How does the fossil sector age in Lomellina (Italy)? For a long-term perspective on social responses to energy plants.

Journal title RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA
Author/s Cecilia Pasini
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/2
Language Italian Pages 22 P. 28-49 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/rgioa2-2026oa23041
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The paper offers a critical elaboration of the debate on social acceptance and opposition to energy technologies. Adopting social attitudes and affective atmospheres as a key to interpret the parable of the petrochemical refinery in Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi (PV), the social side of energy is analysed through the relationship between local populations and energy plants/projects, with the aim to seize its qualitative facets and cumulativity over time. Furthermore, the study reconstructs the path dependence on fossil fuel production, alongside the concrete possibilities for local communities’ agency Methodologically, the contribution affirms the need for long-term qualitative research that succeeds in capturing the complexity of the relations between industry and local community. Accordingly, the perspective that is proposed in the paper constitutes a relevant approach for the study of energy transformations.

Keywords: social responses, energy transitions, late industrial territories, petrochemical refining, diachronic research.

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Cecilia Pasini, Come invecchia il fossile in Lomellina? Per una prospettiva di lungo periodo sulle risposte sociali agli impianti energetici in "RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA" 2/2026, pp 28-49, DOI: 10.3280/rgioa2-2026oa23041