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Lorenzo d'orsi

Università degli Studi di Foggia, Dipartimento di Scienze Agraria, degli Alimenti e dell'Ambiente, Faculty Member

Università di Catania, Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali, Faculty Member

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Address: Rome, italy

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Bettina Stoetzer

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Università di Catania

Roberta Raffaetà

Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Spanish National Research Council)

University of Calabria

University of Glasgow

University of Messina

Katarzyna Majbroda

Elisa Privitera

University of Toronto

SUNY: Purchase College

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Papers by Lorenzo d'orsi

Contested landscape transitions Ruins Repair Re membering In late industrial southern Italy

by Lorenzo d'orsi and Katherine Lambert-Pennington

Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2024

This introduction examines the debates on late industrialism and the processes of ruination in li... more This introduction examines the debates on late industrialism and the processes of ruination in light of the historical and social transformations that have been shaping Southern Italy. Through the lens of cultural anthropology, it highlights the enduring impact of state-led industrialization on the region, drawing critical attention to the co-existence of conditions of abandonment, uncertainty, and disillusionment of environmental degradation, as well as the renewed meanings of territories and the imaginaries of possible futures. The articles in this
special issue are grounded in ethnographic research in Sardinia, Sicily, and
Apulia - territories where weakened industry is contradictorily intertwined
with new development narratives. The authors examine the practices, narratives, sentiments and moral ambivalences that shape these territories and their stories, shedding light on how concrete groups of people make meaning of modern ruins and live in and with ruined spaces.

'Imagine what Gela could be': Sense of place, ruins of modernity and nostalgias in Sicily

JOURNAL OF MODERN ITALIAN STUDIES, 2024

In the 1960s, Gela, located in southern Sicily, became the home of a petrochemical plant, which c... more In the 1960s, Gela, located in southern Sicily, became the home of a petrochemical plant, which created a new sense of modernity, and triggered a process of urbanization. Nevertheless, the resulting pollution and deregulated urban expansion led to the city being stigmatized. The decommissioning of the plant added a condition of economic and identity uncertainty. Drawing from an fieldwork research, this article explores how the process of ruination has affected Gela inhabitants’ sense of place. It points to local sentimental connections with urban ruins – abandoned buildings, incomplete projects and constructions– showing how these become objects of ephemeral micro-practices of concealment while also creating a sphere of intimacy. It analyses the emergence of a new collective imaginary based on archeological and natural heritage, fuelling nostalgia for an imagined pre-industrial past. Although differing from the modernist imaginary associated with oil, this collective rhetoric reproduces the former’s sense of grandeur triggered by the industry.

'Imagine what Gela could be': Sense of place, ruins of modernity and nostalgias in Sicily

In the 1960s, Gela, located in southern Sicily, became the home of a petrochemical plant, which c... more In the 1960s, Gela, located in southern Sicily, became the home of a petrochemical plant, which created a new sense of modernity, and triggered a process of urbanization. Nevertheless, the resulting pollution and deregulated urban expansion led to the city being stigmatized. The decommissioning of the plant added a condition of economic and identity uncertainty. Drawing from an fieldwork research, this article explores how the process of ruination has affected Gela inhabitants’ sense of place. It points to local sentimental connections with urban ruins – abandoned buildings, incomplete projects and constructions– showing how these become objects of ephemeral micro-practices of concealment while also creating a sphere of intimacy. It analyses the emergence of a new collective imaginary based on archeological and natural heritage, fuelling nostalgia for an imagined pre-industrial past. Although differing from the modernist imaginary associated with oil, this collective rhetoric reproduces the former’s sense of grandeur triggered by the industry.

