The research on Campania was born with the intention to detect the strategies of resistance “from below” implemented in response to the disasters and environmental devastation that occurred in the region that have made sadly known the lands of some areas of what was once Campania Felix.
The strategies and practices on which the research wants to focus are based on the assumption of a “return to nature” to be read in a perspective of environmental, social and economic sustainability. This assumption seems to be generated by a need for revenge and the need to reaffirm a “presence” acting and aware on the territory through mechanisms of protection and enhancement that in the region have taken various forms and ways.
The aim of the research is, therefore, to explore the reactions and responses to devastation, starting from the production of food (agriculture and livestock). Through a field survey to be carried out in some rural areas of the province of Naples and Caserta, the research aims to detect the cause-effect relationship between the “defeat” of the territories concerned and the processes of enhancement of some products, often supported by various certifications that ensure quality and typicality. In line with the dynamics of enhancement, we will also investigate good practices and strategies implemented by producers to obtain high quality food obviously “good, clean and fair” in areas spared from devastation. These, multiple, issues are played out on various levels, intertwined, which the research aims to highlight: prospects for environmental sustainability, social and health reasons, policies for territorial development and economic development.
It is from this perspective that the ethnographic work will continue in the urban context with the intention of investigating the phenomenon of urban gardens in the city of Naples, noting the impact and scope on the level of an emerging awareness, by the city population but also by institutions, of the need to implement strategies and practices of resistance and re-appropriation against the devastation of the environment.