IL LAVORO ESTREMO NELLA FRANCIACORTA: OSSERVARE E CONTRASTARE UNA REALTÀ PERTURBANTE

The Franciacorta area (Brescia province), renowned for its viticulture and fine DOCG wines, has been the scene of episodes of extreme labor and ‘caporalato’, that is brokerage and exploitation activities carried out towards workers, often particularly vulnerable as foreigners without a regular residence permit or unemployed. It is not so rare that this happens in prosperous and vibrant areas, which are attractive for the tourism and the business world, and where a high level of quality of life is possible. The image with which these areas are promoted, is determined by marketing logics, which strongly condition the strategies that drive the urban and social policies, so these episodes are treated as exceptional situations, minimizing their importance. Nevertheless, these episodes are not only serious per se, but also indicate a lack of interest of residents and entrepreneurs in their own territory. In this paper, the territorial dimension of the extreme labor will be taken into account, verifying how some peculiarities of the Franciacorta area can be decisive in triggering its mechanisms. The local perspective allows testing the tools developed to oppose the phenomenon and contributes to build a fair description of the reality in which these tools are implemented; this is a necessary step in building politics really devoted to the general interest.