Un'altra città è possibile. Il futuro delle città come progetto collettivo
Friday November 19th
In this speech I will focus on two currents of thought: the first one is the dimension of knowledge and of learning within the framework of “lifelong learning society”, and the second is how this perspective is linked to the key issue of this conference, i.e. the city, the “educating city”.
I’d like to propose an in-depth analysis of data that we are all familiar with: a growing number of people in the world live in an urban context, actually in large cities, in megacities. And today for everybody, especially for those who are part of the urbanised world, it is not possible to survive without bringing up-to-date and reconsidering what they already know (or what they think they know): without continual learning.
The interpretation I discuss in the first part of my speech can be summed up as follows: I am interested in the paths through which our “reflexive modernity”, as Anthony Giddens has defined it, is constructed, or rather, to put it in other words that I prefer, in the scenario of a lifelong learning society. These terms are commonly used in sociological theory, and I will try to adequately define and explain them in depth.
Also in the current debate on the building of Europe, we find expressions that I regard as relevant: Europe is called the society of knowledge.
I will, therefore, refer to both theoretical reflections of social sciences and to some documents which in the last few years have been of considerable importance in the European Union’s agenda. Indeed, along this path, scientific contributions and political proposals cross, suggesting a parallel interpretation for consideration, and in fact, for an in-depth analysis.
As early as the nineties, the dimension of knowledge was treated as central to the process of creation of the new Europe. Initially, the focus was on the competitive skills of the economic and production sector. There was a commitment to the promotion of innovation and to the upgrading of the labour force qualification, through policies of vocational training and lifelong learning.
Today the goal of lifelong learning is referred to as a “public asset” (Gorz): topical with regard to the values of justice and democracy of Europe’s project.
It is further stated that it is essential “to bring the dimension of learning to all levels”, considering all components within the whole system: public institutions, companies, organisations of all kinds, the public as well as the private sector, and civil society.
The 1995 White Book and the Lisbon Council in 2000 are two frequently mentioned major events, and 1996 was the European year of lifelong learning.
Projects and operational experiences marked the whole path that followed, in particular, the “Bologna Declaration” (2000) and the five-year Action Plan 2000-2006.
As to social sciences, in the last few years innovative concepts have been introduced: “second modernity” is characterised by processes of “reflexive accumulation”, that is, by practices of continuous questioning, reappraisal, updating of our knowledge. The authors I am referring to are mainly Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck.
As far as I am concerned, I underline the dimension of daily life: “competent at the complexity of daily existence”, that is my way of describing the social actors. Ours is a society in which we keep learning in our daily existence in the span of life. Not only are we receptive, but we are also capable of doing it. And this pertains not only to work, but also to the skills that daily life requires. Learning something new, in the sense of comprehending (as suggested by the etymological origin of the word), i.e. grasping something to make it one’s own. I believe one could say that this is something nearly everyone experiences in the society we live in.
We learn, and this needs to be underlined, in a multiplicity of contexts, firstly at work, but not only there: the non-working activities, those related to well-being and health, the participation in civil society’s initiatives. We learn for the fact itself of being part of the “globalisation” experience, of experimenting ourselves as “nomads”, of finding our way in the complexities of urban life. And it is not just small groups, and specific social categories that are involved. We are all involved, within the different contexts, in many ways, which are sometimes even utterly different.
Life conditions and trends of change lead to the majority of people being faced with experiences that are unparalleled in relation to the past. In our “technology-intensive” world we continuously find ourselves forced to learn: how to handle devices and procedures which are only recent; change as a result of organisational and operational forms of complex systems; familiarise with systems of relations and contexts variously marked by the data of new technologies; decipher codes and languages. A high number of people move: these are tourists, commuters; people travel for work; we are “clandestine”. In leisure time: children and young people (as well as adults) play and learn, as it has always been the case, however, learning takes place according to the ways and pace of a computerized society rapidly transforming itself.
Therefore, the emphasis is on learning, especially as an adult, not as a privilege for only a few (as it has always been in the past) but as a fundamental component of life, for everyone: an extraordinary transformation of scenario, highly significant also from a symbolic standpoint.
Of course, it is necessary to steer away from simplifying interpretations. We are part of the series of changes deriving from modern life in very different ways and with extremely different results. Therefore, it is obvious that the conditions that favour learning (or that exert pressure to learn) do not have the same implications and the same meaning for all.
One does not always necessarily learn. Moreover, as Levitt and March say, “learning does not necessarily turn into intelligent behaviours”, i.e. it does not equal to acquiring critical information skills, being able to forestalling the future, or acting in a rational way.
