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The research aims to assess the demographic impact related with the implementation of an environmental policy, which affects food availability in economically and environmentally fragile settings, dependent on few, unstable resources. The paper addresses this topic from a particular perspective, namely the special goat tax issued in Italy in 1927. I focus on the goat breeding because of its ecological footprint and the key role on population’s livelihood in marginal lands. Methodologically, the paper combines quantitative and qualitative sources. The analysis of demographic dynamics in a broad set of Italian mountain municipalities over the period 1911–1971 is matched with a qualitative part, based on a careful reading of the coeval survey on mountain depopulation. Findings of the analysis highlight that the goat tax undermined food security promoted outmigration and shrinkage in municipalities that were more dependent on goat breeding only. In addition, the 1927 law generated power struggles between landowner and local communities and between collective and private properties. Such results show that socially-blind, top-down environmental policies could exacerbate inequalities, food insecurity and power conflicts that threaten the effective implementation of the law. An ecological transition must be combined with social inclusion, constant care to the governance and power relations in order to extend public support and make regulations more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the institutionalization of the issue of inner areas with the National Strategy for Inner Areas (Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne, SNAI), a reflection on their spatial organisation is still missing. Our paper aims at filling this gap by providing a methodology for identifying the citizens' Daily Life Spaces (DLS) in the Italian Abruzzo region, which can be used as the spatial unit of analysis of cohesion policies. Their identification results from a multi-step algorithm based on an original definition of central places and on the notions of geographical and organised proximity which consider both citizens' isochrones and commuting flows. Our methodology is able to provide the internal spatial organisation of both Labour Market Areas and Project Areas and is consistent with a historical perspective. Finally, it questions the SNAI classification, calling for a revision of its methodology of identification. • EU Cohesion Policy must be based on appropriate target areas to improve its effectiveness. • This is particularly important for inner areas, suffering from a stigmatising spatial representation. • We provide a methodology able to describe how inner areas are spatially organised based on the notion of citizens' Daily Life Space. • Daily Life Spaces can be used as the territorial unit of analysis for planning local development and cohesion policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to investigate the dynamics of Italian agriculture during the crisis of the 1930s, as well as related issues such as the role of some policies deployed to contain the recession and their consequences. To that end, the article adopts a particular viewpoint based on the belief that Italy presents a large variety of rural environments, the result of its geography and history, and is characterized by different cultivations, features, conduction systems, productivity levels, and market orientations - in other words, diverse modes of production. Partitioning these 'rural Italies' allows us to analyse their trends and prevents them from being bundled together in such a way as to compensate and sometimes even nullify each other. Moreover, the Fascist regime introduced active incentive and protectionist (even autarkic) policies to contrast the recession. Split into the plurality of its agrarian contexts, therefore, the country becomes a sort of kaleidoscope, through which it is possible to observe both the relatively wide set of effective changes brought about by the depression and the diverse impact of national policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the general framework of 'lifestyle migration', the paper explores three materialities associated with the arrival and settlement of British, German and Dutch later-life migrants in the Italian region of Marche, a relatively new 'frontier' region for international retirement migration. The first is about the aesthetics of landscape and the scenic and emotional qualities of the physical and social environment. The second concerns 'home', where we examine house types, property location and home-making practices in terms of 'authenticity', material objects and the cultivation of land for productive purposes. The paper's third thematic focus is on consumption patterns. Most of the 69 participants interviewed for this study hanker after what they perceive as a simpler, more genuine way of life, in tune with the surrounding mixed-farming agricultural environment and distinct from other regions where tourism has taken hold. Many grow their own produce, including some who have small vineyards and olive groves. They enjoy shopping in local markets, eating out in inexpensive local hostelries, visiting museums and cultural festivals, and exploring the many pretty villages and historic towns of the region. The participants embody later-life migration as 'active ageing', but those who are older and/or frailer must consider, often reluctantly, the reality of a less-active and more isolated life in the Italian countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]