Urban Crisis Within Environmental and Industrial Policies in Italy: The Case of the Steel Industry in Taranto
From Sustainable to Resilient Cities: Global Concerns and Urban Efforts
ISBN: 978-1-78441-058-2, eISBN: 978-1-78441-057-5
Publication date: 25 November 2014
Abstract
Purpose
The chapter aims at representing the results of a case study with concern to the economic and environmental crisis triggered by Ilva in Taranto.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study design follows an ethnographic approach. The analysis is based on the collection of some qualitative interviews and documentation related to the environmental conflict engendered by the Ilva of Taranto, which has been the largest steel mill in Europe since the 1990s.
Findings
The analysis of the empirical data shows some interesting insights about (a) the growing contradictions in time of crisis in the relationship between the ‘the four pillars’ of sustainability (economy, social justice and society, environment, culture); (b) the importance of the social pillar in playing a key role in the management of local conflicts and in stimulating change within social and economic organizations; (c) the difficulty to promote sustainable policies through a multilevel governance approach able to synthesize the complexity of the scenarios emerging at the local, regional, national and European levels, in order to create an alternative way of development.
Originality/value
The ethnographic approach is useful to analyse in depth the core of the environmental conflict and the divergent developmental scenarios expressed by the different categories of actors.
Keywords
Citation
Maretti, M. (2014), "Urban Crisis Within Environmental and Industrial Policies in Italy: The Case of the Steel Industry in Taranto", From Sustainable to Resilient Cities: Global Concerns and Urban Efforts (Research in Urban Sociology, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 103-124. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1047-004220140000014005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited