Territori vulnerabili e cambiamento climatico. Il caso delle aree interne

This work focuses on Italian inner areas, rural and vulnerable areas covering more than half of Italian territory, considered as a privileged observation site for climate change. The research focuses initially on the main stages of the difficult path that marked the approach of sociology to environmental issues, until the recent recognition of a specific "sociology of climate change". The perspective adopted in this work is "loss" (the irreversible transformation of natural and built landscapes involved in climate change) and a specific focus is dedicated to vulnerability and adaptation in the climate change discourse. A specific attention to the socio-spatial effects of climate change is then declined in the context of inner areas. A quantitative analysis (based primarily on census data) is developed for the whole Emilia-Romagna region, on a municipal scale, to study their fragilities. This analysis permits to identify areas presenting the most important fragility, described in its demographic, social and economic components. The results are then related to the literature and data of the National Strategy for Inner Areas, the most important policy on this topic. The last part of the work focuses on a specific inner area of the region, known as "Basso Ferrarese", historically marked by a conflicting relationship with nature, made of “conquests” and “dangers”. Qualitatively analyzing the fragile human-environment relationship typical of the area, the main climatic risks affecting it are studied, together with some of the adaptive actions implemented to face its vulnerabilities.