Descrizione del progetto
Il ruolo del legno nell’industrializzazione europea
Negli ultimi tempi sono emersi nuovi dati che rivelano il ruolo cruciale svolto dal legno nell’industrializzazione, evidenziato da un aumento del suo consumo in settori chiave. L’attenzione degli studiosi, tuttavia, ha spesso trascurato l’importanza di questo materiale. Finanziato dal Consiglio europeo della ricerca, il progetto INWOOD si propone di colmare questa lacuna conoscitiva attraverso un approfondimento del ruolo giocato dal legno durante il periodo dell’industrializzazione e dell’impatto dell’industrializzazione sulle foreste e sull’utilizzo di legno, prestando particolare attenzione all’Europa tra il 1870 e il 1914. Ispirato dal recente dibattito sulla crisi ecologica, il progetto analizzerà i cambiamenti nel consumo di legno prendendo in considerazione le nuove esigenze industriali. Inoltre, INWOOD valuterà l’impatto dell’industrializzazione sulle popolazioni maggiormente coinvolte nello sfruttamento dei boschi e studierà l’evoluzione del paesaggio forestale in termini di estensione della copertura boschiva e delle sue caratteristiche.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
- 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
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsIstituzione ospitante
10124 Torino
Italia