Proposing a new work method that attempts to tackle our current complexities and ambiguities

Working while overwhelmed by uncertainty, yet doing so well and effectively. Production, no matter what. This is the challenge faced by virtually all those working in enterprises (not only private ones) and, more in general, in production organisations that deal with real life or, rather, with the complexities of real life, as well as its changeable nature and ambiguities, features that seem to increasingly define the environment in which we operate.

This is the context from which La cultura dell’incertezza (The culture of uncertainty), written by Andrea Guida, unravels, and its subtitle immediately clarifies its main goal: to provide readers with some advice on how to “govern organisations in a complex world”. The author, who spent years facilitating corporate collaborative activities, harnessed his own experience to devise a method that could prove useful in steering companies even through the most complex spells.  This is called ‘systems leadership’ and it is based on the awareness of needing new tools to tackle the complexities, ambiguities and uncertainties that riddle organisations and their surrounding world. For Andrea Guida, the key point is to look at issues in a different way and work together in a more effective manner (by applying a strategy identified as ‘co-design’), to act more speedily and in a more controlled manner in everyday life and when crises arise.

All this is explained in just under 200 pages and four chapters, starting with the mistakes we currently make in the workplace, moving on to a list of “ingredients to perform well” and a more in-depth exploration of the systems leadership method, and ending with a number of insights on single operational aspects.

Guida’s work certainly requires careful reading and should be put to the test in real life, in order to fully appraise its potential in yielding results. Results that cannot really be taken for granted, though a concrete application of this method could actually determine its worth as a tool for the creation of a better working environment in production organisations currently struggling with the dramatic changes occurring within their structures and cultures.

La cultura dell’incertezza (The culture of uncertainty)

Andrea Guida

Guerini Next, 2022

Umberto Eco slowly walks across the rooms of his large house in Piazza Castello, in Milan – a veritable ‘house of books’ with more than 30,000 volumes collected over years of study, research, and literary and cultural passion. This image is actually a long-shot sequence scene from the black and white documentary entitled Umberto Eco. La biblioteca del mondo (Umberto Eco. The library of the world), directed by Davide Ferrario and soon to be presented in Milan, at the Anteo cinema, by the Belleville Writing School, as part of the BookCity book festival (it will come out in cinemas in February, as a Fandango production).

Choosing Eco’s private library – as well as one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20^th century – as the image promoting a festival that’s unique in Italy and that, year after year (this is the 11^th edition), from 16 to 20 November, attracts tens of thousands of people and offers almost 1,500 events such as meetings with the authors, public readings and debates, scattered throughout the city, is an apt and symbolic decision.

“A festival dedicated to books and to reading,” concisely explains Piergaetano Marchetti, president of the BookCity Foundation and influential figure within Milan’s cultural and economic world. And, further, it’s an engaging way to highlight the close relationship between living and reading, attempting to understand and narrate the world, creating and undertaking, defying time through history and stories to set the scene for a better future.

In fact, books most effectively epitomise the opportunities contained within the “future of memory”.

Moreover, Milan is, after all, a city that thrives on progressive – yet also more mainstream and widespread – culture. Indeed, Antonio Greppi, mayor of Milan during that complex post-war period marked by frenzied reconstruction, promised “Bread and culture” while both the entrepreneurial middle class and the most sensible political powers promoted cultural activities such as theatre and musical events through generous and long-term financial sponsorships (the Casa della Cultura Association on via Borgogna – still active today – is only one instance of such efforts). Even today, associations and industries still focus on culture – just this year, entrepreneurial institution Assolombarda awarded Padua the title of “capital of corporate culture”, as culture, to companies, not only signifies sponsorship opportunities but also an asset enhancing the identity and competitive nature of enterprises, through a unique, international “polytechnic culture” blending both humanities and sciences.

