Living industrial heritage in a persistent company town.

In recent decades, industrial heritage has gained notoriety among the richness of heritage narratives. However, its promotion is primarily done by the production entities and business archives, and less attention is given to the significant contribution of citizens in constructing a territorial identity. To gain a deeper understanding of the continuous process of industrialisation-related memories and the significance of everyday life for working communities, it is crucial to examine the context of company towns. This city model was relevant in Northern Italy, where favourable social, historical, and economic conditions led to the emergence of various towns that serve as excellent examples of the interdependence between industrialisation and local culture, as in the cases of Metanopoli, Ivrea or Crespi D’Adda. Although less documented, the city of Dalmine (province of Bergamo) represents another relevant case of the Italian company town. For instance, while most Italian company towns suffered a decline and the consequent cessation of activities in the second half of the twentieth century, at Dalmine, the company is still active today. There, the company’s business archives emerge as a place of dialogue integrating historical documentation with the active memory of the community through collaborative and intergenerational projects and initiatives that promote the town's history, which is, in part, the history of the industry itself. Dalmine chronicles a microhistory of how the modern western project was engaged to control, protect, manage, and emancipate life and how company towns are a valuable archetype to shed light on these questioned spaces' narratives.