"Se venisse un turista a Gela". Fantasie di turismo e senso del luogo in un contesto tardoindustriale

PALAVER, 2024

This paper explores the imaginaries of tourism development in the Sicilian town of Gela, home to ... more This paper explores the imaginaries of tourism development in the Sicilian town of Gela, home to a petrochemical plant that, in the 1960s, transformed a rural village into a symbol of top-down industrialization in southern Italy. Built by Eni, the plant has led to environmental pollution and unregulated urban development over the years, casting a heavy stigma over the town. The plant’s recent closure has added to the uncertainty. Consequently, tourism development linked to the sea and the town’s ancient Greek heritage is now considered a possible path to economic and moral redemption. In exploring this transformation, this paper critically examines the recent tourism-oriented policies by Eni, aimed at reorienting the local sense of place. It also analyzes grassroots initiatives through which local entrepreneurs, associations, and inhabitants reclaim degraded areas of the downtown in an attempt to meet the expectations of an imagined “tourist gaze.” The widespread evocation of this gaze can be seen as a meta-cultural discourse through which social actors narrate the town, produce collective representations and horizons of expectation, and attempt to erase stigmatizing narratives. In this regard, the article emphasizes the importance of exploring tourist imaginaries even in areas that are on the fringes of mass touristification.

Rovine del passato, rovine del futuro. Nostalgia e immaginari tardo-industriali in Sicilia

Sulla base di un'etnografia svolta tra il 2020 e il 2022 a Gela, città della costa meridionale de... more Sulla base di un'etnografia svolta tra il 2020 e il 2022 a Gela, città della costa meridionale della Sicilia, le trasformazioni cui è andato incontro il senso del luogo e il suo racconto tra illusioni di grandiosità veicolate dall'industria, ruderi della modernità che permeano lo spazio urbano, sentimenti nostalgici e reperti archeologici. L'apertura di un impianto petrolchimico negli anni Sessanta da parte dell'Eni ha trasformato Gela da piccola realtà agricola in snodo dell'industrializzazione del meridione italiano, offrendo alla città un inedito senso di centralità e avanguardia. La recente dismissione dell'impianto ha tuttavia lasciato un territorio contraddistinto da inquinamento, abusivismo edilizio e incertezza del futuro. Il testo analizza il lento processo di rovinamento che caratterizza tanto i ruderi industriali quanto il tessuto urbano contraddistinto da edifici abbandonati, palazzi incompiuti e progetti mai completati. Da un lato, mette in luce il tentativo di rimuovere questa materialità in disfacimento per reimmaginare lo spazio urbano. Dall'altro, sottolinea come il racconto delle rovine della modernità fondi un senso di intimità e appartenenza. Il paesaggio di rovine si lega, inoltre, a un nuovo immaginario che, evocando nostalgicamente il passato rurale e i segni dell'antica colonia greca, cerca di fondare un nuovo senso della località più in linea con i paradigmi di sviluppo turistico. L'articolo dimostra, infine, come 1 Questo articolo è il risultato delle riflessioni elaborate nell'ambito del progetto PRIN PNRR2022 "QUASI-RUINS: Place, Nostalgia and Future in Late-Industrial Italian Towns", CUP D53D23019790001, Codice progetto MUR: P2022R5Y7F, finanziato dall'Unione europea-NextGenerationEU (Università di Foggia). La ricerca etnografica su cui si basa è stata condotta grazie al progetto PON-AIM 1883713 "Praticare la Smart City. Nuove politiche e nuovi immaginari urbani in Sicilia" (Università di Catania). Ringrazio Mara Benadusi, Irene Falconieri, Pietro Saitta e Antonio Vesco per gli spunti di riflessione e i suggerimenti durante e dopo la ricerca di campo. La mia gratitudine va soprattutto alle persone che ho incontrato a Gela e che, in forme e modi differenti, hanno reso possibile questo lavoro. Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2020 and 2022 in the town of Gela, Sicily, this paper examines the transformation of urban imaginaries. In the 1960s, the establishment of the Eni petrochemical plant transformed Gela from a small rural village into a symbol of industrialization in southern Italy, bringing a newfound sense of centrality and vanguard to the town. However, the recent closure of the plant has resulted in depopulation, environmental pollution, the proliferation of illegal constructions, and an uncertain future. This article analyzes the process of ruination that characterizes the industrial ruins and the urban landscape of Gela, marked by abandoned buildings, unfinished projects, and incomplete developments. On the one hand, it investigates inhabitants' attempt to make invisible this decaying materiality and reimagine their city. On the other hand, it demonstrates how the narratives around these ruins of modernity shape a sense of intimacy and locality. This landscape of ruins is also intertwined with the emergence of new social imaginaries rooted in nostalgia for Gela's rural past and the remnants of its ancient Greek colony. These imaginaries overshadow the industrial era and establish a new sense of place more aligned with the tourism paradigm. Ultimately, this paper reveals how the new rural and pre-industrial imaginary, and the related aspirations of economic renaissance, are supported by the very sense of grandeur conveyed by that petrochemical plant that people today wish to remove.

