This book examines the transformation of the Italian city from the 1950s to the present with particular attention to questions of identity, migration and changes in urban culture. It focuses on two phases of that transformation: the years of accelerated industrialisation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the period of de-industrialisation and postmodernity beginning in the 1980s. It shows how major demographic movements and cultural shifts threw into relief new conceptions of the city in which old boundaries had become problematic. Design, fine art, literature, youth culture, film and social history all provide focal points. The contributions bring specialist expertise to each area while the extensive illustrations give a vivid picture of the contemporary visual culture for which Italian cities are famed. This is a genuinely interdisciplinary approach by Italian and English-speaking historians and scholars of urban studies, literature, architecture and design which introduces new debates and research to an English-speaking audience for the first time. Extensive illustrations provide a vivid picture of contemporary Italian visual culture.

Giada Ripa’s photos form an itinerary of landscapes traversing Italy, North to South, focusing on five regions: Friuli, Lombardy, Tuscany, Abruzzo, and Sicily. This account is not limited to a photographic album; rather, it calls upon champions from each area who, through engaging interviews, describe the positive impact on its territory of the commitment of an important local business. Concrete examples of this cooperation are the environmental revival carried out in the Prealpi Giulie Nature Reserve in Friuli, the conservation of local species of flowers carried out with the cooperation of the Botanical Gardens in Palermo, and stretches of land made available and leased free of charge. Thus, The Thin Line represents a hope, but also an awareness of the territory and of those who not only inhabit it now, but will come to inhabit it in the future. Text in English and Italian