Luca Savioli is a PhD candidate at Concordia University in Montreal, under the supervision of Steven High. Before joining Concordia, he obtained a double master’s degree in History at La Sapienza University of Rome and École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. In his master’s thesis he analyzed the attitudes and practices of migrant workers in the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) after World War II, in a historical period marked by the economic boom, increasing migration flows and the progressive transformation of French society.
His current work explores the political, cultural and environmental history of the industrial peripheries of Rome and Paris.
Project Statement:
Reinventing the Industrial City: The History of Industrialization and Deindustrialization in Italy’s Sacco Valley and the Western Suburbs of Paris 1950s-2020s
My thesis focuses on the late 20th century deindustrialization of Paris, France and Rome, Italy, with a specific focus on the Sacco Valley on the fringes of Rome and the north-western banlieues of Paris. The goal of my project is to study how the urban environment is affected by deindustrialization, while also examining the consequences of deindustrialization on the environment, identities and collective memories.
The rapid industrialization of the peripheries of metropolitan Paris and Rome in the 1950s is deeply linked to the exceptional nature of the development process, especially in a late industrializing country such as Italy. In a single generation, both areas underwent intense industrial growth followed by deindustrialization, with lasting effects on the urban landscape, the environment and collective memory.
The proposed comparative approach, putting Paris in relation to Rome, responds to recent calls to break out of the single locality study which remains the standard in deindustrialization studies and labour history more generally. The primary source-base for my project includes government and union archives in Italy and France as well as newspapers and other textual sources as well as records of past community-based research projects. By incorporating oral histories into a wider environmental and urban context, this work not only enriches the historical record but also challenges enduring assumptions about race, class, and place in post-industrial societies.