Remembering the 1980 Military Coup : An Anthropological Perspective on the Uses of Oral History in Turkey

This paper draws on ethnographic investigation carried out in Istanbul on the painful memories of... more

When silence talks : The moral landscape of leftist painful memories in Turkey

Drawing on an ethnography carried out in Istanbul, this talk examines the experience of silence i... more

Michael Taussig, Ragione, violenza e il nervosismo del sistema

Psiche, 2016

Temporary street shrine for imagining a different world : the march for Hrant Dink

Based on an ethnographic investigation carried out in Istanbul, this contribution analyses the an... more

Moral Silence of the Fighter or Traumatic Silence of the Survivor?Different Cultural Construction of Selfhood Among Former Revolutionists in Turkey

Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies, Jul 11, 2016

Goldfishes with a conscience divided into compartments

In 1974 Italy changed from being a country of emigrants to a country of immigrants. Thirty years ... more In 1974 Italy changed from being a country of emigrants to a country of immigrants. Thirty years on, immigrants are playing an ever more important role in the country. Facing the consequences of migratory phenomenon, the author seeks to show the relevance of an overall view that doesn't lose the concreteness of specific references. In the essay I try to analyze the new items that were introduced by the «pacchetto sicurezza», where the question of immigrants stops being a collection of laws regarding migration and starts being a question of public security. Instead, the case study of Roma communities allows us to grasp the limits of the multicultural model and the drift of the process of ethnogenesis. Moreover, the author tries to illustrate the increasing role of the mass media, which is no longer a dependent variable but a cobuilder of social reality, from such an analysis, no social science can escape. Finally, the consequences for "those who arrive in Italy" and for "those already in Italy" are understood from the perspective of the anthropology of violence: from the famous thesis by Hannah Arendt, to Pierre Bourdieu's petit malaise and Nancy Scheper-Hughes's continuum genocide.

Inheriting and Living the Political

Anthropology of the Middle East, Dec 1, 2018

This article, based on ethnography conducted in Istanbul, focuses on the experience of the politi... more This article, based on ethnography conducted in Istanbul, focuses on the experience of the political among young, far-left Turkish militants and young adults whose parents belong to the '78 revolutionary generation. It shows how their 'red youth subculture' is imbricated with family, solidarity and generational bonds. Through the analysis of ritualised political practices such as the May Day parades, the feeling of nostalgia for a never-lived past, political meetings and the role of politics in families, it argues that the experience of the political is irreducible to a set of strategies and ideas: it consists of affections, corporeal sensations, embodied knowledge, aesthetic choices and material culture, which all contribute to substantialise relationships with the state, forms of intimacy and practices of distinction.

Trauma and the Politics of Memory of the Uruguayan Dictatorship

Latin American Perspectives, Apr 23, 2015

Ethnographic research on the life experiences of former political prisoners and their families in... more Ethnographic research on the life experiences of former political prisoners and their families in Uruguay suggests the need for rethinking of the concept of trauma, which is often inadequate to convey the historical and social specificity of painful memories. The collective wound is constructed in public space, and intimate memories are closely linked to the framework in which they are embedded. Working on the victim’s self is not sufficient to overcome the trauma, distracting attention from the need for social recognition and justice. Making history and doing justice are unavoidable steps in the establishment of a different political regime.Las investigaciones etnográficas sobre las experiencias de vida de ex presos políticos y sus familias en Uruguay sugieren la necesidad de replantearse el concepto de trauma, el cual suele ser casi siempre inadecuado para expresar la especificidad histórica y social de las memorias dolorosas. La herida colectiva se construye en el espacio público y las memorias íntimas están estrechamente vinculadas con el marco en el que están inmersas. Trabajar sólo con el yo de la víctima no es suficiente para superar el trauma, y desvía la atención de la necesidad de reconocimiento social y justicia. Hacer historia y hacer justicia son pasos ineludibles en el establecimiento de un régimen político diferente.