And this is an experience which does not necessarily always translate into something that can be easily accepted by everyone. Many happen to be disorientated, anguished, or even unable to bear this aspect of life. Thus certainties are looked for, people turn to the values of the past, an all-absorbing sense of belonging is recreated: the desire to put in someone else’s hands not only the most important choices, but also those related to daily life, is often reflected in new-community practices and in expressions of fundamentalism.
However, there is something else. Living in this way entails a commitment to behaviours described through expressions such as: project planning in progress, redefinition of self, continuous learning. This requires the pooling of experiences and know-how, as well as being ready to question, to put everything in the right perspective, and to start again from scratch.
Clearly, the issue of learning does not mean orderly “accumulating” notions and information, something which takes place in some stages of life, in particular, and in ad-hoc institutions, in line with a traditional idea of education and of educating processes. It is a non-systematic, non-linear way of proceeding which cannot be planned.
As early as the 60s Jerome Bruner talked about knowledge and learning as “multi-dimensional processes”. Other terms used are also “practical knowledge”, “interactive learning”. Gregory Bateson suggested that one needs to “learn how to learn”.
We cope with the burden of self-accounting, as Jerome Bruner puts it, and with what we gradually remove, forget, select in the course of life. According to Zygmunt Bauman, we are occupied in elaborating a “sort of permanent commentary of our experiences”.
Concepts such as “learning tracks”, “composite educational biographies”, “biographical learning”, “reflexive paths” well correspond, I believe, to our daily experiences. They shed light on ways to create skills, dynamic processes, and personal strategies. The social actors are precisely directors and protagonists of their own learning: they are constantly engaged in their own orientation and re-orientation.
This is how Giddens describes our lives:
“…We constantly have to deal with data that question what we know and that request of us that we acquire, at the same time, knowledge and skills…” “We can never be certain that we will never have to question one aspect or another of what we know…”
“Our social practices must constantly be reviewed, and modified, in light of new information that we get, and that indeed refer to the same practices”.
I believe that by adopting a gender perspective, the “neutral” concept of lifelong learning, which is absolutely a prevailing and shared one, becomes more precise and higher in value. Mary Catherine Bateson, a researcher sensitive to women’s specific ways of living in our society, described, from this perspective, women of her generation who found themselves having to “start all over again many times” in the course of their life. We experience changes, breaks and discontinuities, thus we have to “arrange and rearrange our lives”. We often proceed necessarily by improvising: to “improvise”, i.e. to define a situation and to give appropriate answers, therefore a rapid process of learning, is an inevitable practice.
Let’s focus our attention on the way of life of adult women. A good “quality of life”, which is a shared objective in our culture and a task precisely and mainly pertaining to women, requires the on-going learning in carrying out basically any activity, i.e. taking care of one’s own and other’s health (being able to understand diagnoses and therapies, as well as pharmaceuticals and options available); organising “in an intelligent way” home and holidays, children’s studies and the needs of the elderly; wondering what problems might arise from what one eats, and from the air one breathes; coping with the multiple and complicated relations with the various forms of public and private bureaucracy. And as a woman, one needs to be eager (and able) to communicate and interact, in contexts and according to rules that constantly change, in the health sector, in the relationship with public and private services, and in relation to the various stages of life that one goes through as well as others, and especially ageing. On the other hand, these are not isolated and solitary practices, but they can also be found in public contexts, in networking (even on the internet, of course) as well as participatory activities. Women form the majority of those involved in social movements and in initiatives of voluntary work and in associations.
Quite enlightening is looking at adult women experiencing transnational migrations. In this regard, it would be obviously wrong to only talk about women, however, we know that the number of women has been increasing and today forms half of mobility flows (further clarifications would be necessary, on the basis of migration routes and of the different origins and groups of belonging).
Many studies have highlighted how in situations of integration, women are the ones to be in charge of making contacts with social work services, schools, the health system, i.e. they act as intermediaries between the needs and problems of their family members, and often also of other people within the “diaspora-like” community they are part of, and the institutions and culture of the country where they landed. If, on the one hand, men are stuck in their work situation for most of the time, women on the other hand, have to learn to live the multiple aspects of the city.
And those –many, as we know- who carry out home as well as caring duties (looking after the elderly, children, the sick) look for comparison at the numerous habits and practices with which they have to become familiar, i.e. from learning the language to the food habits, daily behaviours, medical recommendations, overcoming emergencies.
These descriptions, which are only general, undoubtedly appear to be particularly relevant if referred to urban contexts. Once again, I am going to use a remark taken from Anthony Giddens, who underlines that what he describes as modern society refers to “those who live in the central geographical areas of modernity”. At this point, I believe, few examples are enough to show how the specific conditions of the way of life in urban contexts are significant for the reflection carried out up to now.
