On September 19th, 2022 at 4.30 pm, the Meta Lecture on "Azione collettiva ed expertise scientifico nelle politiche ambientali" will take place at DEIB Seminar Room - Building 20.

Based on mixed-methods research and ethnographic fieldwork at various sites in Italy, this lecture examines the relationship between expertise and activism in grassroots environmentalism. Presenting interviews with citizens, activists and experts, it considers environmental activism surrounding infrastructure in urban areas, in connection with water management, transport, tourism and waste disposal. Through comparisons between different political environments, the author analyses the ways in which citizens, political activists and technical experts participate in using expertise, shedding light on the effects of this on the structure and composition of environmental politics and movements, as well as the implications for the mechanisms of participation and the formation of alliances. Bridging the sociology of expertise and environmental politics, this study of the relationship between contentious expertise and democratic accountability shows how conflict transforms, rather than inhibits, expertise production into a ‘contentious politics by other means’.


The event will be held online by Webex.