Moral Thresholds of Outrage

Conflict and society, Jun 1, 2018

This article analyses the social construction of moral outrage, interpreting it as both an extemp... more This article analyses the social construction of moral outrage, interpreting it as both an extemporaneous feeling and an enduring process, objectified in narratives and rituals and permeating public spaces as well as the intimate sphere of social actors’ lives. Based on ethnography carried out in Istanbul, this contribution focuses on the assassination of the Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. This provoked a moral shock and led to an annual commemoration in which thousands of people—distant in political, religious, ethnic positions—gather around a shared feeling of outrage. The article retraces the narratives of innocence and the moral frames that make Dink’s public figure different from other victims of state violence, thus enabling a moral and emotional identification of a large audience. Outrage over Dink’s murder has become a creative, mobilizing force that fosters new relationships between national history and subjectivity, and de-reifies essentialized social boundaries and identity claims.

"Making the wound bleed": Nostalgia, Mourning, and Morality among Turkish Revolutionaries in Istanbul

"Making the wound bleed": Nostalgia, Mourning, and Morality among Turkish Revolutionaries in Istanbul, 2023

This article investigates nostalgia and mourning among former Turkish revolutionary militants, th... more This article investigates nostalgia and mourning among former Turkish revolutionary militants, the main victims of state violence in the wake of the Turkish 1980 military coup. It understands these emotions as ethically imbued moods that are both conscious and unconscious and permeate both public discourses and the innermost spheres of former fighters. These moods pervade the everydayness of former revolutionaries, their discourses on the past and the present as well as ritualized occasions, such as anniversaries, gatherings, and commemorations. Based on fieldwork research conducted in Istanbul, this article conceptualizes these moods as intersubjective emotional practices with a certain degree of agency that work as political and moral modes of engaging with the world. Although former revolutionaries intend these moods as practices of resistance against the ongoing state repression, this article argues that their active perpetuation does not lie in their political success in the public battle for memory and recognition, but in their ability to shape former militants’ subjectivity, invigorate their generational bond, keep alive the moral economy of revolutionary fighter, and create a community of loss. Likewise, this contribution demonstrates how revolutionary feelings of nostalgia and mourning shape a social poetics that reduces possibilities for acting in new ways on history and contributes to the creation of a community as cohesive as isolated from the rest of society. Notwithstanding the endurance of state oppression
over time, this contribution warns against restraining our analysis to
an unmasking of asymmetrical violence and unequal power relationships
in the public sphere. It instead argues that, even in repressive contexts, it is
important to investigate the symbolic codes and the political feelings that
shape social actors’ subjectivities, their moral horizon and their possibilities
of actions. [Keywords: Nostalgia, mourning, moral moods, memory,
Turkey, left, agency]

Conspiracy narratives and memory of political violence within Turkish leftist families

15th EASA Biennial Conference: Staying, Moving, Settling, Stockholm, Sweden, August 14-17, 2018, 2018

Oltraggi della memoria. Generazioni, nostalgie e violenza politica nella sinistra in Turchia

Seduzioni del biopotere. La violenza e i linguaggi dell'antropologia". Seminario di studi, Pisa, 13-14 settembre 2012

Goldfishes with a conscience divided into compartments

In 1974 Italy changed from being a country of emigrants to a country of immigrants. Thirty years ... more In 1974 Italy changed from being a country of emigrants to a country of immigrants. Thirty years on, immigrants are playing an ever more important role in the country. Facing the consequences of migratory phenomenon, the author seeks to show the relevance of an overall view that doesn’t lose the concreteness of specific references. In the essay I try to analyze the new items that were introduced by the «pacchetto sicurezza», where the question of immigrants stops being a collection of laws regarding migration and starts being a question of public security. Instead, the case study of Roma communities allows us to grasp the limits of the multicultural model and the drift of the process of ethnogenesis. Moreover, the author tries to illustrate the increasing role of the mass media, which is no longer a dependent variable but a cobuilder of social reality, from such an analysis, no social science can escape. Finally, the consequences for “those who arrive in Italy” and for “those alread...

