Contested landscape transitions: Ruins? Repair? Re-membering? In late-industrial southern Italy

This introduction examines the debates on late industrialism and the processes of ruination in light of the historical and social transformations that have been shaping Southern Italy. Through the lens of cultural anthropology, it highlights the enduring impact of state-led industrialization on the region, drawing critical attention to the co-existence of conditions of abandonment, uncertainty, and disillusionment of environmental degradation, as well as the renewed meanings of territories and the imaginaries of possible futures. The articles in this special issue are grounded in ethnographic research in Sardinia, Sicily, and Apulia - territories where weakened industry is contradictorily intertwined with new development narratives. The authors examine the practices, narratives, sentiments and moral ambivalences that shape these territories and their stories, shedding light on how concrete groups of people make meaning of modern ruins and live in and with ruined spaces.