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Ercole
Sori
Il rovescio della produzione. I rifiuti in
età pre-industriale e paleotecnica
Production's Other Side
1999, pp. 260
In
times of ideological and historiographic revisionism, it should
come as no surprise if, rather than modes of production, debate
focuses on modes of "refusation", i.e. the production
of waste materials. Whereas topics concerning production and
consumption and early industrialisation have traditionally
been placed at the centre of historical-economic analysis,
the latter, along with political economy, has never paid much
attention to rejects, residuals, and waste. Friction among
society, the production system and the environment is usually
examined in terms of its effects on health, or else in terms
of the transformation of natural or artificial "habitats".
This volumes shows that rubbish and refuse allow historical
reconstruction to explore the darkest corners of modes of
productions, social organisation and collective sensitivities
- to the roots of an environmental issue which contemporary
society has allowed to get out of hand. But the issue has
not always been absent in the past: even though the size of
some problems may have been quantitatively small in pre-industrial
economies, from a qualitative vantage point it is surprising
to note how many and which environmental problems had already
emerged in the past. Once again, historical research, when
it is as precise and detailed as Ercole Sori's, is shown to
be indispensable for understanding today's society.
Ercole
Sori teaches
Economic History in the Faculty of Economics at the University
of Ancona.
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