"From Baron to Baron": reflections on environmental patronage in the Biellese mountains

Abstract

The arch of the Biellese Alps in Piedmont is enclosed by the “two noble sentinels” of Mount Barone to the east and the ridge of Mombarone to the west. This emic toponym, “between Baron and Baron,” also alludes to the aristocratic characterization of the industrial development in this area, which is the subject of this anthropological study dealing with the relationship between the textile industry and the mountain environment.
The contribution presented here provides an analysis of the connections between the symbolic capital of the “good name” (Solinas 2020) of entrepreneurial families and the activities promoted in the naturalistic sector, in particular through a case of ‘environmental patronage’ that allows us to trace the contradictions that constitute revealing elements of a salvage capitalism that that shows how “those with capital can overturn communities and ecologies” (Tsing 2015).