La linea dell'inchiesta e le campagne in Giovanni Mottura

This essay examines the theory and practice of social inquiry, particularly as carried out by Giovanni Mottura, focusing on his original agrarian and southern-oriented approach. It considers the sociologist’s work in “Quaderni rossi”, “Quaderni piacentini”, and at the Center for Agricultural Economics in Portici. The preparatory work and findings of his investigations are reconstructed in light of theoretical references to the Marxist and sociological traditions, particularly the concepts of proletarianization and the integration of underdevelopment; furthermore, based on his notebooks, the network of collaborators that the scholar had built to discuss the “Agrarian Question” and for the issue of “Quaderni rossi” devoted to agriculture.