La difficile memoria dei disastri industriali in Italia

Industrial disasters, in Italy and elsewhere, have had a double series of consequences for the identities and memories of the affected areas. On the one hand, they sparked the beginning of a sense of environmental awareness, while on the other hand, they inaugurated a process of repression of the problem by local communities for various reasons, ranging from a protection of jobs and the refusal of a stigma which fell upon the whole community. Therefore there have been unconventional reactions and often mixed and contrasting public feelings regarding industrial areas in Italy, which have at times produced deep cleavages among the local community. [Publisher's text].