Apocalissi Culturali e Economie Della Memoria

Contested landscape transitions Ruins Repair Re membering In late industrial southern Italy

by Lorenzo d'orsi and Katherine Lambert-Pennington

Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2024

This introduction examines the debates on late industrialism and the processes of ruination in li... more This introduction examines the debates on late industrialism and the processes of ruination in light of the historical and social transformations that have been shaping Southern Italy. Through the lens of cultural anthropology, it highlights the enduring impact of state-led industrialization on the region, drawing critical attention to the co-existence of conditions of abandonment, uncertainty, and disillusionment of environmental degradation, as well as the renewed meanings of territories and the imaginaries of possible futures. The articles in this
special issue are grounded in ethnographic research in Sardinia, Sicily, and
Apulia - territories where weakened industry is contradictorily intertwined
with new development narratives. The authors examine the practices, narratives, sentiments and moral ambivalences that shape these territories and their stories, shedding light on how concrete groups of people make meaning of modern ruins and live in and with ruined spaces.

'Imagine what Gela could be': Sense of place, ruins of modernity and nostalgias in Sicily

JOURNAL OF MODERN ITALIAN STUDIES, 2024

In the 1960s, Gela, located in southern Sicily, became the home of a petrochemical plant, which c... more In the 1960s, Gela, located in southern Sicily, became the home of a petrochemical plant, which created a new sense of modernity, and triggered a process of urbanization. Nevertheless, the resulting pollution and deregulated urban expansion led to the city being stigmatized. The decommissioning of the plant added a condition of economic and identity uncertainty. Drawing from an fieldwork research, this article explores how the process of ruination has affected Gela inhabitants’ sense of place. It points to local sentimental connections with urban ruins – abandoned buildings, incomplete projects and constructions– showing how these become objects of ephemeral micro-practices of concealment while also creating a sphere of intimacy. It analyses the emergence of a new collective imaginary based on archeological and natural heritage, fuelling nostalgia for an imagined pre-industrial past. Although differing from the modernist imaginary associated with oil, this collective rhetoric reproduces the former’s sense of grandeur triggered by the industry.

'Imagine what Gela could be': Sense of place, ruins of modernity and nostalgias in Sicily

In the 1960s, Gela, located in southern Sicily, became the home of a petrochemical plant, which c... more In the 1960s, Gela, located in southern Sicily, became the home of a petrochemical plant, which created a new sense of modernity, and triggered a process of urbanization. Nevertheless, the resulting pollution and deregulated urban expansion led to the city being stigmatized. The decommissioning of the plant added a condition of economic and identity uncertainty. Drawing from an fieldwork research, this article explores how the process of ruination has affected Gela inhabitants’ sense of place. It points to local sentimental connections with urban ruins – abandoned buildings, incomplete projects and constructions– showing how these become objects of ephemeral micro-practices of concealment while also creating a sphere of intimacy. It analyses the emergence of a new collective imaginary based on archeological and natural heritage, fuelling nostalgia for an imagined pre-industrial past. Although differing from the modernist imaginary associated with oil, this collective rhetoric reproduces the former’s sense of grandeur triggered by the industry.

