Agri-cultural resistance and local development: the cases of lavender and rye in the Susa Valley

Abstract

The reconversion of raw lands into productive areas through cultivation may be considered as a practice of resistance toward territorial policies dictated from outside. So, marginal areas are taking new meaning in the eyes of their inhabitants or of the people who decide to settle here from the city. This attitude has triggered virtuous processes of development that are part of a general rethinking of mountains, in large part characterized by new creative ways of dealing with them, in terms of living and doing business in accordance to the local resources. In the following contribution will be analysed the recovery of two crops – lavender and rye – in the Susa Valley. They were studied in the research project MA.S.K.A. (Marginal Areas and Know-how in the Alps), funded by Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation and University of Turin in 2015 and 2016.