Normalising the ‘alter-Europe’ or going beyond this Europe? Italian environmental movements’ perspectives on Europe, democracy and the ecological crisis

Abstract

Based on 19 interviews with key activists, the paper discusses different visions of Europe and democracy within the Italian environmental archipelago. A clear dichotomy has emerged. On the one hand, institutional ENGOs conduct lobbying activities, adapting to different multilevel political opportunities: their attempt is to reform the current structure of the EU, which also contributes to institutionalise the innovative perspectives of 'another Europe' advanced by the Global Justice Movement in the early 2000s. On the other hand, grassroots groups suggest going 'beyond this Europe', as they are critical of its current geographical borders and political institutions. They normally do so by adopting contentious actions in a domestic dimension. Furthermore, two divergent democratic paradigms can be identified. I propose to call them ecological democracy and green democracy. The latter stands for a conception of the environmental issues as subordinated to, or at least unthinkable outside, the (Western) representative democracy and the gospel of economic growth. Ecological democracy involves a conception of democracy as effective only if based on ecological perspectives, within a vision which stigmatises capitalist economy and the institutions supporting it. These paradigms resonate with the interpretation of the current (ecological) critical juncture as the Anthropocene or as the Capitalocene.

(Water) bottles and (street) barricades: the politicisation of lifestyle-centred action in youth climate strike participation

“…The young activists participating in the FFF events broaden the picture by framing climate change in terms of the rights of children and young people, demanding long-term strategies for the root causes of global warming to be addressed (Zabern and Tulloch 2021, 26-27). The emergence of young people as agents of transformation in the global climate change arena poses the question of their inclusion in climate change governance and policy making (Han and Ahn 2020) and, more broadly, of the building of an ecological democracy (Dryzek 2013;Bertuzzi 2020). Meanwhile, in addition to Greta Thunberg herself, several FFF activists have entered into direct dialogue with politicians, while some have run for political office, as seen in the German parliamentary election in September 2021, all of which has pushed the FFF movement into a debate on its relationship with party politics.…”

“…Conversely, studies on struggles against Locally Unwanted Land Use (LULU) have highlighted the adoption of highly contentious forms of action, promoting a sort of SMO (Social Movement Organisation)-isation of environmental mobilisations (della Porta et al 2019). Within this process, grassroots actors have often shifted the scale of their claims, bridging local issues with social, economic and political issues (della Porta and Piazza 2007), and attempting to prefigure different forms of democracy (Bertuzzi 2020). At an international level, NGOs from the Global North began to engage more with groups from the Global South, leading the so called 'environmentalism of the poor' to become more visible through the spread of information about the negative effects of large dams, chemical pollution, pesticides, and other such activities (Martinez-Alier 2014).…”

Grassroots European Solidarity

“…Previous studies have analysed how social movements refer to European issues and targets Caiani 2007, 2009), and how their visions of Europe changed after the financial crisis (see for instance the special issue edited by della Porta, 2020). For what concerns the Italian case, previous literature has considered the visions stemming from self-managed spaces (Milan 2020), environmental movements (Bertuzzi 2020), and feminist groups (Chironi 2020), while solidarity movements have not been explored to date. This article advances the research on the visions of Europe by contributing with an analysis of the perspectives elaborated from below by grassroots solidarity actors, whose visions so far have not been investigated.…”