Aporie dei beni comuni. Pratiche di governo del territorio e forme di gestione nel settore estrattivo: le cave in Campania

Aporias of commons. Territorial Practices and forms of management in extractive industry: the quarries in Campania
The renewed interest in the issue of the government of the commons, risen from the
debate on CPRs, has recently known an unusual spreading. However, if the debate
seems to run aground to the opposition ownership/management – public/private, the
indistinct use of the term risks to weaken its significance. Among the plurality of
theories and the emergence of experiences variously inspired to the idea of
commons, this paper focuses on one peculiar aspect of the territorial governance in
Italy: the case of quarries, with particular attention to the policy implemented by
Campania Region.
Quarries, although being common goods and public properties, assigned in
concession to private stakeholders, once exhausted, are returned to the collectivities.
This practice contributes to the depletion of the territory, increasing phenomena of
territorial injustice. In order to explore the relationship between legal forms and
territorialisation processes, the practices concerning the use of a non-renewable
resource, such as a quarry, reveals the contradictions inherent to the management of
a good substantially-excluded from collective use of such environmental resources.