Il futuro dei Comuni minori. Etnografia di una trasformazione in corso - The future of small municipalities in Italy: Ethnography of a social and institutional change

What is the future for Italian inner areas? The article answers to this question by exploring the ongoing institutional and social transformations in a small municipality in North-Western Italy. This ethnography is based on the information gathered in the dual role of elected civil servant and anthropologist involved in the field for over a decade. The article reads abandonment, marginality, new forms of entrepreneurship and tourisms as elements of a paradoxical dynamic: while it is increasingly difficult for villagers to get access to the services offered in the cities, urban dwellers are getting more and more interested into the traditions and products made in the rural areas. This paradox of distance foreshadows the future of small municipalities; a time in which vital towns could become little more than ethnic zoos for the anthropological curiosity of city inhabitants