La storia dell'ambiente come storia applicata: dinamiche dell'abbandono e della patrimonializzazione

[Machine translation] The essay discusses the applied perspectives of environmental history, starting from some historiographical references that concern the history of the discipline and the way in which it has been successful or not in recent decades, in the historiographic discussion as well as in the common historical sense — in the face of the enormous importance assumed by the debate on the environmental crisis and climate change. Starting then from the analysis of some case studies related to northwestern Italy, it questions how and by whom the dynamics of the environment are addressed - thus deepening the interdisciplinary implications of the practice of environmental history -, and then thinking about how these historical operations are functional or not to the management and conservation policies applied today. Particular attention is paid to the categories of abandonment and to patrimonialization policies, with regard to the role that history and historians can potentially assume. The essay therefore addresses issues that have emerged in their importance in recent years, aspiring to compare in an original way the specificity of environmental history with the discussion on the applied perspectives that historical research could claim (and that are often not recognized).