. According to the Mouvement anti-utilitariste dans les sciences sociales (M.a.u.s.s.), it expresses the will to keep or begin a relationship. It is also a symbol of freedom in the relationship. When two partners excha...

Environmental crisis must be faced with new forms of social regulation. In this regard, the principle of reciprocity could be useful. There are different kinds of reciprocal exchange. One of these, called "open chain reciprocity", is conceptually similar to the process of sustainable development. The problem is to discover how to start cycles of re...

The paper concerns an historical situation (1990'), when in the delta of Po river, divided into two Regional Administrations, only one (Emilia-Romagna Region) had created a protected area, while the other (Veneto Region) not yet. Nowadays, both have a Nature Regional Park. The paper is focused on the relationship between farmers and regional polici...

Rural development has raised attention after the crisis of classical theories of social change and after the European Union has shown great concern for rural spaces in lieu of agricultural firms. These new trends, often summarized as "endogenous and sustainable development", are based mostly on reciprocity as a peculiar, though seldom clarified, wa...

The paper deals with the relationship between mountains and metropolitan areas, seen however through the eyes of the former. The perspective is unusual because the gaze is always from a central position, especially if it is a metropolis. The object of study is the convenience for Italian Mountain Communities to include metropolitan municipalities i...

Il paper tratta delle forme di legittimazione dei governi dei parchi; ispirandosi a Giovanni Sartori, vi sono principalmente due forme di legittimazione, una politica e una tecnica; queste vengono conciliate in qualche modo nelle formule di governo dei nascenti (1993) parchi naturali regionali. Nel paper sono esaminati 4 casi sia in senso formale (...

Introduction (and abstract) *

C’è un crescente interesse per l’economia civile (EC) intesa come una rivisitazione della storia del pensiero economico, come un ideale a cui uniformare l’organizzazione economica del futuro, come un criterio di analisi per capire meglio le attuali tendenze dell’economia. Quello che ci interessa è soprattutto l’ultimo punto: verificare come l’EC po...