Past event
Multispecies Infrastructures and the Anthropology of Sustainability Energy Futures, Green Growth and the Incumbency Effect in an Adriatic Water Margin
St Andrews Senior Global Fellow Professor Marc Brightman (University of Bologna)
The energy transition is often understood as a tension between local experiences and global imperatives, but its realities are far more complex. This paper focuses on Ravenna, an Adriatic port and industrial zone, where ecological, political, and technical processes intersect, exposing the dependencies and contradictions of sustainability efforts.
Here, offshore gas platforms, petrochemical plants, and renewable energy projects coexist with a fragile delta landscape, revealing how global financial tools, such as the EU's NextGenerationEU green bonds, interact with local ecologies and livelihoods. Mussel fishers harvesting shellfish from gas rigs, pine forests threatened by subsidence, and contested green investments illustrate the messy negotiations defining the transition. Through ethnographic and historical analysis, we show that sustainability is not a universal ideal but a fractal process, where global policies materialize in local struggles and incumbent industries adapt rather than retreat. Ravenna's layered history, from Roman pine forests to modern energy hubs, underscores how financial abstractions, national agendas, and resurgent life, like mussels and invasive crabs, reshape landscapes. By examining this ‘water margin,' we complicate narratives of progress, highlighting how competing temporalities, scales, and values collide in the pursuit of a sustainable future.
Following Professor Brightman's talk there will be a wine reception for in-person attendees.