State, community, individual - Societal and Political Psychology ...

Mauro Sarrica
The brigands and the nuclear waste deposit
power relationships, and the nature of issues at
stake with group history and may transform a
new confl ict into an episode of a silent, longstanding,
intractable confl ict.
Aims of the Research
The research aims to explore what frames were
elaborated by people involved in Scanzano’s
environmental confl ict. Moreover the study
aims to monitor articulation and amplifi cation
of frames and to see if they can be interpreted
in the light of framing tasks and cultural
resonance. Finally the research explores
if Scanzano’s environmental confl ict showed
the features that are typical of longstanding intractable
confl icts even if its ‘factual’ duration
seems shorter.
Method
Background information
Following the referendum held in 1987 Italy
shut down its nuclear reactors. Despite that
popular vote, in 2010 the government stated
the construction of new nuclear plants -Decree
In this context, on 13th November 2003 (Decree
314), the government announced the
building of a national geological storage site
in the area of Scanzano Jonico (about 7.000
inhabitants) in the Basilicata region (about
600.000 inhabitants) -also known as Lucania
by the ancient natives- in Southern Italy. The
management of the project was given to the
SOGIN, a public-sector company formed to
manage the decommissioning of Italy’s nuclear
power plants. The president of SOGIN was Re-
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31/2010, however, a new referendum in 2011
stopped again the government plans. Currently,
nuclear materials are stored in 150 sites spread
across Italy.
Attitudes toward nuclear power, in 2002,
were more negative in Italy than in the majority
of EU countries, with the lowest levels of
trust in government as source of information
about waste management (Table 1). A survey
conducted in 2001 in Rotondella, a village near
Scanzano (17 km), where a nuclear research
centre was active (ITREC Trisaia), showed
negative attitudes towards “the nuclear” (80%
adverse) and nuclear waste (dangerous even if
correctly stored for the 43% of respondents),
and a strong opposition to the hypothesis of a
national nuclear waste deposit in the surroundings
(opposed by 95% of respondents). These
data were associated with relatively high levels
of knowledge on nuclear issues (52% was
correctly informed) and with frequent communication
on these issues: 71% declared to
talk about the research centre often or seldom
with relatives, and 76% with friends (Persiani,
2004).
tired General Carlo Jean.
Several scientists expressed reservations on
the choice of the site. Moreover, during previous
decades, public and private investments
had been made on tourism and organic farming
in the area. As a result, the Decree-Law
provoked the protest of the local population
and institutions, stakeholders, political parties,
trade unions, and a wide range of grassroots
associations; a 14-day-long occupation of the
site; a blockade of transport infrastructure fa-