We know that unstoppable processes of mobility and migration contribute to the increase of the urban population. “Global cities” are the main destination of mobility flows. It is forecast (United Nations Development Programme) that in 2025, two thirds of the world population will live in urban areas and that in 2015 there will be 33 urban concentrations of more than eight million inhabitants. Tokyo, Bombay, Lagos, São Paulo, Mexico City will have between twenty and twenty-five million people and there will be more than five hundred cities with a population above one million.
There are many studies available that show the implications of such data for the environment, the changes of urban structures and practices by the people, for the emergence of new needs and new forms of poverty.
We also know that in urbanisation processes of such a pace and extent, especially in the case of those, who are many, arriving in the metropolis from other countries or other rural environments, the majority goes through heavy and hard integration paths.
“One searches, improvises, experiments”: this is how Tahar Ben Jelloun
describes these steps.
I would now like to focus on a particular context – as well as concept, which was proposed in a recent book (edited by Yuri Kazepov, Cities of Europe)- that of “European city”, i.e. the European city as a context with different features not only from those of the city in the “developing” areas, but also, and considerably, from those of other parts of the Western world, the United States in particular.
In this study, all observers insist on the historical characteristics of the creation of cities in Europe, and above all, on the public institutions and the particular “culture” that have settled, more or less deeply rooted, on the basis of the European experience of the welfare state.
The “European city”, variously described by authors, such as Saskia Sassen, Patrick Le Galès, Yuri Kazepov and others, with an emphasis on different aspects in various contexts, in the multiple and varied situations of those living in it, appears to be an environment which is favourable and where, at the same time, practices of lifelong learning are requested.
Examples can be found in several essays, however very different in terms of contexts, institutions and structures under examination. I am thinking of the work by Enrica Morlicchio on the conditions of survival for the poor population in Naples and in other cities of the Mediterranean regions; of how, in the Nordic countries, the organisation of a relatively new “role” is described, which, however, involves a considerable number of people nowadays, i.e. single people. And it is worth examining more in detail the descriptions of metropolises such as London and Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, which highlight, through the analysis of urban organisation patterns, housing and working conditions which are less segregated and discriminated than what is reported in American cities. It is therefore suggested that maybe there are more opportunities for relations and comparisons, and that the consequences of isolation and exclusion of migrants might be less irreversible.
However, it could be suggested that in such conditions, for many, if not for all, these are contexts of “negotiation” or, vice-versa, marked by separation and discriminatory practices, where it is inevitable to create one’s own life “improvising”, adapting and learning. There is the dealing with a plurality of systems of meaning, as well as institutions and cultures that are “other” than one’s own background of experiences and knowledge. Routine is what there isn’t: in these processes the burden of unequal “cultural capitals”, different opportunities or abilities to build networks and “diaspora-like communities” emerge, thus reflexive as well as continuous learning practices are crucial.
“Social virtues” of the urban way of life are also mentioned (Sennet); so as the “very broad field of experimentation developed by local players” (Le Galès), and the cities as “collective political actors” (Le Galès again) are mentioned, which have the ability to self-organise themselves and to express protest, encouragement or cooperation initiatives with other actors and levels of governance.
Clearly, it is not possible to consider, on this occasion, all questions that remain unresolved.
I will only mention some guidelines for further in-depth analysis.
Firstly, with regard to the possibility and ways of learning. Who, how, and what?
Inequalities characterising daily living conditions are an immediately visible fact. Different population groups, different generations, men and women have access to extremely unequal resources even in Western societies. The gap at global level is severe and on the rise.
There is a second question which is equally crucial: is it possible to think of a kind of learning which is critical, problematic, and independent, in a system where the predominance of mass media weighs so heavily, with their manipulating and levelling power?
We have to try and understand on what condition it is possible to find guidance – precisely in problematic and critical ways – in the presence of the uninterrupted flows of communication; what the implications might be of an omnipresent and all-powerful media system (which includes web-sites, on-line journals and magazines as well as forums, and of course advertising) whose rules are mainly, if not only, defined by market criteria.
Therefore in view of a lifelong learning society, it is fundamental to ask oneself whether and how a plurality of information sources is accepted and space is given to dissenting stances as well as to the voices of those who are "at the margins", or “outside”, and moreover, what the impact is of distortion and exclusion mechanisms.
One last direction for further in-depth study refers to the fact that we are more and more tragically exposed to emergencies, shattering and catastrophic events. An expression formulated many years ago by Edgar Morin, “the unexpected is always possible”, today marks our daily life.
In the last few years, the issue of what resources social players can make available and how they manage them, the paths and outcomes, as well as the types of strategies and techniques, has been debated more than in the past. Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Bauman, as well as Giddens in his recent work, have drawn the attention to how, in the current stage, anxiety, sense of fear, and the need for security are to be placed at the core of the analysis. Risk society”, “society of uncertainty”, “a world out of control” are the expressions which these authors have introduced in the debate.
