Social relations in critical times. Comparative study of industrialisation in Malta and the Italian North-East following the crises of the 1970s

Abstract

Comparative analysis: During the latter decades of the twentieth century, Malta and Italy’s northeast (NE) experienced industrial manufacturing growth based on exports; in the former it was propped by foreign multinationals and in the NE it was mainly the work of local industrial districts (IDs). A comparative analysis of social reproduction processes related to such development in the two territories indicates that in spite of shared economic goals, and commonalities including their peripheral status and late development, the trajectory of industrialisation and the concrete realities that emerged from these industrial processes were different. In order to explain this, the comparison will be based on economic, political and cultural social relations linked to export-manufacturing industry with a focus on social classes and sectors, and the role of the state. This, it is argued, not only promises to shed light on the comparison of the two territories but also on the individual territory.