L’economia di un borgo alpino: Polaggia di Berbenno

The chapter is dedicated to the analysis of economic development of Berbenno, a town in Valtellina, and its main village district of Polaggia. The suggested methodological perspective leads us to concentrate on the identification of the structure and on the analysis of the urban centre’s structural dynamics. Firstly, we ought to start from demographic and economic performance variables. On commenting the outcome we have also considered the economic development trajectories we came across in urban centres around Berbenno and where its citizens express their own relational system. What we found was a conspicuous caesura between territorial elements in proximity of the town and life within the hamlet. This caesura can duly be ascribed to the hamlet of Polaggia losing its former lustre.