Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VAMP (Voices from the Anthropocene. Maps and Frameworks for Ecological Conflicts)
Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2025-09-30
Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project
The aim of the project is to develop an innovative framework for a better understanding of ecological crisis. The current approach is based on the idea that we are going through a global crisis of nature. However, the Anthropocene hypothesis, a geological epoch marked by industrial activities, shows that what we are facing is not a crisis of "natural entities", but a crisis of the concept of nature. Accounting for this semantic instability in ecological controversies allows us to see conflicts of representations where different social groups "give voice" to non-human entities. Our aim is to provide a transferable protocol to deal with that, consisting in i) deconstructing non-transformative rhetoric on environment; ii) rearrange human and non-human assemblages in sustainable ways; iii) rethinking "environment" as the effect of a ployphony resonating simoultanously in the technosphere, the biosphere and the infosphere. To that end, our approach intertwines political ecology, anthropology of nature, Science and Technology Studies and eco-feminism in a semiotic oriented theory of enunciation. This approach will be tested through two crucial cases of "voice giving" to non-humans: i) the battles for the conservation of Amazonian Forest, recently exposed to further extractivist attacks by Bolsonaro's Government; ii) and the struggle against high impact railroad linking Turin, in Italy, and Lyon, in France. Our transferable protocol, taking into account gender, social and cultural differences that ecological controversies manifest, will provide a comprehensive cartography of "forms of belonging". That reshape entirely the theoretical space of politics, making room for a better representation of ecological redirection challenges. The methodological tools for this are those of semiotics of culture and ethnography. We will put them to use for a comparative study on how non-humans are given a voice by political, mediatic, scientific, grassroots and administrative discourse.
Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far
1. Technical and Scientific Activities Performed
During the Outgoing Phase—including the secondments at Unibo and Origens Medialab, and the 16 months research stay at UNESP—the work progressed in full alignment with VAMP’s scientific objectives, i. e.:
(i) deconstructing non-transformative rhetoric on the environment;
(ii) analysing the translation of non-human actors into human practices, discourses and institutions;
(iii) rethinking the relationship between technosphere, biosphere and infosphere by revealing conflicts of value between human and non-human assemblages.
All activities, from methodological refinement to ethnographic investigation, were carried out to advance these objectives and to develop a transferable semiotic–cognitive protocol for analysing ecological controversies. They regroup in two main blocks: development of VAMP’s Theoretical Framework and empirical research.
1.1. Development and Consolidation of VAMP’s Theoretical–Methodological Framework
Across the research stays in Italy, France and Brazil, the project significantly advanced the construction of an integrated framework that combines cognitive semiotics, tensive semiotics, semiotics of culture, environmental humanities, and epistemologies of the South. This integration enabled:
• a systematic deconstruction of Nature/Culture divides, a central dimension of non-transformative environmental rhetoric (Objective i);
• the conceptualisation of enunciative mechanisms through which non-human entities are made present, represented or silenced in ecological debates (Objective ii);
• the analysis of infrastructures as cognitive artefacts mediating relations between technosphere, biosphere and infosphere, thus shaping ecological “viewpoints” and redistributing visibility among actors (Objective iii).
This framework was continuously tested and refined in scientific exchanges with colleagues at Unibo and UNESP, especially within the GPS (Grupo de Pesquisa em Semiótica), the Unesp Semiotics Seminar (SSU), and through regular participation in Origens Medialab’s research environment on ecological redirection.
1.2. Empirical Research: Ethnographic and Desk-Based Investigation of Ecological Controversies
The empirical component involved extensive ethnographic fieldwork, multi-source desk research, and comparative analysis on two strategic controversies and a third, unplanned case study focused in environmental communication.
a. European Case: Lyon–Turin High-Speed Railway
Through field missions in the Maurienne Valley and systematic archival research in Lyon and Paris, the project documented:
• the competing sense-making regimes mobilised by institutions, experts, and activist groups;
• the discursive and practical translation of non-human actors (mountains, ecosystems, water networks, risk indicators) into planning, resistance and governance practices;
• the infrastructural project as a cognitive mediator that reorganises environmental perception, future imaginaries and conflictual values.
These findings directly fed into the refinement of the semiotic–cognitive protocol and contributed to understanding how technopolitical infrastructures orient ecological futures.
b. Brazilian Case: Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant
Initially framed within a broader inquiry into Amazonian ecological politics—particularly during Bolsonaro’s government—the research evolved toward a more directly comparable case centred on a critical infrastructure. Data collection focused on:
• discourses and practices around the Belo Monte dam;
• representations of non-human entities (river systems, forests, climate cycles) within administrative, scientific, community and activist narratives;
• tensions between local knowledge, environmental licensing frameworks, and national development imaginaries.
