Speakers
Description
Motility is a biological term, referring to the capability of organisms to move independently. The research "MOTILITY - Metabolism Of inTersectIonaLITY” starts from this metaphor, to investigate mainstream discourses on Urban Metabolism (UM), Sustainable Development (SD) and Circular Economy (CE), recently criticized for being focused on technological issues, neglecting spatial and social justice, and thereby not considering the need for social and systemic changes (Agyeman, 2005; Korhonen et al., 2018). To adopt a Territorial Metabolism perspective, there is the need to integrate various components: human, industrial, urban, political, landscape (Grulois et al., 2018).
Building on past research on urban political ecology, the research works from an intersectional perspective looking at the management of spatial resources and intersecting social abilities of minority groups in sample communities in East Naples.
MOTILITY focuses on the city role on social interaction among people developing their own identity and orientation, conceiving sexuality and gender as multiscalar axes for developing and expressing meaning and power in public spaces (Wright, 2010). To this end, it revisits research within the diverse fields of queer and feminist theories, studying a variety of social experiences of places, identity and power across the space (Forsyth, 2001), challenging the traditional discourse on CE and related practices.
The objective is to include minorities in envisioning new purposes for metabolic flows, raising awareness as the base to promote local transitions. By fostering citizen engagement in co-designing CE micro-actions, the research aims to bridge the gap between social, behavioral aspects and the ecological transition, advancing a socially just ecological transition.
To support an experimental phase of mapping, the project will develop a community-based online mapping platform for digitally archiving experiences of care and use of metabolic resources and flows in the built environment, to build collective learning and awareness from past experiences/acquired competences and strengthen the potential relationships with forms of co-production of sustainable and inclusive space with the institutions.
The project started in January 2025, posing three questions, on which the research team is currently working through a literature review/mapping of the national and international debates, actors, main categories of research and critical points:
- Which are the main forms of marginalization in the access to metabolic resources (water, air, soil, etc.) for people out of heteronormativity?
- How do intersectional categories of minorities respond to socio-ecological issues, using metabolic resources and spaces (privately/collectively)?
- To which extent could these collective experiences of care and use feed Niches of Innovation (ref. Transition Studies) and make significant progress in terms of regulations, institutional level, experimental governance?
In compliance with the 2030 Agenda for SD (UNDP, 2015), the paper will explore spatial and social justice aspects, which can contribute to increasing the engagement of non-conformist groups (Fernandez & Maione 2017), disregarded by targeted policies of CE, as subversive of the mainstream approach on resource management and related spatial assets.
References
-Agyeman J. (2005). Sustainable Communities and the Challenge of Environmental Justice. NYU Press.
- Fernandez, G. & Maione, C. (2020). “Urban Metabolism and Minority Pulse: An Education and Awareness Campaign Targeting Minority Groups”. In Nhamo, G., Mjimba, V., Sustainable Development Goals and Institutions of Higher Education. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham.
-Forsyth, A. (2001). "Sexuality and Space: Nonconformist Populations and Planning Practice", Journal of Planning Literature, 15, 3.
-Grulois et al. (2018). Designing Territorial Metabolism. Barcelona, Brussels and Venice. Berlin: JOVIS.
-Korhonen, J., Nuur, C., Feldmann, A., Birkie, S.E. (2018). “Circular economy as an essentially contested concept“, Journal of Cleaner Production, 175, 44-552.
-UNDP (2015). Sustainable development goals.
-Wright M. W. (2010). “Gender and geography II: bridging the gap – feminist, queer, and the geographical imaginary”, Progress in Human Geography, 34(1), 56–66.
| Keywords | urban metabolism, intersectionality, minorities, nonconformist |
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