A study by AIE (Associazione degli Editori, the Italian publishing trade association), undertaken specifically for BookCity in collaboration with Pepe Research, shows that 75% of Milanese citizens read at least one book per year (not a lot, of course, but nonetheless more than the national average), while 59% has attended at least one cultural event. “Events and reading are part of Milan’s virtuous equation”, points out with some satisfaction the Corriere della Sera newspaper, while the headline by la Repubblica reads “Milan as capital of cultural consumption”. Then again, the annual research survey “Io sono cultura” (“I am culture”), curated by Symbola and Unioncamere (recently presented first at the MAXXI in Rome and then at Casa Fornasetti in Milan), reveals that Milan and the Lombardy region are at the forefront, in Italy, in terms of consumption, entrepreneurship and cultural activities.

Thus, Milan as the city of books, of great publishing houses that have made history (Mondadori, Rizzoli, Bompiani, Feltrinelli, Adelphi, Mauri-Spagnol’s Longanesi, etc.) and new publishing ventures (La nave di Teseo, NN Editore, Iperborea, to mention just a few amongst many); of historic bookshops in evolution (Hoepli) and many other independent ones that have been opened, with much passion and wisdom, both in the centre and in the suburbs; of public and private libraries in cultural centres and in schools, as well as in companies and apartment blocks.

Reading for fun, savouring the pleasure a book can give. Reading to understand and learn. Reading to defy time and get to know different lives and experiences, just as Umberto Eco taught us: “At the age of 70, those who don’t read will have led only one life – their own! Those who read will have lived 5,000 years: they were there when Cain killed Abel, when Renzo married Lucia, when Leopardi admired the infinite… Because literature is backwards immortality.”

Here we find yet another trait of Milan, inspired by reading and culture: the ability to understand others’ ways of life, which entails social inclusion, a welcoming spirit and integration, an aptitude that uniquely combines economic competitiveness and solidarity. Reading to “comprehend” (with its Latin root cum, the same as “comprehension” and “community”). Reading to grow.

Losing such traits would mean losing the soul of Milan.

Let’s pay heed to books, then, and to the public spaces dedicated to books, such as libraries, bookshops and cultural events like BookCity, as well as private spaces like homes where books are at the heart of a family’s language and social interaction (this has been so since Cicero’s times, by the by: “A room without books is like a body without a soul”).

Though here we encounter a critical spot: new urban architectural designs, the “thousand lights” of Milan and buzzing “events”, opulent consumption and showy wealth, ‘archistars’ and skyscrapers in glass and steel redefining the skyline, high-tech homes and floor plans, leave very little room for bookshelves, for spaces dedicated to books. Of course, the new digital generations have a preference for eBooks – yet, are we truly confident that the disappearance of home libraries shouldn’t make us ponder about its architectural, cultural and social meaning?

(Photo by Leonardo Cendamo/Getty Images)

Reading is a journey. You can live through a thousand adventures and explore the world not just in novels, but also in poems. The passion for books needs to be nurtured from an early age, but it is important to keep it going throughout your life by taking books everywhere – even into offices and factories.

At the Pirelli HQ Auditorium on Thursday 24 November 2022, at 11 a.m., the Pirelli Foundation is organising “Parole in viaggio”, a meeting devoted to the world of books, during which girls and boys from lower secondary schools will be able to get to know the writer and poet Roberto Piumini, and Antonella Sbuelz, the winner of the first edition of the Premio Campiello Junior with her novel Questa notte non torno. With them and with Antonio Calabrò, the director of the Pirelli Foundation, and Alessandra Tedesco, a journalist with Radio 24, the students will be able to discover how a story takes shape and how the characters created by the mind of a writer come to life.

The Pirelli Foundation, which has always put great emphasis on promoting reading among the younger generations as well as in the workplace, is supporting the Premio Campiello Junior award for the second year running. To find out more, visit the websites of the Pirelli Foundation and of the Premio Campiello.

For information about the “Parole in viaggio” event, please write to scuole@fondazionepirelli.org

A recently published book narrates the story of one of the major Italian wineries: an exemplary case of good corporate culture

History becomes present and future, while human and corporate stories become investments for growth. This is the stuff all well-written corporate narratives are made of and, indeed, this is what we find in Amarone e oltre. Masi: 50 anni di vendemmie, famiglia e imprenditorialità (Amarone and beyond. Masi: 50 years of grape harvesting, family and entrepreneurship), a book made even more special by its author, Sandro Boscaini, six-generation member of the family that founded the business 250 years ago.