The paired analysis of Lyon–Turin and Belo Monte allowed testing the transferability of the protocol by observing how Nature/Culture divisions, non-human translation processes, and techno-ecological conflicts manifest across geopolitical contexts.
c. Additional Study on Non-Transformative Environmental Rhetoric
A third, unplanned case study—directly related to Objective (i)—was developed during the severe 2024 Brazilian wildfire season. Situated in one of the most affected regions, the project conducted real-time and online observation of media narratives, enabling a structural analysis of:
• scapegoating mechanisms in extreme-event communication;
• rhetorical patterns that obscure systemic socio-ecological dynamics;
• representational strategies that mask the agency of non-human actors in environmental crises.
This study offered a valuable extension of VAMP’s objectives, strengthening the critique of dominant environmental rhetorics in the Anthropocene.
2. Main Scientific Achievements
2.1. Advancement of VAMP’s Protocol for Analysing Ecological Controversies
The integrated theoretical–empirical work resulted in a robust protocol capable of:
• deconstructing environmental discourses based on Nature/Culture division;
• identifying modalities of non-human enunciation across practices, media, institutions and infrastructures;
• mapping how infrastructures act as semiotic-cognitive devices, shaping actor positions, environmental visibility and future trajectories;
• comparing controversies across different socio-ecological and geopolitical settings.
2.2. Significant Empirical Contributions
The project produced extensive and high-quality documentation on the Lyon–Turin and Belo Monte controversies, enabling:
• a transversal reading of ecological tensions;
• the identification of structural analogies in how infrastructures mediate conflicts between technosphere, biosphere and infosphere;
• the elaboration of semiotic models of environmental sense-making grounded in actual controversies.
2.3. Broader Theoretical Innovation
The interdisciplinary integration achieved during the two years produced innovations in:
• enunciative modelling of ecological conflicts;
• semiotics of practice applied to socio-technical systems;
• cognitive semiotics of infrastructures;
• critical approaches to Anthropocene narratives informed by Southern epistemologies.
2.4. Methodological and Analytical Enhancements
The fellow acquired and applied advanced skills in:
• ethnographic investigation of politically charged environments;
• discourse analysis across institutional, militant and scientific domains;
• semiotic modelling of conflictual value regimes;
• comparative cross–continental research design.
3. In a nutshell
Across the Outgoing Phase, the activities performed addressed all three scientific objectives and led to substantial advances in theoretical development, empirical investigation and methodological refinement. The articulation of cognitive semiotics with environmental humanities and Southern epistemologies, supported by rigorous fieldwork in two major ecological controversies, resulted in a consolidated and operational protocol capable of revealing the value conflicts and sense-making processes shaping ecological transformations in the Anthropocene.
During the Outgoing Phase—including the secondments at Unibo and Origens Medialab, and the 16 months research stay at UNESP—the work progressed in full alignment with VAMP’s scientific objectives, i. e.:
(i) deconstructing non-transformative rhetoric on the environment;
(ii) analysing the translation of non-human actors into human practices, discourses and institutions;
(iii) rethinking the relationship between technosphere, biosphere and infosphere by revealing conflicts of value between human and non-human assemblages.
All activities, from methodological refinement to ethnographic investigation, were carried out to advance these objectives and to develop a transferable semiotic–cognitive protocol for analysing ecological controversies. They regroup in two main blocks: development of VAMP’s Theoretical Framework and empirical research.
1.1. Development and Consolidation of VAMP’s Theoretical–Methodological Framework
Across the research stays in Italy, France and Brazil, the project significantly advanced the construction of an integrated framework that combines cognitive semiotics, tensive semiotics, semiotics of culture, environmental humanities, and epistemologies of the South. This integration enabled:
• a systematic deconstruction of Nature/Culture divides, a central dimension of non-transformative environmental rhetoric (Objective i);
• the conceptualisation of enunciative mechanisms through which non-human entities are made present, represented or silenced in ecological debates (Objective ii);
• the analysis of infrastructures as cognitive artefacts mediating relations between technosphere, biosphere and infosphere, thus shaping ecological “viewpoints” and redistributing visibility among actors (Objective iii).
