The 'Southern Question' has been a major topic in Italian political, economic and cultural life for a century and more. During the Cold War, it was the justification for heavy government intervention. In contemporary Italy, a major part of the appeal of the Lombard League has been its promise to dissociate the South from the North, even to the point of secession. The South also remains a resonant theme in Italian literature. This interdisciplinary book endeavours to answer the following: - When did people begin to think of the South as a problem? - Who - intellectuals, statisticians, criminologists, political exiles, novelists (among them some important southerners) - contributed to the discourse about the South and why? - Did their view of the South correspond to any sort of reality? - What was glossed over or ignored in the generalized vision of the South as problematic? - What consequences has the 'Question' had in controlling the imaginations and actions of intellectuals and those with political and other forms of power? - What alternative formulations might people create and live by if they were able to escape from the control of the 'Question' and to imagine the political, economic and cultural differences within Italy in some other way? This timely book reveals how Southern Italians have been affected by distorted versions of a complex reality similar to the discourse of 'Orientalism'. In situating the devaluation of Southern Italian culture in relation to the recent emergence of 'anti-mafia' ideology in the South and the threat posed to national unity by the Lombard League, it also illuminates the world's stiff inter-regional competition for investment capital.

Although the seemingly apocalyptic scale of the World Trade Center disaster continues to haunt people across the globe, it is only the most recent example of a city tragically wounded. Cities are, in fact, perpetually caught up in cycles of degeneration and renewal. As with the WTC, from time to time these cycles are severely ruptured by a sudden, unpredictable event. In the wake of recent terrorist activities, this timely book explores how urban populations are affected by 'wounds' inflicted through violence, civil wars, overbuilding, drug trafficking, and the collapse of infrastructures, as well as 'natural' disasters such as earthquakes. Mexico City, New York, Beirut, Belfast, Bangkok and Baghdad are just a few examples of cities riddled with problems that undermine, on a daily basis, the quality of urban life. What does it mean for urban dwellers when the infrastructure of a city collapses - transport, communication grids, heat, light, roads, water, and sanitation? What are the effects of foreign investment and huge construction projects on urban populations and how does this change the 'look' and character of a city? How does drug trafficking intersect with class, race, and gender, and what impact does it have on vulnerable urban communities? How do political corruption and mafia networks distort the built environment? Drawing on in-depth case studies from across the globe, this book answers these intriguing questions through its rigorous consideration of changing global and national contexts, social movements, and corrosive urban events. Adopting a 'grass roots up' approach, it places emphasis on people's experiences of uneven development and inequality, their engagement withmemory in the face of continual change, and the relevance of political activism to bettering their lives. It is especially attentive to the historical interaction of particular cities with wider political and economic forces, as these interactions have shaped local governance over time. Imagining each city as a 'body politic', the authors consider its capacity both to mediate local conflict and to broach the healing of wounds.

Although the seemingly apocalyptic scale of the World Trade Center disaster continues to haunt people across the globe, it is only the most recent example of a city tragically wounded. Cities are, in fact, perpetually caught up in cycles of degeneration and renewal. As with the WTC, from time to time these cycles are severely ruptured by a sudden, unpredictable event. In the wake of recent terrorist activities, this timely book explores how urban populations are affected by 'wounds' inflicted through violence, civil wars, overbuilding, drug trafficking, and the collapse of infrastructures, as well as 'natural' disasters such as earthquakes. Mexico City, New York, Beirut, Belfast, Bangkok and Baghdad are just a few examples of cities riddled with problems that undermine, on a daily basis, the quality of urban life. What does it mean for urban dwellers when the infrastructure of a city collapses - transport, communication grids, heat, light, roads, water, and sanitation? What are the effects of foreign investment and huge construction projects on urban populations and how does this change the 'look' and character of a city? How does drug trafficking intersect with class, race, and gender, and what impact does it have on vulnerable urban communities? How do political corruption and mafia networks distort the built environment? Drawing on in-depth case studies from across the globe, this book answers these intriguing questions through its rigorous consideration of changing global and national contexts, social movements, and corrosive urban events. Adopting a 'grass roots up' approach, it places emphasis on people's experiences of uneven development and inequality, their engagement withmemory in the face of continual change, and the relevance of political activism to bettering their lives. It is especially attentive to the historical interaction of particular cities with wider political and economic forces, as these interactions have shaped local governance over time. Imagining each city as a 'body politic', the authors consider its capacity both to mediate local conflict and to broach the healing of wounds.

