Rural Land Historical Memory

The project Rural Land Historical Memory : the reflection of the traditional agricultural world in place-names and in the Tuscan rural crafts" is closely co-ordinated with the Department of Historical and Geographical Studies of the University of Florence. The Institute has taken special care in reviewing the part on cultural geography and geography. We believe that the project could be of great use in recovering the historical memory of the Tuscan countryside in which ARSIA operates in its support of local development projects. This project will help to underline rural development as a "partecipated and aggregating" process, which starts from reality and the local people sensibility, in areas where agriculture is important not just as an economic factor, but especially for its historical and cultural value.

  If we admit that only an "aggregating" projectual skill is able to stimulate synergies and interactions by balancing a comprehensive and sustainable plan, and that everyone plays his own part (farmers produce typicalities, craftsmen manufacture and emphasize the typicalization, while receptiveness and gastronomy spread and "sell") then it is the culture that recuperates and transmits the memory of the arts and crafts. There are two projects which support the plan and both are part of ARSIA's intent to set up a database on agricultural activities and of the countryside, as well as on ethnographical and cultural elements.

As this an innovative approach ARSIA needs the direction and co-operation of those who deal with research work within the field of cultural and historical geography. Therefore such information will be collected and methodologically organized by the Department of Historical and Geographical Studies of the University of Florence.

ARSIA