"Se venisse un turista a Gela". Fantasie di turismo e senso del luogo in un contesto tardoindustriale

PALAVER, 2024

This paper explores the imaginaries of tourism development in the Sicilian town of Gela, home to ... more This paper explores the imaginaries of tourism development in the Sicilian town of Gela, home to a petrochemical plant that, in the 1960s, transformed a rural village into a symbol of top-down industrialization in southern Italy. Built by Eni, the plant has led to environmental pollution and unregulated urban development over the years, casting a heavy stigma over the town. The plant’s recent closure has added to the uncertainty. Consequently, tourism development linked to the sea and the town’s ancient Greek heritage is now considered a possible path to economic and moral redemption. In exploring this transformation, this paper critically examines the recent tourism-oriented policies by Eni, aimed at reorienting the local sense of place. It also analyzes grassroots initiatives through which local entrepreneurs, associations, and inhabitants reclaim degraded areas of the downtown in an attempt to meet the expectations of an imagined “tourist gaze.” The widespread evocation of this gaze can be seen as a meta-cultural discourse through which social actors narrate the town, produce collective representations and horizons of expectation, and attempt to erase stigmatizing narratives. In this regard, the article emphasizes the importance of exploring tourist imaginaries even in areas that are on the fringes of mass touristification.

Rovine del passato, rovine del futuro. Nostalgia e immaginari tardo-industriali in Sicilia

Sulla base di un'etnografia svolta tra il 2020 e il 2022 a Gela, città della costa meridionale de... more Sulla base di un'etnografia svolta tra il 2020 e il 2022 a Gela, città della costa meridionale della Sicilia, le trasformazioni cui è andato incontro il senso del luogo e il suo racconto tra illusioni di grandiosità veicolate dall'industria, ruderi della modernità che permeano lo spazio urbano, sentimenti nostalgici e reperti archeologici. L'apertura di un impianto petrolchimico negli anni Sessanta da parte dell'Eni ha trasformato Gela da piccola realtà agricola in snodo dell'industrializzazione del meridione italiano, offrendo alla città un inedito senso di centralità e avanguardia. La recente dismissione dell'impianto ha tuttavia lasciato un territorio contraddistinto da inquinamento, abusivismo edilizio e incertezza del futuro. Il testo analizza il lento processo di rovinamento che caratterizza tanto i ruderi industriali quanto il tessuto urbano contraddistinto da edifici abbandonati, palazzi incompiuti e progetti mai completati. Da un lato, mette in luce il tentativo di rimuovere questa materialità in disfacimento per reimmaginare lo spazio urbano. Dall'altro, sottolinea come il racconto delle rovine della modernità fondi un senso di intimità e appartenenza. Il paesaggio di rovine si lega, inoltre, a un nuovo immaginario che, evocando nostalgicamente il passato rurale e i segni dell'antica colonia greca, cerca di fondare un nuovo senso della località più in linea con i paradigmi di sviluppo turistico. L'articolo dimostra, infine, come 1 Questo articolo è il risultato delle riflessioni elaborate nell'ambito del progetto PRIN PNRR2022 "QUASI-RUINS: Place, Nostalgia and Future in Late-Industrial Italian Towns", CUP D53D23019790001, Codice progetto MUR: P2022R5Y7F, finanziato dall'Unione europea-NextGenerationEU (Università di Foggia). La ricerca etnografica su cui si basa è stata condotta grazie al progetto PON-AIM 1883713 "Praticare la Smart City. Nuove politiche e nuovi immaginari urbani in Sicilia" (Università di Catania). Ringrazio Mara Benadusi, Irene Falconieri, Pietro Saitta e Antonio Vesco per gli spunti di riflessione e i suggerimenti durante e dopo la ricerca di campo. La mia gratitudine va soprattutto alle persone che ho incontrato a Gela e che, in forme e modi differenti, hanno reso possibile questo lavoro. Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2020 and 2022 in the town of Gela, Sicily, this paper examines the transformation of urban imaginaries. In the 1960s, the establishment of the Eni petrochemical plant transformed Gela from a small rural village into a symbol of industrialization in southern Italy, bringing a newfound sense of centrality and vanguard to the town. However, the recent closure of the plant has resulted in depopulation, environmental pollution, the proliferation of illegal constructions, and an uncertain future. This article analyzes the process of ruination that characterizes the industrial ruins and the urban landscape of Gela, marked by abandoned buildings, unfinished projects, and incomplete developments. On the one hand, it investigates inhabitants' attempt to make invisible this decaying materiality and reimagine their city. On the other hand, it demonstrates how the narratives around these ruins of modernity shape a sense of intimacy and locality. This landscape of ruins is also intertwined with the emergence of new social imaginaries rooted in nostalgia for Gela's rural past and the remnants of its ancient Greek colony. These imaginaries overshadow the industrial era and establish a new sense of place more aligned with the tourism paradigm. Ultimately, this paper reveals how the new rural and pre-industrial imaginary, and the related aspirations of economic renaissance, are supported by the very sense of grandeur conveyed by that petrochemical plant that people today wish to remove.