This framework was continuously tested and refined in scientific exchanges with colleagues at Unibo and UNESP, especially within the GPS (Grupo de Pesquisa em Semiótica), the Unesp Semiotics Seminar (SSU), and through regular participation in Origens Medialab’s research environment on ecological redirection.
1.2. Empirical Research: Ethnographic and Desk-Based Investigation of Ecological Controversies
The empirical component involved extensive ethnographic fieldwork, multi-source desk research, and comparative analysis on two strategic controversies and a third, unplanned case study focused in environmental communication.
a. European Case: Lyon–Turin High-Speed Railway
Through field missions in the Maurienne Valley and systematic archival research in Lyon and Paris, the project documented:
• the competing sense-making regimes mobilised by institutions, experts, and activist groups;
• the discursive and practical translation of non-human actors (mountains, ecosystems, water networks, risk indicators) into planning, resistance and governance practices;
• the infrastructural project as a cognitive mediator that reorganises environmental perception, future imaginaries and conflictual values.
These findings directly fed into the refinement of the semiotic–cognitive protocol and contributed to understanding how technopolitical infrastructures orient ecological futures.
b. Brazilian Case: Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant
Initially framed within a broader inquiry into Amazonian ecological politics—particularly during Bolsonaro’s government—the research evolved toward a more directly comparable case centred on a critical infrastructure. Data collection focused on:
• discourses and practices around the Belo Monte dam;
• representations of non-human entities (river systems, forests, climate cycles) within administrative, scientific, community and activist narratives;
• tensions between local knowledge, environmental licensing frameworks, and national development imaginaries.
The paired analysis of Lyon–Turin and Belo Monte allowed testing the transferability of the protocol by observing how Nature/Culture divisions, non-human translation processes, and techno-ecological conflicts manifest across geopolitical contexts.
c. Additional Study on Non-Transformative Environmental Rhetoric
A third, unplanned case study—directly related to Objective (i)—was developed during the severe 2024 Brazilian wildfire season. Situated in one of the most affected regions, the project conducted real-time and online observation of media narratives, enabling a structural analysis of:
• scapegoating mechanisms in extreme-event communication;
• rhetorical patterns that obscure systemic socio-ecological dynamics;
• representational strategies that mask the agency of non-human actors in environmental crises.
This study offered a valuable extension of VAMP’s objectives, strengthening the critique of dominant environmental rhetorics in the Anthropocene.
2. Main Scientific Achievements
2.1. Advancement of VAMP’s Protocol for Analysing Ecological Controversies
The integrated theoretical–empirical work resulted in a robust protocol capable of:
• deconstructing environmental discourses based on Nature/Culture division;
• identifying modalities of non-human enunciation across practices, media, institutions and infrastructures;
• mapping how infrastructures act as semiotic-cognitive devices, shaping actor positions, environmental visibility and future trajectories;
• comparing controversies across different socio-ecological and geopolitical settings.
2.2. Significant Empirical Contributions
The project produced extensive and high-quality documentation on the Lyon–Turin and Belo Monte controversies, enabling:
• a transversal reading of ecological tensions;
• the identification of structural analogies in how infrastructures mediate conflicts between technosphere, biosphere and infosphere;
• the elaboration of semiotic models of environmental sense-making grounded in actual controversies.
2.3. Broader Theoretical Innovation
The interdisciplinary integration achieved during the two years produced innovations in:
• enunciative modelling of ecological conflicts;
• semiotics of practice applied to socio-technical systems;
• cognitive semiotics of infrastructures;
• critical approaches to Anthropocene narratives informed by Southern epistemologies.
2.4. Methodological and Analytical Enhancements
The fellow acquired and applied advanced skills in:
• ethnographic investigation of politically charged environments;
• discourse analysis across institutional, militant and scientific domains;
• semiotic modelling of conflictual value regimes;
• comparative cross–continental research design.
3. In a nutshell
Across the Outgoing Phase, the activities performed addressed all three scientific objectives and led to substantial advances in theoretical development, empirical investigation and methodological refinement. The articulation of cognitive semiotics with environmental humanities and Southern epistemologies, supported by rigorous fieldwork in two major ecological controversies, resulted in a consolidated and operational protocol capable of revealing the value conflicts and sense-making processes shaping ecological transformations in the Anthropocene.
Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)
Scientific Dimensions
The project generated significant scientific results that advance semiotic research on ecological controversies and broaden its interdisciplinary relevance. Indeed,within the international semiotic community, the project expands the field’s theoretical and empirical scope by demonstrating that ecological controversies display distinct semiotic dynamics requiring refined enunciative and cognitive modelling. Beyond semiotics, VAMP strengthens the role of semiotic analysis in environmental humanities, communication studies, philosophy, discourse analysis and management. The project’s interdisciplinary dissemination—across conferences, seminars and workshops in Europe and South America—has positioned semiotics as a relevant framework for understanding environmental conflicts and infrastructural futures. Furthermore, by fostering collaboration between institutions in Italy, France and Brazil, the project enhanced Global South–Global North scientific dialogue. The strengthened ties between the partners, as demonstrated for instance by new mobility initiatives (e.g. TNE-PNRR project coordinated by the fellow), indicate that VAMP is contributing to the internationalisation of semiotic inquiry and to the broader goals of the European Research Area, particularly regarding mobility, knowledge circulation and support for the green transition.
Social Dimensions
The project’s societal impact stems from its contribution to ecological redirection strategies, understood as the capacity to reassess existing infrastructures, practices and imaginaries in light of ecological constraints. By examining how controversies articulate or silence diverse perspectives, VAMP provides analytical foundations for more inclusive and sustainable decision-making in line with the New European Bauhaus, European Green Deal, and UN Sustainable Development Goals. The ethnographic work conducted in the Maurienne/Susa Valley and in the region affected by the Belo Monte dam gave visibility to the plurality of actors involved—local communities, environmental groups, administrative authorities, and non-human ecosystems. The project highlights how dominant narratives often obscure local forms of knowledge, and how making these voices intelligible is essential for formulating alternative, lower-impact development trajectories. These insights also support climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, providing tools to understand how socio-ecological vulnerabilities are produced and negotiated, and how local practices can inform more resilient policies.
Economic Impact
While not an economic project per se, VAMP’s results suggest important implications for public expenditure, infrastructural planning and economic governance. By identifying how infrastructural megaprojects generate semiotic conflicts—over territorial identity, ecological futures, and the meaning of “development”—the project highlights the hidden economic costs of decisions based solely on growth-oriented indicators. Both case studies illustrate the risks of pursuing large-scale infrastructural transformations without integrating ecological knowledge, local expertise and long-term environmental constraints.
In the Lyon–Turin case, the research shows how high direct costs, environmental impacts and limited territorial benefits coexist with underused existing infrastructures, suggesting that alternative investments (e.g. modernization of current lines) could be more cost-effective if supported by a reconsideration of territorial meanings and professional identities.
For Belo Monte, the findings reveal the economic fragility of hydroelectric expansion under climate uncertainty, as well as the high social and ecological costs—including those associated with displacement, energy dependency, biodiversity loss and legal conflicts—that remain unaccounted for in dominant economic models.
By clarifying how meaning-making processes influence economic choices, the project lays the groundwork for more rational, equitable and ecologically grounded decisions. This includes anticipating future costs of environmental degradation, evaluating trade-offs between innovation and maintenance, and recognising how local and Indigenous knowledge systems contribute to sustainable economic planning.
Key Needs for Further Uptake and Success
To ensure the wider uptake and consolidation of the project’s results, several needs and conditions have been identified, such as further research, intersectoral collaborations, creating training opportunities and sustaining internationalisation.
Further research would allow for systematic application of the protocol to additional controversies (e.g. mining, energy transition, water governance) to validate transferability. In addition, development of longitudinal studies to assess how sense-making regimes evolve when infrastructures age, fail or are redirected.
Following up the networking and researching work performed untill now, the project further aim is to establishing structured collaborations with territorial authorities, planning agencies and environmental organisations to test the protocol as a decision-support tool. The materials and insights collected would be great, as the project foresee in the next phases, for implementing co-design workshops (restitution, scenario building, prospective exercises) with local communities in both case-study regions.
As educational take up, VAMP's outputs can be ground for training programmes for researchers, planners, NGOs and public administrations on semiotic approaches to ecological conflicts. At Unibo, this is already be implemented in a. y. 2025/2026 for Master's degree in Semiotics, where the fellow now teaches "Semiotics of the Anhtropocene". These outputs could also lay ground for the development of toolkits or methodological guides enabling non-academics to apply the protocol. In this, Unibo's students could be directly involved as trainees in scientific dissemination and communication.
Finally, VAMP's legacy shall foster the continuation and expansion of research exchanges between Europe and South America, ensuring that Southern epistemologies remain central to ecological redirection debates.
