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

Mauro Sarrica
The brigands and the nuclear waste deposit
frames (e.g. ingroup and outgroup attributes).
Nature and Nuclear
The nature is mainly framed by means of bucolic
images. According to this frame, land and
sea are described as a life source whose beauty
has been exalted by the careful work of men.
“Dear Northern friend, you live in the fog,
in the smog, etc. Here, instead, we have the
sun, the sea and fresh air.”
“…free to breathe the fresh air of the mountains,
of the sea breeze that inebriates Scanzano,
free to belong to this land.”
“I hope that Lucania will be known only
for the beauty of its landscapes and for the
genuine tastes of folks’ traditions.”
“Small communities like our have good relationships
with life and nature. We are different
from industrial and consumer society,
respect towards everyone and everything is
in our DNA.”
Contrasting this picture, the recent past has
been characterized by attacks on nature and by
soil exploitation. The nuclear waste deposit
is the act that will defi nitely ruin the environment.
“With the nuclear and the oil extraction, the
plan to turn this area into desert land and
to depopulate the Basilicata region becomes
clear.”
“4000 years long history, fresh produce
exported all around the world, one of the
cleanest see of the Mediterranean […] all
these makes our land perfect to host 80.000
m3 of nuclear bombs.”
Confl ict frames
What is this confl ict about? Two main themes
characterize the debate on the very fi rst day
and appear more relevant: material resources
and group survival.
Those who frame the situation as a confl
ict about material resources express concerns
about consequences for employment, tourism,
and agriculture. This frame is frequently proposed
at the beginning of the confl ict, then it
remains in the background.
“We want work and development and not
the death of the territory.”
“The deposit planned by the government
will hit the two economic sectors that are
rooted here …”
Those who endorse the survival frame depict
the confl ict as a struggle for survival of the
whole community. The use of metaphors, such
120
as “nuclear waste cemetery”, contributes to
foster this second frame:
“…this fi ght is based on sacred human life”
“It is the end for all of us. It will mark the
end also for our children tomorrow…The
elderly will die, the young will get sick. It is
the end of the world.”
“Our defence is in identity: Lucans who recognise
themselves and their right to survive.
It will be a diffi cult and hard battle.”
Power Relationships: illegitimacy and
distrust
Power relationships mainly refers to the interplay
between the state and the citizens,
between the politicians and the laypeople, between
the centre and the periphery of the nation.
The choice of Scanzano for the nuclear
waste deposit is interpreted as the consequence
of the lack of power that the Basilicata region
has in Italy, and as the will of the right wing
government to punish a small leftist region.
“Suddenly, all our hopes, efforts, cares are
nullifi ed by a wicked choice that has been
imposed from the top without any dialogue
with local communities.”
As in other EC, the distrust of the counterparts
has a pivotal role. A large number of messages
describe all the possible degrees of distrust toward
politicians.
“Disgust, disgust! I am disgusted by our
politicians and by what they do…”
Members of Parliament are somehow dehumanised
and presented as “half-men”, as men
without honour.
“Have Lucan Members of Parliament blood
in their veins?”
Others portray politicians as being attracted
only by power and their incompetence and
unreliability are presented as the causes of a
legitimate revolt:
“When reciprocal trust between authorities
and population disappears, people have the
right to rebel.”
Identity and characterization frames
From the beginning of the dispute, metaphors
referring to various historical periods, from the
Magna Graecia to the post war period, are used
to defi ne the ingroup and its relationships with
the outgroup, where the ingroup is represented
by Lucans and the outgroup is composed of
politicians and Northerners.
The outgroup is described as the sum of