Il deposito deindustriale. Storia e prospettive dei Deindustrialization Studies

The article traces the evolution of studies on the history of deindustrialization from its militant origins in the 1980s, when the topic was associated with the neoliberal and anti-union turn of the US and UK governments, to the current situation of a rapidly expanding multidisciplinary and international research area. Over the past two decades, social and labour historians have made an important contribution to rethinking deindustrialization as a long-term, structural process of change that does not only affect workers expelled from factories. The international project Dépot, launched in 2020, and the most recent scholarly production demonstrate the consolidation of a shared methodological and conceptual framework, in which oral history has a central place, feeding research in many directions: the politics of companies, institutions and trade unions, racial and gender conflicts, environmental consequences and urban transformations, places’ identities and the strengthening of right-wing populism.