The book starts with the very origins of the Masi winery, going back to 1772 and looking at their historical context, and then retraces, step after step, the entrepreneurial choices that were made, the family events that accompanied them and the historical circumstances surrounding them. Thus, readers learn about those first decisions that set the company “in motion”, as well as the developing stages that turned it into a sound business capable of commercial expansion, the critical struggle with one of the most dangerous diseases in the wine-growing sector (Phylloxera), the challenge that the two World Wars posed followed by its growth in the post-war period, and further decisions that proved pivotal for the company.

This work is unique not only for its narration (executed in a very appropriate style) of a century-old company’s entrepreneurial story, but also for its transition, in the second part, from a historical narrative into a corporate account including managerial reflections and up-to-date management topics related to the running of the company, such as decision-making, values, group and brand strategies. As such, it encapsulates, as mentioned above, history and narrative that drive the present and lay the foundations for the future, as well as illustrating why Amarone wines are associated, all over the world, with this particular enterprise.

Thus, in his introduction, Giuseppe Lupo summarises Masi’s corporate culture as a “golden rule to which the Masi Group always adhered to: simply knowing how to accomplish things is not sufficient, we also need to know how to communicate what we accomplish. This is what this story, which thickens as it reaches our current times, is all about: each action needs its own narrative, and every company, in order to overcome the challenges posed by markets, needs a tight organisation. The outcome is an integrated network of people and structures, a conglomerate of minds cooperating towards a single, all-encompassing goal. Will this lead to a communitarian path? Perhaps so. Yet, it is also evidence of a family history whose heritage continues through time, and which encompasses many names and faces, characters and voices while epitomising a single vision: the need to experience modernity, without falling prey to its contradictions but redressing its shortcomings and building something that will last.”

Amarone e oltre. Masi: 50 anni di vendemmie, famiglia e imprenditorialità (Amarone and beyond. Masi: 50 years of grape harvesting, family and entrepreneurship)

Sandro Boscaini

Egea, 2022

A recent research study by the Einaudi Centre explores the relationships between employment status, complexities and future

Employed, yet with an uncertain future and working within a changing (and often confusing) economic and social system. This is a common and widespread occurrence that needs to be properly understood in order to identify, where possible, information that might prove useful and beneficial, leading to a growth and development path.

The research work undertaken by Emilio Bartezzaghi, Giuseppe Della Rocca, Luciano Pero and Anna M. Ponzellini – collected in the Quaderno (Workbook) series published by the Einaudi Centre and entitled L’organizzazione del lavoro in un’epoca di incertezze (Work organisation in uncertain times) – aims to provide the tools to understand the relationships between technology, organisation and employment in our current times.

This Quaderno volume is the result of a widespread sharing practice, whereby researchers from different areas and backgrounds exchange thoughts and ideas, and takes into consideration, as explained in the introduction, not only the manufacturing industry but also services and public administration, no longer seen as single corporate case studies but rather as sectors in their own right – this is the premise from which the research team’s work unravels.

The first contribution concerns the evolution of great distribution between e-commerce and customised service, the second investigates the audio-visual segment and its engagement with digital technologies, while the third tackles industrial smart working. The study then goes on to explore topics related to the implementation of the PNRR – the Italian recovery and resilience plan – and the part that public administration plays in this, both in terms of its much needed reorganisation and “cultural change”. All of this is subsequently tied into the current situation and the new uncertain conditions created by the pandemic, the war and the challenges inherent to the innovation process required by the investments provided by the PNRR.

In the background – and providing some perspective – are important themes such as the role that technological innovation, organisation, high-quality work and different policies have in industrial relationships, as well as potential new institutional relationships between public and private sectors.

This collected research published by the Einaudi Centre certainly acts as a good guide to better explore a world that, as said above, is troubled by an uncertain future and a complex present.

