“Watch your back when dealing with them”! Conspiracy tales among small entrepreneurs in Northern Italy

The growing popularity of conspiracy in different cultures has generated much interest among scholars. Different approaches to conceptualizing the topic have been proposed. The anthropological perspective is particularly suited to the socio-cultural study of conspiracy theories because it has always been interested in different forms of knowledge and discourse: subaltern, indigenous, counter-hegemonic. This chapter focus on business-related conspiracy theories among Italian small business owners in an industrial district of the Lombardy region where the author conducted his ethnographic research. Such unverifiable stories seemed to emerge out of uncertainty—business insecurity, increased exposure to risk—and expressed concerns regarding the tensions generated within the regime of flexible accumulation. They were a socially and culturally meaningful way of dealing with economic risks and moral concerns, and a vehicle to voice deep-rooted resentment of small entrepreneurs toward industrial firms. These stories ceased circulating when other concerns started to emerge, such as the shrinking of the labor force, which does not seem to be particularly lured by work in the artisan firms, and by the erosion of entrepreneurial skill among younger generations.