Paper short abstract:

One of the most ancient industrial area in northern Italy is questioning about its cultural identity. The population of a newborn municipality named Valdilana (Wool Valley) in the Biellese textile district experiences the cleavage between the industrial imaginary and the claims of mountain dwellers.

Paper long abstract:

The Biellese area is known for its glorious textile industrial history, including famous brands of the Made in Italy. Since the 2000s the international economic trends changed dramatically.

The awareness of the difficult economic sustainability leads to a new large municipality in 2019. A popular referendum identified its name in “Valdilana” (Valley of wool), reinforcing the link with the manufacturing tradition. A choice that can be interpreted as a recognition of the territorial identity although the effects of the process of deindustrialization are evident in the general moods of distrust.

Alternatives scenarios to industry are increasingly imagined, prefigured and discussed, mostly focusing on the environmental resources of the area. An example is the “Biellezza” Foundation, merging the names Biella and ‘bellezza’ (i.e. beauty), which is a specific project driven by influential economic actors of the territory (such as the Zegna Group). Starting from the analysis of some specific actions provided by this new subject, the research compares the results of a micro-history study about late XIX Century. From the thread of "Land and looms", this research investigates the basis for the mutation of the ‘community solidarity’ indicated as synthesis of the contested space in this alpine territory. The results describe the cleavage between the reassuring imagery of an idealised past, based on industrial heritage, and the new suggestions from globalisation. Here the need for new identity traits emerges, based on the cohexistence of the mountain landscapes, the purity of nature, the healthy lifestyle, the economic perspectives of modern textile industry.