L’organizzazione del lavoro in un’epoca di incertezze (Work organisation in uncertain times)
Quaderno di Biblioteca della Libertà part of the Il Tassello Mancante series, curated by Emilio Bartezzaghi, Giuseppe Della Rocca, Luciano, Pero, Anna M. Ponzellini

Luigi Einaudi Centre for Research and Documentation, 2022

In such difficult and uncertain times, we should reconsider corporate welfare and consolidate the role of strong social capital as an essential asset on which companies can erect new and better sustainability strategies.

An essential choice, after all, as well as a way to tackle our current crises: recession, an inflation exacerbated by the boom in energy prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the increase in the cost of money and, simultaneously, the fragility of companies in these new competitive global markets, so controversial and so volatile. The newspapers talk about “bonuses” granted to employees by an increasing number of companies (such as Barilla, Lavazza, Illy, Ferrari, Della Valle, De’ Longhi, etc.), in order to reward their commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic (indeed, the Italian economy bounced back much faster than all other European ones thanks, above all, to the resilience of its better industry), and now to help them face rising bills and the dramatic increase in the cost of living. And the Meloni government is wisely considering to cut taxes on employee bonuses of up to €3,000.

Of course, defusing the risks of an inflation spiral, amongst rising prices and soaring salaries (as it happened in those incredibly hard 1970s) is a must. One-off bonuses, especially if exempt from tax, and higher salaries tied to production growth, are the right way to go, and a significant tax wedge cut is equally necessary in order to boost salaries, income and company profits (territorial entrepreneurial institution Confindustria has been rightfully insisting on this for a long time, though, sadly, the government only lent a superficial, uncertain ear to it).

Yet, ignoring the crisis, it’s essential to reflect on the long-term effects of corporate welfare, too. In this period, when the economic culture is transitioning from a focus on shareholder values (stock profits and prices, which are nevertheless important) to prioritising stakeholder values (values and interests of employees, consumers, suppliers, all those belonging to communities that share a relationship with a company), enterprises must better reward their own people and their productivity, innovation skills, sense of loyalty, creative intelligence and resourcefulness, if they want to retain their competitive edge.

Digital transformations and Industry 4.0 developments (the major cause in the growth of the Italian economy in 2021 and 2022) and the subsequent spread of smart-working practices demand, moreover, a new structure for industrial relationships and employment contracts, with salaries and income dictated by results, rather than working hours. And, in this new remuneration structure, corporate welfare (financial assistance, supplementary pension schemes, various other services) is bound to become more important, in order to provide drive and rewards through smart taxation, with the goal of improving the quality of life of workers and their families.

Lately, employment contracts have started down this route. The commitment of many enterprises that are responsibly mindful to sustainability – in environmental, social and economic terms – is prompting reflections and trials concerning welfare. The building process has begun and the work must go on.

Besides, Italy, as regards to these topics, can boast an excellent corporate culture tradition that should be rediscovered, reread, enhanced (just like Ferruccio de Bortoli did on Friday, at a conference held at the Università Cattolica of Milan, talking about Pirelli, Olivetti, Marzotto and other virtuous examples).

The historical context, from the end of the 19^th century onwards, showed great social activism both in the Catholic world and within socialist organisations: mutual aid societies, workers’ and farmers’ leagues (from which trade unions originated), cooperatives, public credit institutions. An abundance of initiatives that, over time, became the foundations of a collaborative and communitarian social capital and inspired legislative measures, whose beneficial effects we’re still experiencing today.

It’s worth remembering the attention that the corporate world paid to working-class housing (such as the Crespi d’Adda village, built for the workforce of the Crespi family’s textile factories), health and welfare measures, schools for the workers’ children, and the first cultural and leisure organisations – welfare capitalism aimed at tackling the risks of social protests, but also genuine interest in the fates of those working in factories and workshops (the Italian production structure, born in small enterprises, also led, in many cases, to entrepreneurs and workers sharing similar experiences).

