L’imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio
In September 2024, the acronym PFAS entered the European public debate. While presenting the report on the future of European competitiveness, Mario Draghi stated that PFAS are necessary for producing clean technologies, which are fundamental for the green and energy transitions. Italian and Europea...
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| Formaat: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Taal: | Italien |
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Teoria politica
2026
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| Online toegang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:tp_5113 |
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openedition |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:tp_5113 it https://journals.openedition.org/tp/5113 2026-05-04T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/1667h https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ L’imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio Teoria politica Rosenberg & Sellier info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1972-5477 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0394-1248 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/tp Martone, Vittorio Bechis, Eleonora Ecological Transition Environmental Violence Green Sacrifice Zones Sociotechnical Imaginaries Chemical Industry transizione ecologica violenza ambientale zone di sacrificio verde immaginari sociotecnici industria chimica In September 2024, the acronym PFAS entered the European public debate. While presenting the report on the future of European competitiveness, Mario Draghi stated that PFAS are necessary for producing clean technologies, which are fundamental for the green and energy transitions. Italian and European industrial associations also support this view. This line is also expressed by Italian and European industrial associations. Hydrogen is therefore the cornerstone of the “socio-technical imaginaries” that guide the green and energy transition, with the central role of technological innovation and expertise. This strategy is useful for discursively justifying the production of potentially harmful substances. PFAS are in fact considered “universal pollutants” whose health effects have long been known epidemiologically as Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (Edc), causing damage to the liver and thyroid, obesity, fertility problems and cancer. The issue we raise in this essay lies in the territorial concentration of harmfulness: the production of PFAS involves populations and territories already made vulnerable by the pre-existence of chemical hubs, thus exacerbating their “sacrificial” condition. This transition relegates old and new unwelcome production to populations and territories already subject to the toxic legacy of the chemical industry. Sacrifice is also defended here as an antidote to the threat of decommissioning and unemployment, thus relaunching the supposed choice between work and health in a green key. In this context, the energy transition is understood as indirect, structural and cultural environmental violence, causing degradation, devastation and a general deterioration of the material foundations of human and non-human life. Our essay presents the results of qualitative research carried out around the chemical plant of Spinetta Marengo, Alessandria, Piedmont, the only PFAS production site in Italy. We explored two aspects: the role of the chemical industry in the energy transition, lobbying and the power of expert knowledge in the discursive imposition of socio-technical scenarios. The effects of narrative violence on a territorial scale, the misrecognition of local knowledge and the asymmetries of power to discursively determine the acceptability of damage to the environment and health. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Italien |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
Ecological Transition Environmental Violence Green Sacrifice Zones Sociotechnical Imaginaries Chemical Industry transizione ecologica violenza ambientale zone di sacrificio verde immaginari sociotecnici industria chimica |
| spellingShingle |
Ecological Transition Environmental Violence Green Sacrifice Zones Sociotechnical Imaginaries Chemical Industry transizione ecologica violenza ambientale zone di sacrificio verde immaginari sociotecnici industria chimica Martone, Vittorio Bechis, Eleonora L’imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio |
| description |
In September 2024, the acronym PFAS entered the European public debate. While presenting the report on the future of European competitiveness, Mario Draghi stated that PFAS are necessary for producing clean technologies, which are fundamental for the green and energy transitions. Italian and European industrial associations also support this view. This line is also expressed by Italian and European industrial associations. Hydrogen is therefore the cornerstone of the “socio-technical imaginaries” that guide the green and energy transition, with the central role of technological innovation and expertise. This strategy is useful for discursively justifying the production of potentially harmful substances. PFAS are in fact considered “universal pollutants” whose health effects have long been known epidemiologically as Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (Edc), causing damage to the liver and thyroid, obesity, fertility problems and cancer. The issue we raise in this essay lies in the territorial concentration of harmfulness: the production of PFAS involves populations and territories already made vulnerable by the pre-existence of chemical hubs, thus exacerbating their “sacrificial” condition. This transition relegates old and new unwelcome production to populations and territories already subject to the toxic legacy of the chemical industry. Sacrifice is also defended here as an antidote to the threat of decommissioning and unemployment, thus relaunching the supposed choice between work and health in a green key. In this context, the energy transition is understood as indirect, structural and cultural environmental violence, causing degradation, devastation and a general deterioration of the material foundations of human and non-human life. Our essay presents the results of qualitative research carried out around the chemical plant of Spinetta Marengo, Alessandria, Piedmont, the only PFAS production site in Italy. We explored two aspects: the role of the chemical industry in the energy transition, lobbying and the power of expert knowledge in the discursive imposition of socio-technical scenarios. The effects of narrative violence on a territorial scale, the misrecognition of local knowledge and the asymmetries of power to discursively determine the acceptability of damage to the environment and health. |
| author |
Martone, Vittorio Bechis, Eleonora |
| author_facet |
Martone, Vittorio Bechis, Eleonora |
| author_sort |
Martone, Vittorio |
| title |
L’imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio |
| title_short |
L’imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio |
| title_full |
L’imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio |
| title_fullStr |
L’imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio |
| title_full_unstemmed |
L’imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio |
| title_sort |
l’imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio |
| publisher |
Teoria politica |
| publishDate |
2026 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/tp |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/tp/5113 |
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1877291713675919360 |