La catastrofe come crisi organica ri-generativa. Per un’analisi gramsciana del sisma di maggio 2012

In this research the author wishes to demonstrate – through the application of Gramscian theory to Ethnography – the the regenerative potential of catastrophes, focusing in particular on their ability to create new forms of (re)existence. This hypothesis informs the fieldwork and was developed from the Gramscian concept of “organic crisis” as a result of a connection between a pre-existent situation of crisis and the violence of calamity. The catastrophe’s consequences in fact affect all sectors of society and end up bringing the incongruities of a given political system to the surface. More specifically, this approach constitutes the basis of the author’s analysis of the regenerative potential of earthquakes that struck the Po-Emilian Valley on the 20th and 29th of May 2012. Indeed these calamities prompted the creation of policies “from below” in response and as an alternative to those institutional interventions carried out during the post-disaster phase (specifically emergency and reconstruction). All the individuals involved in the creation of these alternative policies are members of Sisma.12, a committee of citizens-victims of the earthquakes. They could be defined as “subalterns” in light of their potential to become or create themselves as “political subjects”, using the catastrophe as an “opportunity for transformation”. The research investigates the modality within which these same individuals are able to become political subjects and achieve the change they hope for.