Valle di Soffumbergo. Il contributo della sociologia visuale allo studio del paesaggio

Points of view: Visual Sociology and landscape. This empirical research focuses on social, economic and cultural changes that took place in the last fifty years in Valle di Soffumbergo. In this little village in northeast of Italy I analyze how these modifications reflect in visual signs, landscape, buildings, interior decoration and material culture. The method used in this research is a combination of photographic fieldwork, rephotography, and interviews with photo elicitation. Photography allows to find out the changes thanks to a time comparison. The economic decay, the emigration and the displacement of original residents reflect itself in the landscape and in the houses. Visual Sociology employ images and other visual displays to analyze also society and culture by the elicitation of meanings and values connected to visual data. In this way we can better understand the division between the local and the global, the agricultural and the postindustrial society, the original residents and the newcomers. Tourism can be an important force for developing this disadvantaged area, but tourism strategies must be sensitive to sustaining a community's character and traditions. Visual sociology helps in understanding the different points of view about landscape and identity