The project generated significant scientific results that advance semiotic research on ecological controversies and broaden its interdisciplinary relevance. Indeed,within the international semiotic community, the project expands the field’s theoretical and empirical scope by demonstrating that ecological controversies display distinct semiotic dynamics requiring refined enunciative and cognitive modelling. Beyond semiotics, VAMP strengthens the role of semiotic analysis in environmental humanities, communication studies, philosophy, discourse analysis and management. The project’s interdisciplinary dissemination—across conferences, seminars and workshops in Europe and South America—has positioned semiotics as a relevant framework for understanding environmental conflicts and infrastructural futures. Furthermore, by fostering collaboration between institutions in Italy, France and Brazil, the project enhanced Global South–Global North scientific dialogue. The strengthened ties between the partners, as demonstrated for instance by new mobility initiatives (e.g. TNE-PNRR project coordinated by the fellow), indicate that VAMP is contributing to the internationalisation of semiotic inquiry and to the broader goals of the European Research Area, particularly regarding mobility, knowledge circulation and support for the green transition.
Social Dimensions
The project’s societal impact stems from its contribution to ecological redirection strategies, understood as the capacity to reassess existing infrastructures, practices and imaginaries in light of ecological constraints. By examining how controversies articulate or silence diverse perspectives, VAMP provides analytical foundations for more inclusive and sustainable decision-making in line with the New European Bauhaus, European Green Deal, and UN Sustainable Development Goals. The ethnographic work conducted in the Maurienne/Susa Valley and in the region affected by the Belo Monte dam gave visibility to the plurality of actors involved—local communities, environmental groups, administrative authorities, and non-human ecosystems. The project highlights how dominant narratives often obscure local forms of knowledge, and how making these voices intelligible is essential for formulating alternative, lower-impact development trajectories. These insights also support climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, providing tools to understand how socio-ecological vulnerabilities are produced and negotiated, and how local practices can inform more resilient policies.
Economic Impact
While not an economic project per se, VAMP’s results suggest important implications for public expenditure, infrastructural planning and economic governance. By identifying how infrastructural megaprojects generate semiotic conflicts—over territorial identity, ecological futures, and the meaning of “development”—the project highlights the hidden economic costs of decisions based solely on growth-oriented indicators. Both case studies illustrate the risks of pursuing large-scale infrastructural transformations without integrating ecological knowledge, local expertise and long-term environmental constraints.
In the Lyon–Turin case, the research shows how high direct costs, environmental impacts and limited territorial benefits coexist with underused existing infrastructures, suggesting that alternative investments (e.g. modernization of current lines) could be more cost-effective if supported by a reconsideration of territorial meanings and professional identities.
For Belo Monte, the findings reveal the economic fragility of hydroelectric expansion under climate uncertainty, as well as the high social and ecological costs—including those associated with displacement, energy dependency, biodiversity loss and legal conflicts—that remain unaccounted for in dominant economic models.
By clarifying how meaning-making processes influence economic choices, the project lays the groundwork for more rational, equitable and ecologically grounded decisions. This includes anticipating future costs of environmental degradation, evaluating trade-offs between innovation and maintenance, and recognising how local and Indigenous knowledge systems contribute to sustainable economic planning.
Key Needs for Further Uptake and Success
To ensure the wider uptake and consolidation of the project’s results, several needs and conditions have been identified, such as further research, intersectoral collaborations, creating training opportunities and sustaining internationalisation.
Further research would allow for systematic application of the protocol to additional controversies (e.g. mining, energy transition, water governance) to validate transferability. In addition, development of longitudinal studies to assess how sense-making regimes evolve when infrastructures age, fail or are redirected.
Following up the networking and researching work performed untill now, the project further aim is to establishing structured collaborations with territorial authorities, planning agencies and environmental organisations to test the protocol as a decision-support tool. The materials and insights collected would be great, as the project foresee in the next phases, for implementing co-design workshops (restitution, scenario building, prospective exercises) with local communities in both case-study regions.
As educational take up, VAMP's outputs can be ground for training programmes for researchers, planners, NGOs and public administrations on semiotic approaches to ecological conflicts. At Unibo, this is already be implemented in a. y. 2025/2026 for Master's degree in Semiotics, where the fellow now teaches "Semiotics of the Anhtropocene". These outputs could also lay ground for the development of toolkits or methodological guides enabling non-academics to apply the protocol. In this, Unibo's students could be directly involved as trainees in scientific dissemination and communication.
Finally, VAMP's legacy shall foster the continuation and expansion of research exchanges between Europe and South America, ensuring that Southern epistemologies remain central to ecological redirection debates.