Identity, Traditions and Lack of Environmental Behaviour

Place memories (traditions), transmitted through art and the stories of a community, are key elements for the construction of individual and collective identity, connected to specific places. In this regard the authors examined how the representation of traditions affects place identity and in what ways the cultural heritage of the town might influence environmental forms of behaviour such as plans and projects. To this end the authors investigated the small town of Pagani in southern Italy, which has many ancient cultural traditions linked to specific locations and their rituals such as the festival of Our Lady of the Hens. Our contribution favours a qualitative approach in examining the data gathered and a participative methodology. The statistical analysis of the vocabulary distribution within 83 texts concerning town and its traditions, written by local citizens (52% male and 48% female) of different ages (range: 18-78) revealed a strong place identity. Narrative interviews (14) with key people were then analysed by means of grounded theory.