Descripción del proyecto
Explorar la historia industrial y medioambiental de Port Marghera
En los años veinte del siglo pasado, el régimen fascista estableció las plantas de superfosfato en Porto Marghera, que estaban conectadas con el archipiélago de fosfatos aguas arriba. El archipiélago estaba formado por una red de espacios extractivos e industriales que se extendía a ambos lados del Mediterráneo. La presencia de fosfatos también forjó conexiones entre los movimientos obreros de Porto Marghera y las luchas anticoloniales del norte de África. En los años noventa del siglo pasado, las campañas ecologistas provocaron el cierre de las fábricas de fertilizantes de Porto Marghera. El equipo del proyecto LabEcoInt, financiado por las acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, explora la historia de las regiones industriales europeas y examina la interacción entre los cambios laborales y medioambientales desde una perspectiva global, incluida la producción de fertilizantes derivados del fosfato.
Objetivo
This research, hosted by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in partnership with the Geneva Graduate Institute, investigates the making and unmaking of Europe’s historical industrial areas uncovering the intersections between labour and ecological transformations from an international perspective. It does so by deploying theories of extractivism to the case study of the major industrial cluster of Porto Marghera (Venice, Italy), using the production of phosphate-based fertilisers as an entry point.
Porto Marghera’s “super-phosphate” plants were established in the 1920s, in the context of rising fascism. They integrated Porto Marghera with the “green factories” of expanding modern agriculture – downstream –, and with the “Phosphate Archipelago”, a network of extractive and industrial spaces on the two shores of the Mediterranean – upstream. Phosphates thus invisibly and contradictorily connected Porto Marghera’s labour mobilisations with North Africa’s anticolonial struggles. This link was also ecological, as shown by the noxious health and environmental effects of phosphates. The closure of Porto Marghera’s fertiliser plants in the 1990s was in fact accelerated by environmental campaigns against the dumping of phosphate waste into the Adriatic Sea. Meanwhile, restructuring in the extractive areas of Morocco and Tunisia (Khouribga and Gafsa respectively) turned them into important points of departure for working-class migration to Italy.
While deindustrial studies focus on the history of industrial areas from a local or national perspective, less attention has been paid to the insertion of such industries in global hierarchies of labour and environmental degradation. By analysing Porto Marghera’s place in the Phosphate Archipelago, this research generates insights for today’s ecological transitions in mining, industry, and agriculture, at a time when fertilisers are once again in the spotlight due to concerns over sustainability and instability in food supply chains.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global FellowshipsCoordinador
30123 Venezia
Italia