Some examples? At the beginning of May 1984, a cut-out article from La Lega Lombarda newspaper about the Pirelli plant in Milan (the rubber manufacturing company had been founded 12 years before by Giovanni Battista Pirelli, just after he earned his degree from the Polytechnic of Milan) reminds us that “in 1877 a mutual aid fund for sick labourers had been instituted, funded by very small contributions – from 10 to 15 cents for a fortnight – from workers’ pay-checks and fines.” Still from the Pirelli Foundation’s Historical Archives, we find evidence of a Società Anonima di Consumo (a limited consumer cooperative) set up by the plant’s workers who, in 1901, via a small illustrated card, asked “manager Giovanni Battista Pirelli” some help in implementing mutual aid activities. And, in May 1902, the first “Agreement between Company and Worker’s Committee for the improvement of treatment and miscellaneous provisions following the presentation of the Workers’ Memorandum” was drafted.

As per that “Agreement”, a veritable health care service, entirely funded by the company, was established, benefiting the workers and further extended beyond the boundaries of the factory, and it was followed, in 1926, by free health care for all employees. Then, over time, came initiatives for workers’ housing, summer camps for the employees’ children, contributions to finance the studies of the more talented and deserving and, still in the 1920s, the first corporate libraries (an initiative that’s still ongoing).

From Pirelli history to Marzotto and its textile factories in Valdagno: “We want the working and farming classes to gradually rise,” wrote in 1901 Vittorio Emanuele Marzotto, “An intervention by the State is necessary and must include a wise social legislation aimed at resolving foreseeable conflicts, managing the capital, protecting the workforce so that individual citizens will know what they are entitled to according to their economic power and work undertaken, and so that the contract will be held sacred by all parties involved.”

As Ferruccio de Bortoli tells us, “The Marzotto family built nurseries, sports centres – even, at that time, swimming pools – and nursing homes for employees and their families, and wanted to emphasise that these corporate welfare activities were to be considered as undisputed rights of the workforce rather than concessions. An already sufficiently comprehensive notion of social responsibility was already manifest at the time.”

And Olivetti? In August 1919, in the first edition of the Azione riformista (Reformist action) magazine, Camillo Olivetti wrote about the importance of “making all citizens aware of the duties of the present times, pointing out shortcomings and solutions while simultaneously setting up the necessary measures to rise to better political and economic forms, a new social asset where all that proceeds from work goes to those who do useful work.” And in the 1930s, he insisted on the fact that productivity depended on the degree of civic sense of employees and their support of solidarity principles – and, further, that the well-being of collaborators was a precondition for companies.

When he died, his son Adriano was already set to relaunch corporate welfare as part of the long period of implementations spanning from the end of the war to 1960 (as well described by Paolo Bricco in Adriano Olivetti. An Italian man from the 20^th century, published by Rizzoli).

Another asset, as well as the canteens and educational support, was housing for the workers – the first plans had already been drafted in 1934, when Adriano had just been made managing director of Olivetti – “We know that one of the reasons for our strength lies in the well-being of all those who contribute to the wealth of the company.”

And there are more exemplary decisions: in 1938, a library was opened inside the factory; in 1940, there was a trial for full salary payment to employees on sick leave, who would otherwise have their wages cut: the company’s mutual fund paid for the difference between the amount set by the sector’s national collective agreement and the average salary of the category of the worker off sick; still in 1940, several specialised services were added – such as dental care – and extended to the workers’ families; and, in June 1941, the whole childcare and parenthood package offered by the company was revamped. As de Bortoli commented, “We were in 1941, the war was on and we achieved goals that today, considering the childcare debate, seem unattainable.” And corporate welfare, with its long history arising from the most mindful companies, continues to be a great modern paradigm.

A message from Roberto Piumini to the young jurors of the Premio Campiello Junior

Applications for positions on the Readers’ Jury are still open for the second edition of the Premio Campiello Junior, the award for works of fiction and poetry for young people that was launched by the Pirelli Foundation with the Fondazione Il Campiello. Young readers aged between 7 and 14 have until 11 November 2022 to sign up, using this form.

