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Regionalism is one of the most debated issues in contemporary western Europe. Yet why the region, rather than the nation state, can have such a strong appeal for the construction of social and political identity remains largely unexplored. Drawing on data collected in the mountainous Trentino region of northern Italy, the author investigates how ideas about village boundaries and private property form the background against which regionalist ideologies are understood. In suggesting that ideas about regionalism largely reflect views about private property, he provides an alternative to theories of nationalism that overlook the articulation between official ideologies and discourses at the local level.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Note on Language
Preface and Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introducing Localism
Chapter 2. The Setting and its Historical Background
Chapter 3. A Private Space: The Present-day Organisation of Village Life
Chapter 4. Knowing One's Land: Hunters and Poachers
Chapter 5. The View from Below: Constructions of Otherness
Chapter 6. Natural Time, Political Time: Representations of History
Chapter 7. Local Politics in Theory and Practice
Chapter 8. Conclusions: Localism Revisited
Appendices
References
Index
About the author
Jaro Stacul obtained a Ph.D in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. He has been a Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Wales Swansea, and currently is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
Summary
Regionalism is one of the most debated issues in contemporary western Europe. Yet why the region, rather than the nation state, can have such a strong appeal for the construction of social and political identity remains largely unexplored. Drawing on data collected in the mountainous Trentino region of northern Italy, the author investigates how ideas about village boundaries and private property form the background against which regionalist ideologies are understood. In suggesting that ideas about regionalism largely reflect views about private property, he provides an alternative to theories of nationalism that overlook the articulation between official ideologies and discourses at the local level.
Additional text
"This is all fascinating, well documented, and the relationship between local activism and the larger political movements is sensibly analysed...Overall this is a revealing study of the power of locality in framing experience and action." � JRAI
"...in focusing attention on the importance of deconstructing localisms, Stacul issues an important challenge to students of any aspect of Italian society." � Modern Italy
