This essay aims to analyze a peculiar and little-studied case study in the historiography dedicated to the state industrialization of southern Italy, which was promoted by Law No. 634 of 1957. The Agglomerato industriale di Gioia Tauro-Rosarno represents an interesting case of «industrialisation without industry», in which various phases of territorial planning and economic programming, which took place between the 1960s and 1980s, shaped a floodplain in a perimeter area characterised by empty spaces and uncertain uses.
The failure of the steel industry and then a coal-fired power plant to arrive was accompanied by the actual construction of a large port, which was finally used for transshipment in the 1990s.
In the background, there was a context of strong tensions between state institutions, state-owned enterprises, political parties, and local communities, which characterized the transition from the final stages of Fordist Keynesianism to the progressive dismantling of stateownedindustry and the industrialization programs of Southern Italy linked to the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno.