Abstract

This work retells Pozzuoli's history, in the Campi Flegrei area, in relation to the phenomenon of local bradyseism. It reconstructs actions and interpretations following three key-players on the territory: population, institutions, and experts. Main fonts are oral sources, archival documents and newspaper articles of that period. Rione Terra, a long-standing district of the town, was evacuated on 2 March 1970: citizens of Pozzuoli rediscover bradyseism, a slow lowering and uplifting of the ground due to the volcanic activity of Campi Flegrei caldera. In the 1980s, the community knew a second bradyseism crisis: to what extent the previous experience influences the population, the scientific community and the political one in the choice to be made? What role does memory play in shaping the practices of the actors involved?