Crisis of production and crisis of reproduction: The disappearance of woodcarvers in the furniture-making district of the brianza, lombardy

This contribution explores some critical issues arising from the production of made-to-measure classic and luxury forniture located in Brianza (central Lombardy), an industrial district in which a decreasing number of small firms and highly skilled artisans manufacture refined objects for international elites all over the world. This furniture making district had become one of the most important source of jobs in this region since the second world war. However, it is facing an irreversible crisis due mainly to its inability of reproducing and transferring skill and immaterial knowledge across the generations. Ironically, this is happening even as the international demand for this commodity is increasing among the so-called richest one percent of the population, especially the new elites emerging from Eastern Europe. The desappearence of the young trainees and the aging of the master artisans are causing a chain reaction not only on the whole reproduction system of knowledge, but also on the high quality standard of production. The case of the Brianza shows that the decline of the Italian manufacturing system is not simply the result of the long economic crisis, but incorporates economically relavant cultural elements.