Paper short abstract:

By outsourcing manufacturing to China, Italian textile entrepreneurs have passed their know-how, with the consequence that their mastery is challenged. The strategies implemented to confront this unprecedented situation will be describe and question.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation examines the political implications of the paradoxical situation of the Italian textile industry today. On one hand, famous Italian brands are producing clothes that are the output of complex global value chains. On the other hand, they must market the specifically Italian industrial and craft heritage that made them famous in the world. This marketing necessity forces these producers to hide the conditions of production of their products in order to better sell them. By outsourcing manufacturing to Asia, Italian entrepreneurs have passed their know-how to technicians of this continent, with the consequence that the craft knowledge is becoming lost in Western Europe. Today, it appears clear that "Made in Italy" will survive thanks to the Chinese workforce and perhaps even thanks to the investments of Chinese distributors who wish to purchase prestigious European brands to meet the desire for authenticity of rich Chinese consumers.

How the Italian entrepreneurs and politicians confront this unprecedented situation? Is economic patriotism the only response to the threat of globalization? In this presentation, I will describe and question the strategies implemented by the different actors involved.

Based on multi-sited ethnography, my work is centered on major brands' communication services and the main international trade fairs. I conduct a critical analysis of the construction of global branding of the Italian luxury fabrics.

The managers are now engaged in global processes they do not agree with, but from which they cannot escape without disappearing. This divided consciousness and its political outcomes are the objects of my anthropological reflection.