Remembering the 1980 Military Coup : An Anthropological Perspective on the Uses of Oral History in Turkey

This paper draws on ethnographic investigation carried out in Istanbul on the painful memories of... more

When silence talks : The moral landscape of leftist painful memories in Turkey

Drawing on an ethnography carried out in Istanbul, this talk examines the experience of silence i... more

Michael Taussig, Ragione, violenza e il nervosismo del sistema

Psiche, 2016

Temporary street shrine for imagining a different world : the march for Hrant Dink

Based on an ethnographic investigation carried out in Istanbul, this contribution analyses the an... more

Moral Silence of the Fighter or Traumatic Silence of the Survivor?Different Cultural Construction of Selfhood Among Former Revolutionists in Turkey

Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies, Jul 11, 2016

Goldfishes with a conscience divided into compartments

In 1974 Italy changed from being a country of emigrants to a country of immigrants. Thirty years ... more In 1974 Italy changed from being a country of emigrants to a country of immigrants. Thirty years on, immigrants are playing an ever more important role in the country. Facing the consequences of migratory phenomenon, the author seeks to show the relevance of an overall view that doesn't lose the concreteness of specific references. In the essay I try to analyze the new items that were introduced by the «pacchetto sicurezza», where the question of immigrants stops being a collection of laws regarding migration and starts being a question of public security. Instead, the case study of Roma communities allows us to grasp the limits of the multicultural model and the drift of the process of ethnogenesis. Moreover, the author tries to illustrate the increasing role of the mass media, which is no longer a dependent variable but a cobuilder of social reality, from such an analysis, no social science can escape. Finally, the consequences for "those who arrive in Italy" and for "those already in Italy" are understood from the perspective of the anthropology of violence: from the famous thesis by Hannah Arendt, to Pierre Bourdieu's petit malaise and Nancy Scheper-Hughes's continuum genocide.

Inheriting and Living the Political

Anthropology of the Middle East, Dec 1, 2018

This article, based on ethnography conducted in Istanbul, focuses on the experience of the politi... more This article, based on ethnography conducted in Istanbul, focuses on the experience of the political among young, far-left Turkish militants and young adults whose parents belong to the '78 revolutionary generation. It shows how their 'red youth subculture' is imbricated with family, solidarity and generational bonds. Through the analysis of ritualised political practices such as the May Day parades, the feeling of nostalgia for a never-lived past, political meetings and the role of politics in families, it argues that the experience of the political is irreducible to a set of strategies and ideas: it consists of affections, corporeal sensations, embodied knowledge, aesthetic choices and material culture, which all contribute to substantialise relationships with the state, forms of intimacy and practices of distinction.

Trauma and the Politics of Memory of the Uruguayan Dictatorship

Latin American Perspectives, Apr 23, 2015

Ethnographic research on the life experiences of former political prisoners and their families in... more Ethnographic research on the life experiences of former political prisoners and their families in Uruguay suggests the need for rethinking of the concept of trauma, which is often inadequate to convey the historical and social specificity of painful memories. The collective wound is constructed in public space, and intimate memories are closely linked to the framework in which they are embedded. Working on the victim’s self is not sufficient to overcome the trauma, distracting attention from the need for social recognition and justice. Making history and doing justice are unavoidable steps in the establishment of a different political regime.Las investigaciones etnográficas sobre las experiencias de vida de ex presos políticos y sus familias en Uruguay sugieren la necesidad de replantearse el concepto de trauma, el cual suele ser casi siempre inadecuado para expresar la especificidad histórica y social de las memorias dolorosas. La herida colectiva se construye en el espacio público y las memorias íntimas están estrechamente vinculadas con el marco en el que están inmersas. Trabajar sólo con el yo de la víctima no es suficiente para superar el trauma, y desvía la atención de la necesidad de reconocimiento social y justicia. Hacer historia y hacer justicia son pasos ineludibles en el establecimiento de un régimen político diferente.

