Kinship networks and familial practices in an industrial Italian districts area

Ester Rizzi, Università Cattolica di Milano
Giuseppe A. Micheli, Università Cattolica, Milan

Central-Northern Italy is the region of industrial districts. The latter term outlines a territorial industrial unit as an interlocking system of both productive and human relationships, particularly parental ones. Central-Northern Italy is also indicated as the core of the stem family. This is characterized by strong familial ties and, according to common opinion, it is founded upon two coordinates: the degree of patrilocalism in the residence at marriage; the rule of inheritance according to which “designeted heirs inherited the bulk of family property on the conditions they would continue to coreside” (Reher, 1998). In this study we wonder how succession and localism have been reformulated in the stem-family. We analyse 100 structured interviews to entrepreneurs of a northern Italian district to ascertain the typology of networks kin ties in enterprises and the way succession and choices on location of houses are carried out.