Indignation, Civic Virtue, and the Right of Resistance: Critical Geography and Antifascism in Italy

Abstract

Indignation, civic virtue and the right of resistance: critical geography and anti-fascism in ItalyThis paper addresses the ethical and scholarly relevance of notions such as anti-fascism and resistance for the field of critical and radical geographies, starting from a little-known case, that is the formation of early critical geographies in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing upon ideas of civic virtue and non-domination as red by radical and anarchist traditions, I analyse the recently-opened archives of Lucio Gambi (1920Gambi ( -2006, which contain unpublished correspondence revealing the fearless role that this critical historical geographer played in denouncing at the same time the outdated positivistic, conservative and descriptive legacies of Italian geography and the frightful prominence of former Fascist officials in that field.Addressing works of Gambi, of his friend and fellow of the 1943-45 antifascist Resistance, geographer Giuseppe Barbieri (1923Barbieri ( -2004 and of the collective Geografia Democratica (1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981), I argue for recognising the importance, for critical geographers, of fighting against authoritarianism by adopting values of civic virtue, standing proudly against academic opportunism and political conservatism within and outside campuses, past and present.

Reclaiming other geographical traditions: The hidden roots of Italian radical geography

“…However, the foundational role of GD in this respect is undisputed. GD has been regarded by its former protagonists (Coppola, 2007; Dematteis, 2021; Quaini, 2007), the few later scholars that attempted to sketch its history (Cavallo, 2007; Celata, 2021a, 2021b), and the even fewer that have occasionally written in English about it (dell'Agnese et al, 2021; Ferretti, 2022; Minca, 2005) as a ‘rupture experience’, a ‘revolutionary practice’, a crucial attempt to revive the dull and sterile landscape of the Italian geography of the period. Some of the most significant outputs and evolutions of the discipline in Italy in the last decades are indeed directly or indirectly the inheritance of GD (Minca, 2009).…”

“…Its leading figure was Lucio Gambi, at the time already an established scholar, and still considered as the ‘father’ for a younger generation of ‘rebels’. Gambi was ‘a classical product of the socialist and libertarian culture’ which, through the Partito d'Azione (Action Party), had a crucial role in anti‐fascist resistance (Ferretti, 2022, p. 1836). His fierce criticisms of the conservativism and socio‐political irrelevance of Italian geography—an exemplary title of this provocative stance is his Geografia regione depressa (Geography as a backward region) (Gambi, 1962/1973)—had led to his ‘splendid isolation’ from the disciplinary mainstream (dell'Agnese et al, 2021), as did his historicist approach to geography.…”

“…To put in conversation different critical and radical scholarships and acknowledging the value of their diversity is crucial for tackling the sense of disappointment expressed by many scholars who call for a more collective geographical imagination (Oswin, 2020), to decolonise geographical knowledge (Jazeel, 2016; Radcliffe, 2022; Sundberg, 2014), rediscover ‘other geographical traditions’ (Ferretti, 2019, 2022), and broaden the disciplinary history (Craggs & Neate, 2020). From this perspective, GD represents a peculiar but important ‘national tradition’ which almost every Italian geographer knows in general, but few in detail, and that is probably relatively unknown to any non‐Italian geographer.…”

Geographies of nationalism

“…Interrogating these boundaries is also important for understanding how nationalist imaginaries are shifting with the contemporary climate crisis, as all visions of environmental futures are rooted in context-dependent discourses that prominently include nationalism (Conversi, 2020b; Conversi and Friis Hau, 2021; Dalby, 2020; Koch, 2014, 2022, forthcoming; Ridanpää, 2022). Scholarship on the geographies of nationalism and the future (and the past/future binary) could thus join the growing body of research on “anticipatory politics” and the situated environmental imaginaries that they draw upon and inscribe (Anson, 2020; Barker, 2020; Cassegård and Thörn, 2018; DeBoom, 2021; Ferdoush and Väätänen 2022; Ferry, 2016; Granjou et al, 2017; Grove, 2021; Groves, 2017; Horn, 2018; Methmann and Rothe, 2012; Swyngedouw, 2010, 2013). But as this work shows, the temporal geographies that are invoked and imagined as relevant in discussions about climate change do not negate the relevance of a past/future divide, but rather politicize that boundary—often in a high-stakes manner, as it is called into negotiations of guilt and responsibility for addressing today's most pressing environmental challenges.…”

Geography and ethics II: Justification and the ethics of anti-oppression

“…Bruno and Faiver-Serna (2022) argue that addressing issues of anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity within Geography is key to climate ethics and justice. Ferretti (2022) calls for enhanced attention to antifascism and an emphasis on values of civic virtue (cf. Ince 2019).…”