Issues that are obviously crucial. It is about all of us.
[Abstract. The whole text is only available in Italian]
Natural parks as laboratories for socio-environmental responsibility: the experience of the Aspromonte National Park
Preliminary remarks
This paper presents my experience as head of the Aspromonte National Park from 2000 to 2004. These were eventful years during which the Aspromonte National Park experimented with different paths and was involved in various initiatives with a least common denominator: the park as laboratory for environmental, social and economic sustainability. In this sense, I believe that this experience, together with others being carried out in other natural parks, can be a useful point of reference for an educational strategy aimed at offering virtuous models of land management to new generations.
I have divided my speech into three parts. The first one analyses the role of public authorities in the management of the territory starting from two crucial coordinates: participation and innovation.
The second one illustrates some practical experiences in order to show the difficulties encountered when conflicting demands and needs have to be harmonised. Lastly, the third part deals with the “false emergencies” that afflict us and that could be resolved if, as we have proven in our experience, the conditions for the empowerment of social subjects were created.
1.1 Innovation and participation: the public entrepreneur
Since the collapse of the Berlin wall, everything concerning the management of goods and services by the state has fallen in disrepute, spreading in all directions. Therefore, both the Welfare State, portrayed as parasitical welfarism, and all the achievements in the field of protection of health, of the environment, and of the quality of life have come to a crisis. The same notion of programming and public plans in the management of resources is now suspiciously looked at.
The blow was so strong that, in order to survive, many European socialist parties have adopted neo-liberalist policies, promoting privatisation processes and the reduction of services provided by the Welfare State, in which nature is reduced to sheer factor of production and the environmental restrictions are skilfully disregarded, even after an environmental impact evaluation.
The countries of the South of the world, including those that had tried alternative paths of socialism with a human face, have been carried away by the wave of authoritarian neo-liberalism. In order to attract foreign investments and loans from the IMF, they have accepted measures aimed at drastically cutting back social expenditure and contributions to agriculture, reducing employees, liberalising profits and resulting in the relevant race for privatisation of natural resources, which were controlled in the past by institutions and/or state-owned enterprises.
This has only led to the strengthening among the public opinion of the idea that public or state-owned is synonymous with inefficiency, corruption, squandering and backwardness. By contrast, the private undertaking is now recognised as a catalyst for development, technological progress, and society’s modernisation.
This approach to the economic and political system is even more heavily present in the peripheral areas of the world. … It is indeed where the social needs are greater, where the environmental deterioration directly affecting local populations is stronger, that States and their systems are weak, inefficient and, generally, extremely corrupt. So, are there no alternatives to leaving society in the hands of the market, to reducing entire countries to “companies”, to waiting for the arrival of a global environmental disaster, in order for human societies to rebel?
In the traditional management of public institutions, even in countries with a sound administrative tradition and sense of the State, a growing alienation has prevailed, a growing gap between “the time” of the market and of new technologies related to it, and the “time” of politics and State administration. It is this challenge that we need to respond to.
Therefore, if we try to imagine another management of the “res publica”, another organisation of the territory where public institutions can play a leading role together with other social subjects, then we will find out that there is considerable scope for experimentation as well as big opportunities, at local level, in order to come out of the tunnel where we have been living so far.
In order to respond to the challenges of the capitalistic market and preserve spaces of real democracy, two key elements need to be combined: innovation and participation. The management of the territory cannot be, as it has been so far in many parts of the world, entrusted to a demotivated and inefficient bureaucracy. The times of the capitalistic market make the traditional bureaucratic management of territorial emergencies become obsolete also with the every day higher risk of making even politics out of date together with the forms and rituals of representative democracy. But, the capitalistic enterprise is hardly capable of giving tangible answers, in terms of effectiveness for users, in the management of public goods. From health to schools, from transport to the environment, there are numerous examples that could be used to show that public goods and services cannot be effectively managed by an organisation that tends to simply minimise costs and maximise profits. In such markets NPOs (Non-profit Organisations) would be more efficient, considering the Paretian objective to satisfy the largest number of users, resources being equal, both in relation to for-profit companies, which have all the interest in speculating on the ignorance of consumers, and in relation to the state apparatus which does not have the necessary flexibility to meet the needs of these users and which is characterised, in general, by a rigidity in costs unrelated to the quality and quantity of the services provided. This argument, supported by data and field research, has led to an expansion of the non-profit sector both in the wealthier regions and in the more peripheral areas of the world. This growth of the so-called “third sector” certainly has many positive aspects, but at the same time it also has some drawbacks that have been pointed out in the debate under way. In any case, the fact that the State hands over to the “third sector” the management of some services does not resolve the issue of the role of the public body in this historical stage, especially in those countries featuring high rates of social marginalisation, poverty, as well as of inefficient or non-existing services.
