Centro/periferia? Una messa in discussione attraverso le leggi antiebraiche nella scuola fascista

Abstract

Over the last few decades, especially in the international arena, the categories of “centre” and “periphery” have undergone a profound rethinking in many disciplines: from economics in the globalised world to geography, from anthropology  to history. This process involved the spatial dimension, and above all the political one, which in turn posed the need to go beyond the narrative of a “centre” radiating a “periphery” and to define the two terms in the plural, emphasising their multidimensionality.
This essay starts off with the questions: is it possible to overcome these categories? Or are they still meaningful if rethought creatively? And how much are they actually used implicitly, often with new implications? Given an Italian historiographical context in which these categories largely persist, the article reflects on their validity drawing on a specific case study: the fascist school  and the racist laws of 1938.