Abusivismo e capitale sociale

Abstract

Unauthorized building is mostly concentrated in the southern regions of Italy and regards every social class. It often involves political interests at election times. Due to the distinctiveness of its distribution on the Italian territory, unauthorised building raises complex issues of a sociological, anthropological, political and legal nature concerning public spirit, the relationship that the citizen has with institutions and with lawfulness, the means through which political consensus is aggregated, and the capacity of the state to ensure governance through laws. Agrigento is an emblematic case, not only because of the diffusion of the phenomenon over time and space, or for the relevance of the public heritage under threat, but also because it offers the opportunity to reveal the complex mesh of social, cultural and political factors that there is behind unauthorized building. All the indicators of public spirit are significantly associated with unauthorised building. A recent study has documented the distribution of social capital in the Italian provinces, confirming both the lack of homogeneity of the distribution of those resources which strengthen a collective and the permanent distinctiveness of the south of Italy, which suffers from a lack of these resources, as can be seen in the constructions present in the territory. Unauthorised building is substantially associated to that specific form of social capital which consists in loyalty towards institutions and a trust in them. However, this factor, which regards the cultural sphere, can not explain this social behaviour on its own. It is necessary to bring to light the obligations and opportunities offered to the social actor. Through our report we want to show the mesh of factors behind the phenomenon of unauthorised building, with particular regard to the case of Agrigento, and how the distribution of social capital in the region is connected to the distribution of unauthorised building.