On the other hand, a simple mix of public and private sectors is not enough either to solve the most considerable social and environmental problems, especially in the peripheral areas that have limited public resources available. It is necessary to put once again the social forces into play, to combine the thrusts from below with the management of the political power which should be characterised by innovation and participation.
It is no accident that the world movement for the fight against such globalisation of poverty and environmental deterioration was held right in an area of Brazil where a new role in the management of public institutions at local level is being experimented. After three years of testing of the “participatory budget” methodology, there was not only a growth by almost 100% in people’s participation in the assemblies that decide on how, where, and for what needs to allocate public resources, but it was also possible to obtain significant results in the fight against marginalisation, social exclusion, petty crime, and environmental deterioration. However, what we regard as the most valuable aspect of this experience goes beyond these data. It is the ability to build a liveable society, to reduce the failures of the rampant social polarisation, to deploy and enhance all expressions of the organised civil society. In short, to be involved in society. This is the mission of the public entrepreneur, whether this is a mayor, or a district or regional representative. Being involved in society means making “social and cultural development” a top priority and considering economic growth as a tool. It means enhancing the networks of solidarity and social economy, it means giving priority to the needs of those who are last and of the most disadvantaged, of losers, as they define themselves based on market values. It means, innovating, both in terms of methods and processes, in the interventions in the territory, whereby the balance in the relationship city/countryside, central and peripheral areas is redressed, and the opportunities to live a worthy life are redistributed within space, and among social classes and generations. And it is also no accident that this strategy is combined with a particular attention to the environmental issues and especially with the question of land: land reform and social justice can be combined today only through the support of biological agriculture, the fight against GMOs, credit to small farmers, to farmers’ cooperatives, etc.
If this is the right path, the specific features of the Brazilian experience together with its historical and cultural roots should not be underestimated. … The participation in political choices that have an impact on the territory organisation needs a demand from below, an awareness of one’s own rights, a willingness to participate which is the contrary of the willingness to delegate that prevails, at this stage, both in the Western world and elsewhere. This does not mean that virtuous mechanisms cannot be triggered, even where consolidated cultural traditions are lacking, capable of combining innovation with participation, starting from the local specific features. Indeed, there are no models that can be generally applied, there are guiding ideas and common values, and above all, experiences to compare.
After all, mere participation is not enough if the public apparatus keeps being led in an inefficient and parasitical way, based on patronage. This is why it is necessary to accompany a people participation process with the multiplying experience of the modern figure of the public entrepreneur, that could be any mayor, any chairman of a district committee, of a province, etc. This is a figure who shares with the private entrepreneur, reminding of Shumpter, the charismatic feature of leadership and innovation ability, but distinguishes himself in terms of aims and objectives to be reached, i.e. not maximum profit, but rather, maximum welfare for the community he administers. His first skill consists in keeping the “difficult balance” between “innovation and participation”. If the innovations introduced, either within the administrative machine or in the territory, are too advanced or too elitist the risk is failing to reach the goal set. On the other hand, without “process-related” innovations (read: changes in the administrative and participatory machine of social subjects outside the bureaucratic system), and “product-related” innovations (read: economic, social and cultural actions in the territory), the political management of the territory turns into bureaucratic management.
Therefore, the alternative does not consist in a fruitless and ahistorical contrast between private enterprise and bureaucratic institutions, but rather, in re-launching the role of coordination and guidance of the public body, its innovative role, and its capacity to experiment within the social and cultural fields.
This is the way in which the following sections should be read, where we reckon with the Aspromonte Park land management, starting from some innovations that were introduced and some participation mechanisms that were triggered.
1.2 The difficult balance
The knowledge of nature’s cycles and signs, the search for balance, and sense of limit lay at the basis of co-existence of mountain people; they are the guidelines that, over thousands of years, have enabled men and women to live in harsh and unstable environments. However, sense of limit and search for balance are likewise values which should guide the political action in the management of the territory. It is particularly in the management of a Park that, unless increasingly advanced balances are looked for - between the demands from the social and economic forces, on the one hand, and the institutional obligations to protect and safeguard the environment, on the other - the risk is imploding among the cards of bureaucracy and the vacuum of political jargon.
The management of a natural Park is an extraordinary experience, from which one either comes out stronger in terms of knowledge of the territory and how to care for it, or worn-out, because of the countless quarrels and the depressing immobilism. There are no handbooks, guidelines, nor schemes that can save anyone from making difficult and complex decisions, and that can firmly guide one in the dynamics of a rapidly changing world. Even the best territorial and socio-economic schemes are unable to forecast the internal and external changes affecting the Park’s territory, and constantly causing a shift of coordinates within which it is necessary to move in order to make decisions. The search for a good balance between social needs and environmental protection entails a constant search for points of balance, that are always unstable, as there are no checks, or outcomes that are achieved once and for all.
