The Fall of the Asbestos Branch.A Sociological Approach to Self-ban Strategy of Italian Railways: between Laws, Market Regulations and Judgments

The paper analyzes the management of asbestos at the Officine Grandi Riparazioni (Large Repair Shops; OGR) of the Italian Railways as a form of biopolitical domination. In particular, the authors examine the Italian State Railways Group’s governance framework in response to demands for healthier working conditions within the disastrous context of the Italian railway industry. Outsourcing thus has become a new method of public governance, which has anticipated the current management and privatization government of public goods and services. The Group’s managers engaged in outsourcing during a crucial moment of conflict between the labour movement and the political establishment, producing new forms of regulation of health policy in a still-open-ended struggle. In this scenario, the authors also analyze the role of the provisions of the law and the latest judgments in environmental disasters and deaths caused by asbestos.