The 'Southern Question' has been a major topic in Italian political, economic and cultural life for a century and more. During the Cold War, it was the justification for heavy government intervention. In contemporary Italy, a major part of the appeal of the Lombard League has been its promise to dissociate the South from the North, even to the point of secession. The South also remains a resonant theme in Italian literature. This interdisciplinary book endeavours to answer the following: - When did people begin to think of the South as a problem? - Who - intellectuals, statisticians, criminologists, political exiles, novelists (among them some important southerners) - contributed to the discourse about the South and why? - Did their view of the South correspond to any sort of reality? - What was glossed over or ignored in the generalized vision of the South as problematic? - What consequences has the 'Question' had in controlling the imaginations and actions of intellectuals and those with political and other forms of power? - What alternative formulations might people create and live by if they were able to escape from the control of the 'Question' and to imagine the political, economic and cultural differences within Italy in some other way? This timely book reveals how Southern Italians have been affected by distorted versions of a complex reality similar to the discourse of 'Orientalism'. In situating the devaluation of Southern Italian culture in relation to the recent emergence of 'anti-mafia' ideology in the South and the threat posed to national unity by the Lombard League, it also illuminates the world's stiff inter-regional competition for investment capital.

"In Sicily politics, mafia, and social history are impenetrably entangled--or so I had thought until I read "Reversible Destiny. The Schneiders have performed a near miracle: an accurate, objective, and very readable account of the Palermo anti-mafia movement, its roots, its accomplishments, its shortcomings, and its prospects. In a time when these prospects are ever bleaker, this should be obligatory reading for anyone concerned with the consequences of organized crime and corruption for civic life."--Mary Taylor Simeti, author, most recently, of "Travels with a Medieval Queen

"Written by scholars renowned for both their expertise on Sicilian society and their political savvy, Reversible Destiny tells, for the first time, the story of the rise of the anti-mafia movement in Sicily. Eagerly awaited by scholars, it offers a highly readable examination of a fascinating topic."--David I. Kertzer, author of "The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

"Jane and Peter Schneider have done it again. Using a variety of ethnographic, documentary, interview, and judicial sources, combined with their deep knowledge of the Mafia, they document the rise of the anti-Mafia movement in Palermo, the reaction to it of the elite, and its varied impacts on the city's life. Far from utopian, their clear-eyed vision illuminates the deep roots of the Mafia's cultural legitimacy, the obstacles that the anti-Mafia movement has encountered, and the continuing struggle to build a civil society in the city."--Sidney Tarrow, author of "Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics

With his groundbreaking "Europe and the People Without History," Eric R. Wolf powerfully advanced the project of integrating the disciplines of anthropology and history. In "Articulating Hidden Histories," many of those influenced by Wolf--both anthropologists and historians--acknowledge the contribution of this great scholar while extending his work by presenting their own original field and archival research.
The "hidden histories" referred to here encompass the histories of economic and political forces capable of dislodging people from their surroundings, of the people thus dislocated, and of the anthropological concepts developed to understand such processes. Within this framework, the contributors explore an extraordinarily wide range of topics, from the invention of tribalism in colonial West Africa to the ecological activism of North American housewives.
This collection offers a fitting tribute not only to Eric Wolf's work, but to its continuing influence on the fields of anthropology and history.