I could give many examples to clarify these concepts. I would like to briefly mention two that I think are particularly meaningful.
1) Polsi electrification
On 22 November 1999, when I chaired the first Governing Board of the Aspromonte Park Authority, among the numerous authorisation requests, I also found a communication by the Authority’s administrative manager advising the Governing Board that, on the basis of “implied assent”, ENEL, the National Electricity Board, had the right to proceed with building the San Luca-Polsi power line.
In other parks around Italy, from the Cinque Terre to the Belluno Dolomites, Enel has found the way to lay electrical cables underground, whereas here, it refuses to do so, entrenched behind non-existent technical obstacles, supported by its political weight and colonial culture.
On the other hand, the residents of the Polsi village who have been waiting for electricity for decades, since a landslide wiped out the work of a small 50KW hydroelectric power station which had made this sacred and mysterious village self-sufficient.
In 1986 Valerio Giacomini, one of the founding fathers of Italian parks, wrote: “a park cannot be created without the involvement of its residents”. One has to start from people’s needs, finding each time the most advanced solutions possible to reconcile environmental protection with the needs of those living in the mountains and, often, isolated.
As to electric energy supply, in this case as in other very similar ones, the obliged path to take is renewable energies. In particular, local residents’ mistrust towards the “alternatives” to the electrical cable needs to be overcome, the latter representing, in the imagination of marginalised populations, not only a “certainty” and “regularity” of supply, but also the visible sign of “progress”, of emancipation from isolation.
It is thus necessary to factually demonstrate that renewable energies work, that they are manageable and also represent a factor of modernity and of social progress. In order to achieve such important goals, not only should research and testing be strengthened, but it would also be necessary to act at the cultural level, involving all local social forces, so as to ensure that the change in the approach to energy sources is fully and proactively shared. Parks, in this field, can become excellent laboratories for the territory, extending also beyond the park’s boundaries.
2) The road from Samo to the Forgiarelle waterfalls
Samo is a small village of three thousand inhabitants, probably of Greek origin, despite losing all traces and memories of it.
The Town Council of Samo, after acknowledging the demands of the population, asked the Park to authorise the building of a track to get to the area of the “Forgiarelle” waterfalls, undertaking to regulate access in order to avoid uncontrolled forms of tourism which could damage one of the best preserved areas of the Park. By contrast, some local conservation groups (CAI and WWF in particular) protested threatening of reporting it if this track was to be authorised by the Park Authority.
Who is right? Which side should be taken? The environmental protection reasons argued by the environmentalists are indisputable. However, the same could be said of the people’s demands to have access to their mountain territory. The conservation groups fear that a new track can open up a way in an area that is fully protected, and that the real aims of the town administration are different. By contrast, local administrators denounce the fact that the leaders of these groups all live in big cities by the sea and that they are not aware of the needs of the people living in the mountains. In short, what could be defined as a copybook conflict has begun. The conflict between environmental protection and social needs cannot be eliminated in our society of mass consumption. It is a matter of not removing the conflict, but rather use it as a resource to identify more advanced solutions at the social and environmental levels. It is a matter of managing it, whereby “unstable” and continuously changing points of balance can be found.
1.3 False emergencies and possible alternatives: fires, floods, waste
The word emergency is one of the most widely used and abused in this historical phase, especially in our country. The term “emergency” evokes exceptional, abnormal situations, bound to cause general fear and concern. Firstly, it helps to shift the large audience’s attention, to stop or slow down the process of information obsolescence, to cause the Vernon curve applied to “information” as a commodity to go up again.
The result of this is the consolidation of an idea of the world where chance, or fate, play a key role, through a process of naturalisation of what is a social product and of artificialisation of what is natural. So in technologically advanced societies, road accidents and work deaths, for instance, are lived as chance events, linked to chance and bad luck, in the same way as pre-modern populations accepted pandemics or earthquakes. A case in point is that of fires occurring regularly every year in the majority of countries around the world. And this has been going on for thirty years with no one seriously wondering how it is possible to accept that in a society with such advanced technology, every year, in Europe only something like 400,000 hectares of woods are destroyed by fires.
In the last ten years, the area of the Aspromonte National Park has also been hit several times by destructive fires.
