Finanziamento dell’UE NextGenerationEU PRIN PNRR 2022 – In Search of an Old Resource in the Industrial Era: Wood and the Historical Roots of the Italian Forests (1870s-1960s) - M4C2 investimento 1.1 Avviso 1409/2022

The project studies industrialisation through the most important preindustrial resource: wood. So far, scholarship on industrialisation has concentrated on the introduction and spread of new energy sources and materials, paying scant attention to the dynamics concerning pre-existing resources. However, available data show that wood was fundamental in the most relevant activities driving industrialisation and its overall consumption increased during this process. The project analyses the role that wood played during industrialisation and the impact of industrialisation on the actors, sectors and territories most involved in wood use. The focus is on Italy during the long industrialisation of the country between the 1870s and 1960s. In open and explicit dialogue with current debates on ecological crisis and energy transition, the project pioneers an interdisciplinary and multi-scale approach to analyse the links between the following interrelated issues - Economic dynamics: the changes in wood consumption in relation to industrial demands, but also the spread of alternative energy sources and materials; the transformation triggered by industrial technology in the geography of wood flows and in the logistics of the wood supply chain. - Social and political dynamics: the impact of changes in the wood economy both on the populations living close to the woodlands and on the main institutions involved in woodland management; the choices made by actors involved in the exploitation of woodlands when faced with these developments. - Ecological dynamics: the changes in the forest landscape caused by industrialisation, in terms of both the extent of the forest cover and its characteristics; the relationship between these changes and those related to the material management of woodlands at the local level. The project integrates different sources and analytical methods to change the way scholars understand industrialisation and to provide the historical context for present-day debate about the role of woodlands both as a natural asset (climate change mitigation, biodiversity preservation) and as a socio-economic asset (to secure livelihoods in rural areas and support a forest-based bio-economy to replace fossil-based products).