Moral Thresholds of Outrage

Conflict and society, Jun 1, 2018

This article analyses the social construction of moral outrage, interpreting it as both an extemp... more This article analyses the social construction of moral outrage, interpreting it as both an extemporaneous feeling and an enduring process, objectified in narratives and rituals and permeating public spaces as well as the intimate sphere of social actors’ lives. Based on ethnography carried out in Istanbul, this contribution focuses on the assassination of the Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. This provoked a moral shock and led to an annual commemoration in which thousands of people—distant in political, religious, ethnic positions—gather around a shared feeling of outrage. The article retraces the narratives of innocence and the moral frames that make Dink’s public figure different from other victims of state violence, thus enabling a moral and emotional identification of a large audience. Outrage over Dink’s murder has become a creative, mobilizing force that fosters new relationships between national history and subjectivity, and de-reifies essentialized social boundaries and identity claims.

"Making the wound bleed": Nostalgia, Mourning, and Morality among Turkish Revolutionaries in Istanbul

"Making the wound bleed": Nostalgia, Mourning, and Morality among Turkish Revolutionaries in Istanbul, 2023

This article investigates nostalgia and mourning among former Turkish revolutionary militants, th... more This article investigates nostalgia and mourning among former Turkish revolutionary militants, the main victims of state violence in the wake of the Turkish 1980 military coup. It understands these emotions as ethically imbued moods that are both conscious and unconscious and permeate both public discourses and the innermost spheres of former fighters. These moods pervade the everydayness of former revolutionaries, their discourses on the past and the present as well as ritualized occasions, such as anniversaries, gatherings, and commemorations. Based on fieldwork research conducted in Istanbul, this article conceptualizes these moods as intersubjective emotional practices with a certain degree of agency that work as political and moral modes of engaging with the world. Although former revolutionaries intend these moods as practices of resistance against the ongoing state repression, this article argues that their active perpetuation does not lie in their political success in the public battle for memory and recognition, but in their ability to shape former militants’ subjectivity, invigorate their generational bond, keep alive the moral economy of revolutionary fighter, and create a community of loss. Likewise, this contribution demonstrates how revolutionary feelings of nostalgia and mourning shape a social poetics that reduces possibilities for acting in new ways on history and contributes to the creation of a community as cohesive as isolated from the rest of society. Notwithstanding the endurance of state oppression
over time, this contribution warns against restraining our analysis to
an unmasking of asymmetrical violence and unequal power relationships
in the public sphere. It instead argues that, even in repressive contexts, it is
important to investigate the symbolic codes and the political feelings that
shape social actors’ subjectivities, their moral horizon and their possibilities
of actions. [Keywords: Nostalgia, mourning, moral moods, memory,
Turkey, left, agency]

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Goldfishes with a conscience divided into compartments

In 1974 Italy changed from being a country of emigrants to a country of immigrants. Thirty years ... more In 1974 Italy changed from being a country of emigrants to a country of immigrants. Thirty years on, immigrants are playing an ever more important role in the country. Facing the consequences of migratory phenomenon, the author seeks to show the relevance of an overall view that doesn’t lose the concreteness of specific references. In the essay I try to analyze the new items that were introduced by the «pacchetto sicurezza», where the question of immigrants stops being a collection of laws regarding migration and starts being a question of public security. Instead, the case study of Roma communities allows us to grasp the limits of the multicultural model and the drift of the process of ethnogenesis. Moreover, the author tries to illustrate the increasing role of the mass media, which is no longer a dependent variable but a cobuilder of social reality, from such an analysis, no social science can escape. Finally, the consequences for “those who arrive in Italy” and for “those alread...

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