Starting from this situation, the present writer has tried to understand how this phenomenon can be tackled and to find credible and winning answers. It should be noted that these are for the majority cases of arson, although there are no proven facts to demonstrate this, with a good 24% of cases coming from the Ministry for the Environment defined as “undefined causes”. Another element, that I would define as structural, which hampers a serious fire-fighting action is the approach to this phenomenon and the increasingly consolidated interests that have created a real industry of fire. All efforts on the part of public institutions, both at national and regional level, have been directed towards acquiring more technology for the fight against fire. Nobody wonders why, despite growing investments in technology, the results are so disappointing. Nobody wonders what the interests at stake are, what the earnings of private companies are which rent the planes to extinguish fires at the rate of 1500 euro per hour, or what the responsibilities of public fire-fighting agencies are.
The experience of the Aspromonte National Park in this field should serve as an example. In summer 2000, we launched an experimental initiative which resulted from interviews with some privileged witnesses in charge of the coordination of fire-fighting activities.
Starting from this analysis we tried to test another model based on the idea of territorial responsibility and on the fact that fires are a social phenomenon which has to be dealt with in this arena. We, therefore, introduced what we defined as “responsibility agreements”, which are subscribed by all those voluntary work associations interested (civil defence associations, environmentalist groups, etc.) that are on the regional register. We started in 2000 by signing agreements with two civil defence associations that had a proven experience in the field, whereby about 30% of the Park’s area was assigned to these associations. In the light of the good results obtained, in 2001 the Aspromonte Park Authority issued a public announcement in which all associations meeting the requirements were entitled to participate. The nine associations requesting it were assigned a portion of the Park’s area up to covering the whole of the 78,000-hectares. The leading idea consists in giving the responsibility of part of the territory to the associations which make request for it through an agreement which, by setting the total cost (including a daily allowance for voluntary workers, repayment of expenses for transfers and means used), determines a minimum amount for the reimbursement of expenses equal to 50% and another 50% which is assigned on the basis of the following parameter: fires in the area allocated should not exceed 0,2% of the total.
A simple idea, I would dare say banal, which proved to be winning. The total cost for this operation amounts to approximately 200,000 euro against regional and state expenditure accounting for roughly ten thousand euro, for the province of Reggio Calabria only. Unfortunately, while in various parts of our country this fire-fighting strategy has been seriously taken into consideration, the Calabria regional council, despite expressing their positive opinion with regard to the initiative, has continued on its path of higher spending in favour of sightings and Canadair planes.
The same can be said for the other two recurring emergencies: waste management and floods.
a) waste management in peripheral areas and in protected areas
One of the most serious problems that local authorities have to face in peripheral areas is waste management. This is a problem that emerges and becomes unsustainable particularly in countries that have experienced a remarkable growth in consumption which has not been accompanied by the development of civil society and public institutions. In order to avoid any misunderstanding, it should be immediately noted that the majority of the world’s waste, both toxic and non-toxic waste, is produced by the richest and most industrialised countries. However, these mostly include those countries also where public administration has a long history, and where people’s public spirit, especially at the level of local self-government, has been developing over centuries. Moreover, to complete the picture, there is another important element: the massive export of toxic waste from the North to the South of the world.
Similarly, in many countries of the Mediterranean which have experienced a strong increase in consumption, illegal dumping has grown and the management of waste has become increasingly complex and difficult. This phenomenon has also involved the urban and internal areas of Southern Italy with National and Regional Parks being particularly affected by it, and especially as a consequence of mass tourism.
Therefore, the problem of waste management in Southern Italian natural parks is linked, in particular, with “short break” tourism, Sunday tourism, a social phenomenon which is now affecting the most remote areas of the world … The new tourists of consumption society reach everywhere leaving their sometimes indelible mark.
In order to tackle this problem the national and regional Parks’ managers have focused on investing especially in raising people’s awareness, in those activities called “environmental education activities”. We have to admit that the results so far have not been encouraging. Good results will probably be achieved in the long-term, considering that the majority of environmental education initiatives involve schools.
In the management of the ANP we had to tackle two problems regarding waste. The first concerns the Park’s Municipalities which, in some cases, are even unable to dispose of the rubbish contained in the specially-provided containers. Not to mention the picnic areas where the fundamental mistake was made of installing rubbish containers without knowing by whom, how (given that these places are not always easy to reach) and when they would be collected. The second problem is the increase in lazy and polluting Sunday tourism that is hard to manage.
In short, from these experiences it is easy to infer that it is not simple to change in the short to medium-term the environmental behaviours of occasional, Sunday, “short break” tourism. More needs to be done in order to reach tangible results. The first kind of action concerns the presence of forest rangers to punish those leaving rubbish or committing other environmental wrongs. The second type of action regards a persuasion strategy, or to use a modern term “moral suasion”, managed by conservation groups, and backed, also financially, by the Park Authority. The third kind of action is the one incorporating responsibility agreements. Associations sign an agreement, whereby they undertake to keep a certain area clean, for a certain time of the year (generally summer time for obvious reasons). In this case too, a fixed amount is foreseen to cover some expenses, together with a portion (50%) which is allocated in full if the area covered by waste, in the assigned areas, does not exceed the square metre. This action also entails changes in the habits of citizens. For example, those finding a clean rest area will be led not to dirty it, to collect their rubbish and take it with them in their car. After the first year of trial, we can say that this method adopted by the ANP has given more than satisfactory results.
