S-regulation matters

The chapter briefly reports an investigation about s-regulation, a neologism introduced by the sociologist Donolo (2001), which refers to the ambiguous relation between the Italian society and the system of rules. In the south of Italy s-regulation matters because the combination of weak territorial control and inadequate regulations and laws by government, together with the deep-rooted presence of criminal organizations, facilitates exploitation, abuses and illicit businesses. Today s-regulation matters even more because the effects of informal/illegal/ criminal powers, increasingly widespread all over the Italian peninsula, are also triggering relevant socio-ecological vulnerability through the interplay between what we call the “Italian anomaly” and what we call the “waste metabolics”.