Produit local et construction du sense of place en Italie centrale : entre marginalité de l'habiter et retour à la localité

The human and social sciences have made a decisive contribution to rethinking the notion of space, shifting attention from its physical dimension to the anthropological one, i.e. the way space is perceived and represented by individuals and human societies; space as a set of “places”. An expression that has entered this field with particular force is that of sense of place, which in its anthropological meaning describes the relationship we have with a given place, personal emotions, social representations, meanings, and knowledge about places. This essay questions the category of sense of place and its contemporary, “dysemic” and dystopian implications, taking the Italian debate on living in areas considered marginal as a context for investigation. Through the case of a small village in the central Apennines, Fiamignano, we will see how today a new meaning of living in areas previously considered “marginal” is taking place, and how the margin/center dialectic is being called into question through agency processes in which the local and global dimensions are involved.