Descripción del proyecto
El papel de la madera en la industrialización europea
En los últimos años han aparecido nuevos datos que revelan el papel fundamental de la madera en la industrialización, un proceso que llevó aparejado un aumento del consumo de madera en sectores básicos. Sin embargo, los investigadores han solido subestimar la importancia de este material. En el proyecto INWOOD, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, se pretende colmar esta brecha del conocimiento mediante el estudio del papel de la madera durante la industrialización, así como del efecto de la industrialización en los bosques y en el uso de la madera, entre los años1870 y 1914 en Europa. Su equipo, que se inspira en el reciente debate sobre la actual crisis ecológica, analizará los cambios en el consumo de madera teniendo en cuenta la demanda industrial. Además, evaluará el efecto de la industrialización en las personas más implicadas en la explotación de los bosques y estudiará la evolución del paisaje forestal, tanto en lo que respecta a la extensión de la cubierta forestal como a sus características.
Objetivo
INWOOD studies industrialisation through the most important pre-industrial resource: wood. Scholarship on industrialisation has concentrated on the introduction and spread of new energy sources and materials, paying scant attention to the pre-existing resources. However, available data shows that wood was fundamental in the key sectors driving industrialisation, while its consumption increased during this process.
INWOOD analyses the role that wood played during industrialisation and the impact of industrialisation on the actors and sectors most involved in wood use, with a focus on Europe during the first globalisation (1870-1914). Inspired by current debates on ecological crisis and energy transition, the project pioneers an interdisciplinary and multi-scale approach to analyse the links between the following interrelated issues:
Economic dynamics on a macro scale: the changes in wood consumption in relation to industrial demands, but also the spread of alternative energy sources and materials; the transformation triggered by industrial technology in the geography of wood flows and in the logistics of the wood supply chain.
Social dynamics on a micro scale: the impact of changes in the wood economy on the populations living close to the woodlands, in both the areas that were central before industrialisation and those that became central because of it; the choices made by actors involved in the exploitation of woodlands when faced with these developments.
Ecological dynamics on multiple scales: the evolution of the European forest cover in terms of reforestation in some regions and deforestation in others; the main qualitative changes in the forest landscape in terms of tree species composition, age and density.
INWOOD integrates sources and analytical methods to change the way scholars understand industrialisation and to provide the historical context for present-day debate about the role of forests in climate change mitigation and biodiversity preservation.
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistory
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- social sciencessociologyglobalization
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesforestry
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitución de acogida
10124 Torino
Italia