It is to them that Roberto Piumini addresses a message inspired by the gifts that every book, and every reading, brings with it:

My Friends of the Young Jury,

A book contains many gifts. The first is the gift the author (the narrator or poet) gives himself or herself, by carefully choosing, from a whole bunch of terms, the words they need for their unique and very special story or song. Another gift is that of the publisher, who distributes this single gift to many people, showing them a different view of the world and enriching their experience. And then, of course, there is the gift that the reader offers to the author, devoting time, attention, and an imaginary response to them: reading is a form of generous hospitality. There is the gift of those who give or lend a book to a friend, showing them a human landscape, in which the book talks about themselves and enriches their friendship. And then there is the gift that a juror – a jury – offers the reader by choosing a story and a language of great quality. By suggesting and awarding a prize to a good book, you are helping to ensure that these gifts can circulate. Like a good teacher or like what happens in a choir, you help enrich the conversation.

Roberto Piumini
President of the Selection Jury of the Premio Campiello Junior

Roberto Piumini is joined by the winner of the first edition of the Prize, Antonella Sbuelz, and members of the Campiello Junior Selection Jury to nominate the finalists. Addressing the young jurors directly, they have wished to convey some messages concerning the importance of reading and of sharing this experience with their peers. You can listen to the messages in full in the “Gallery” section.

This year the Pirelli Foundation will once again be present at Bookcity Milano, the event promoted by the City of Milan and by the Associazione BookCity Milano, with the aim of putting books and readers in the spotlight in a series of events around the city

In particular, on Saturday 19 November 2022 at 6.30 p.m., the Pirelli Foundation and the Fondazione Corriere della Sera are putting on a meeting entitled “Una storia al futuro. Racconti d’impresa tra ricerca, innovazione e cultura” (“Thinking Ahead: Business Stories in Research, Innovation, and Culture”). The conversation between Antonio Calabrò, Ernesto Ferrero and Piergaetano Marchetti will take its cue from the book Thinking Ahead. Pirelli: 150 Years of Industry, Innovation and Culture, edited by the Pirelli Foundation and published by Marsilio, accompanied by a reading of excerpts from the volume curated by Isabella Ragonese.

The book is a collective account of the most important technological breakthroughs achieved by Pirelli and by great names in the field of research, from the founding of the company in 1872 through to the present day. It includes contributions from representatives of the institutions, including Maria Cristina Messa, the Minister of University and Research, and Ferruccio Resta and Guido Saracco, the rectors of the Politecnico Universities of Milan and Turin, as well as great Italian authors such as Ernesto Ferrero, Giuseppe Lupo, and Bruno Arpaia. There are also contributions from international authors such as Ian McEwan, Geoff Mulgan and David Weinberger, and from top names in the world of architecture, culture, music and journalism, such as Salvatore Accardo, Monica Maggioni, Renzo Piano, and Ermete Realacci. The volume is lavishly illustrated and includes documents from the company’s Historical Archive, together with a photographic reportage that examines the world of science and research in Pirelli, which is increasingly oriented towards innovative and sustainable raw materials and products.

It is a celebration of a century and a half of history, with an eye to the future.

To take part please register here.

A recently published study provides an accurate snapshot of the social economy, as well as outlining an unusual production culture

Social economy, that is, an economy more mindful of the needs of communities. A kind of economy that, for a long time, was viewed with suspicion, yet a significant and growing one, which needs to be properly understood so as to properly apply its values, as, here too, understanding reality is fundamental to avoid mistake and move forwards. This is why reading “L’economia sociale in Italia: dimensioni ed evoluzione” (“The social economy in Italy: dimensions and evolution”) is useful,
a recently published paper providing a summary of the main outcomes of the Euricse-ISTAT report on social economy published in 2021 and curated by Carlo Borzaga, Manlio Calzaroni, Eddi Fontanari and Massimo Lori, with the collaboration of Mauro Caramaschi, Carla Troccoli, Chiara Carini and Anna Berton: a research team that comprises members from the University of Trento, ISTAT and Euricse.

