INVITATION TO THE SEMINAR SERIES
THE HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF POLICY MAKING

The other side of well-being

presentation and discussion based on
Salvatore Romeo, The other side of well-being.
An environmental history of contemporary Italy (1950-1979)
(Carocci editore, Rome 2024)

November 13, 2025 – 4:30 p.m.

CNR-ISMed
Humanities Centre (6th floor)
Via Cardinale Guglielmo Sanfelice 8
Naples

REMOTE ACCESS
on the Teams platform

Poster

With the “economic miracle”, Italy became an industrial powerhouse and achieved unprecedented levels of prosperity, but the expansion of urban and industrial agglomerations and the simultaneous abandonment of inland areas profoundly altered the environmental balance. The absence or ineffectiveness of environmental protection regulations and institutions contributed to pollution and land consumption. At the same time, a new awareness emerged, shared by scientists and technicians, newspapers and local institutions, associations and political forces.

Examining many unpublished sources and a vast amount of literature, Salvatore Romeo analyses how Italian society discovered the other side of prosperity, namely the destructive impact of development on natural cycles, and tried to address its causes and consequences. What emerges is how the environmental issue catalysed many of the tensions that were shaking Italy at the time.

THE SPEAKER. Salvatore Romeo conducts research in the field of contemporary history. He mainly deals with environmental history and the history of urban and industrial areas. He is the author of «L’acciaio in fumo. L’Ilva di Taranto dal 1945 ad oggi» (Donzelli, 2019), winner of the ANCI-Storia 2020 award.

PROGRAMME

SPEAKER

Salvatore Romeo
Independent researcher

DISCUSS WITH THE AUTHOR

Valerio Caruso
CNR-ISMed

Giovanni Ferrarese
CNR-ISMed

FINAL DISCUSSION

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Alessandro Agosta, Valerio Caruso, Gabriella Corona, Giovanni Ferrarese, Gabriella Rago (CNR-ISMed)

INFO AND CONTACTS
valerio.caruso@ismed.cnr.it
www.ismed.cnr.it
www.storiaambientale.it

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
The seminar is open to the public, subject to availability.
It is possible to participate remotely via the Teams platform