These might seem only details, minor things, but it is exactly on such small things of day-to-day life that the quality of management of a territory depends.
b) floods, landslides, and maintenance of the territory
One of the most considerable gaps between central and peripheral areas of the world regards an issue which is often underestimated: the maintenance of the territory and its facilities. In the South of the world, and since the ‘90s in the Eastern European countries as well, there has been an increasing deterioration in the maintenance of the territory, and consequently the destruction of a social fixed capital from which the entire community should benefit.
From the viewpoint of the territorial upheaval, on the rise everywhere around the world, the differences between North and South are less and in some cases the situation is even reversed. In Aspromonte the large catastrophes date back to 1951 and 1972 when entire populations were forced to leave and were relocated along the coast. With one, smart, exception: the Town of Canolo. Umberto Zanotti Bianco, one of the leading experts on the economic and social problems of Southern Italy of the twentieth century, wanted it rebuilt in the mountains, going from 400 m. (where the old village of Canolo was) to 900 m. (where the new village of Canolo was established). And he was absolutely right. All the people who were resettled from the mountains to the coast were subject to a heavy cultural clash, they forgot their old crafts, their link with and knowledge of the territory, and have now become mountain people living by the sea. The abandoning of the mountains and hills caused nothing but decay and desolation. And this is a general phenomenon, which has also convinced many environmentalists and conservationists to revalue the role of man in the preservation of the eco-systems. However, the maintenance of these territories is all but easy. “Manutenere” literally means to keep up using hands and is mostly appropriate when referring to territories which include slopes, precipices, promontories dropping sheer to the sea, such as the Park of the Cinque Terre. This is one of the most charming places in Italy, but also one of the territories most at risk, where the president of the Park, Franco Bonanini, has been trying with courage and determination to fight this decay which, up until a few years ago, seemed to be irreversible. The post-war emigration, the fleeing from hill agriculture have resulted, in only a few decades, in the land-slipping of these wonderful mountains overlooking the Ligurian sea. The main triggering cause, here as in many other places, is only one: the end of terracing, the elimination of those dry-stone walls, that are the fruits of centuries-old work and expertise. Although only partially, Bonanini has managed to fight this phenomenon with a series of restrictions and incentives for the many people who wanted to restore their country house or rebuild the ruins of a house into maybe a villa. Then the explosion of tourism has done the rest. And the ticket that the tourist pays to access some paths in the park allows to have additional resources to finance the reconstruction of dry-stone walls which cost around 150 euro per square metre! Tourism, on the one hand, and the Park’s ability to enhance and certify local products, on the other, have given to the local raisin wine, called Sciacchetrà, a special value, also making a small allotment used as a vineyard quite profitable. Building a dry-stone wall, one stone on top of the other, carefully choosing it and laying it in the right spot, is a poor, however precious art, which is not taught at any vocational training course. Most importantly, it is hard to find someone that is willing to learn it. Although we have made big steps forward in the field of renaturalisation engineering techniques (Maione, Principato, 2002), of soft containment interventions, we are unable to recreate that system of terracing that, over the centuries, has made the protection of hilly and mountain eco-systems possible.
Moreover, we are running the risk of responding to landslides, landslips and floods, with actions that fossilise the territory, suffocating it with a blanket of concrete. After all, landslides and floods may also be useful, as illustrated by the case of the Sannio region, in order to attract considerable funds on which to build extra-profits, corruption and crime.
All the examples mentioned above aim at giving a precise message: all of our emergencies, all of our biggest problems relating to the management of the territory might be dealt with and overcome only if the public authority starts mechanisms of social responsibility that involve the most proactive parts of our society, the social and economic subjects who are willing to take upon themselves in a transparent way duties and rewards in the management of the territory.
Book references
Giacomini V. e Romani V., Uomini e parchi, F. Angeli, Milano, 1986
Maione U., Principato (a cura di), Linee guida per la progettazione di opere di difesa idrogeologica nel Parco Nazionale dell'Aspromonte, Ed. Bios, Cosenza, 2002
Messner R., Salvate le Alpi, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2001
Perna T. Aspromonte. I parchi nazionali nello sviluppo locale, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2002
Tizzi E., L'equilibrio. I diversi aspetti di un unico concetto, CUEN, Napoli, 1995