Conference Program

Cities facing socio-ecological crises increasingly rely on civic initiatives to articulate alternative developments. Venice exemplifies these dynamics. Over recent decades, overtourism, environmental degradation, and the commodification of public spaces have threatened the social and ecological survival of the Venetian lagoon. In response, civic movements have sought to reconfigure the relationship between the city and its wetland ecosystem. Yet these initiatives often remain fragmented and face resistance from institutional and commercial actors. In Venice and elsewhere, research rarely examines the learning processes through which civic actors develop heterogeneous coalitions capable of addressing such complex challenges. This study therefore investigates how democratic processes emerge through expansive learning in civic movements confronting socio-ecological crises.
The research draws on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), particularly its fourth-generation focus on coalitions of activities addressing shared societal challenges. Empirically, it is conducted as a formative diagnosis of Venice’s civil society, combining participatory engagement with qualitative analysis. An embedded case design focuses on three civic movements addressing interconnected issues: Coordination No Incinerator (environmental health and industrial pollution), Poveglia for Everybody (commoning of abandoned public islands), and High Residential Tension (housing justice and opposition to touristification). Data include documentary materials, observations in sixty-one meetings, and twenty-five interviews. The analysis reconstructs how these movements organise around contested socio-ecological challenges and how their activities expand through coalition-building across social sectors and governance levels.
The findings show that civic activities emerge in relation to distinct object regions such as environmental degradation, housing unaffordability, and the mismanagement of public assets. Civic engagement often begins through the contestation of public policies and economic interests affecting common goods and the ecosystem. These conflicts reveal systemic contradictions in local governance and stimulate collective learning. Civic movements initiate expansive learning by reframing local problems as cross-sectoral and multilevel challenges, enabling cooperation with scientists, public officials, and policy advocates. Through these processes, heterogeneous coalitions form and develop shared understandings of the challenges they confront.
Across the cases, democratic dynamics become visible through three interconnected processes: activation, as civic actors mobilise around shared socio-ecological concerns; deliberation, as coalition partner remodel problems and solutions; and advocacy, as these coalitions coordinate action to influence institutional agendas and public debate. By sharing contradictions and co-developing new practices, civic and institutional actors progressively align their work around emerging collective objects. Examples include collaborations on environmental biomonitoring, proposals for the co-management of public islands, and civic campaigns addressing tourism regulation. These developments show how expansive learning within civic movements can generate new democratic capacities and contribute to the transformation of socio-ecological governance.
Building on this diagnostic work, the research outlines prospective formative interventions aimed at supporting the long-term development of these coalitions. The proposed post-doctoral project advances this agenda by examining how fourth-generation formative interventions can support new models of socio-ecological governance. It seeks to examine and sustain the civic movement advocating the legal personhood of the Venice Lagoon. The study focuses on heterogeneous coalitions of civic, institutional, and scientific actors learning to represent ecosystems politically and legally, enabling democratic innovation in socio-ecological governance.