Parish Maps

Piemonte and ecomuseums

The principles of Parish Map-making and local distinctiveness are universal. Common Ground has encouraged their spread in a variety of countries. Italy has been active, especially the Piemonte region in the north-west, thanks to the work of Maurizio Maggi and Donatella Murtas of the Piemonte Institute for Socio-Economic Research (IRES). A poster-sized ABC was printed in 2000 (see extract above, right), followed by the initiation of Parish Map projects in the Stura Valley. By January 2004, four maps were in progress, and more were expected to join them.

Maggi and Murtas have chronicled this work in a new book 'Genius Loci - Perché, quando e come realizzare une mappa di comunità' (why, when and how to make a community map) published in 2006, which includes translated reprints of two essays by Sue Clifford of Common Ground: Places, People and Parish Maps (from 'from place to PLACE'), and For Looking At or Living In? Local Distinctiveness from the Inside Out, written originally for the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in 2001.

Maggi believes strongly that "bottom-up approaches have been more effective than traditional policies in consolidating the idea of Heritage" and one method of achieving this, which has been spreading across Europe from the 1970s, is the Ecomuseum. An ecomuseum is dedicated to local identity and exists through the participation of local people and their personal enthusiasm for protecting their 'heritage'.

"an Ecomuseum is a dynamic way in which communities preserve, interpret, and manage their heritage for a sustainable development. An Ecomuseum is based on a community agreement."
(Declaration of Intent of the Long Net Workshop, Trento (It), May 2004

The Ecomuseums (and similarly motivated groups) involved in the 'Genius Loci' study are:

Ecomuseo della Pastorizia
Ecomuseo delle Miniere e della Val Germanasca
Ecomuseo del Casentino
Ecomuseo Valle Elvo e Serra
Ecomuseo del Vanoi
Ecomuseo del Paesaggio Orvietano
Comune di Chiomonte

For more about ecomuseums and the work of the IRES, visit the following websites:

Outlook on Ecomuseums
Istituto di Ricerche Economico-Sociali del Piemonte (Italian language only)

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