This research study offers an updated insight on the ongoing evolution of social economy in Italy, starting with the contextualisation of its definitions and fields of action. After expounding the statistical sources from which the data employed derives, the researchers first explore in depth the structure of social economy and its short-term evolution, then look at its meaning in terms of employment, before analysing the different sectors in which, nowadays, social economy takes different shapes. This is followed by the historical evolution of the whole system, as well as a number of further investigations related to welfare.

The research team, in its conclusion, explains that, “The most important aspect that data provides is the pervasiveness of social economy organisations in virtually all sectors of the Italian economic system and their significant contribution along the agro-food supply chain, in more labour-intensive activities and in general interest services.” Thus, the social economy is not just outlined as a particular kind of economy, but also as a new and significant expression of a corporate culture that has changed, is evolving, developing and continuously acquiring new meaning.

“L’economia sociale in Italia: dimensioni ed evoluzione” (“The social economy in Italy: dimensions and evolution”)

Carlo Borzaga (University of Trento – Euricse), Manlio Calzaroni (Statistician and Director of ISTAT census returns and statistical registers), Eddi Fontanari (Euricse), Massimo Lori (ISTAT)

Impresa sociale, 2/2022

The latest book curated by Aldo Bonomi outlines a new productive and territorial asset that defies current notions

Factories that are “no longer factories”, but production sites that seep into and pervade the territory, structuring its work and life. It is around this vision of reality that Oltre le mura dell’impresa. Vivere, abitare, lavorare nelle piattaforme territoriali (Beyond the company walls. Living, dwelling and working in territorial platforms) revolves, a book curated by Aldo Bonomi with the ambition to provide a much more accurate analysis of what is currently happening within industrialised societies.

The outcome of decades of research, analyses and considerations, this work is both a textbook and a collection of images that are actually more valuable than hundreds of pages full of figures.

It all begins with a hypothesis that is also a statement: factories have exploded on the territory, and the logic of industrialisation has spilled outside their walls. From here, a long journey to explore of the territory begins, undertaken by the Aaster Consortium (created and driven by Bonomi himself) – a journey reaching a kind of “deconstruction of Fordist work ethics” (i.e. those tied to traditional production organisations) and leading to the representation of new social configurations that make time for both work and life, positive spaces and different and new spheres of operation, as well as uncertainties and development opportunities.

The book centres on the analysis of what happened, and is still happening, in the north of Italy, taking into consideration not only decades of research but also a robust amount of data and studies – so much so that it could be taken as an “annual of territories”, those that in the north (and without forgetting about the south) constitute the strongest production hub in Italy.

After an extended chapter summarising the situation, written by Bonomi himself, readers can explore more in depth what is currently occurring in the “quattro lombardie” (four identified areas that make up the Lombardy region), in the north-east and its “molecular polycentrism”, in the Emilia-Romagna region with its digital platforms, and in Turin, a former “company town”, as well as in all the various other metropolitan hubs, digital platforms and the small scattered communities of the north more in general.

Bonomi collects, in about 200 pages, a number of analyses and ideas, the latter adding even more value to a book written in a straightforward language that succeeds in explaining technical complexities, and thus presents us with a lively narration of the events.

This work is a “radical and patient investigation on the ongoing evolution of territories”, writes Bonomi, who, further, asks himself many questions (such as what might happen to “community industriousness, which has become “intermediate capitalism”, in the future) yet does not claim to provide ready answers, only food for thought – such as, for instance, when discussing the implications of “urban industries” that “enhance four key spheres of social and human life: health, nature, living, knowing”.

Oltre le mura dell’impresa is not a book that should be read in a hurry (though it is very readable), but a work on which to slowly ponder – we might not agree with all it says, yet it is a must-read for all those who want to gain a better and deeper understanding of the evolution of the Italian social and productive system.

Oltre le mura dell’impresa. Vivere, abitare, lavorare nelle piattaforme territoriali (Beyond the company walls. Living, dwelling and working in territorial platforms)

Aldo Bonomi (curated by)

DeriveApprodi, 2021