Occupying Island
Description
This book offers an analytical perspective of the unfolding militarization in the Italian island of Sardinia, grounded in extensive ethnographic fieldwork, and using in-depth documentation analysis. Since the late 1950s, the island, which is the second largest in the Mediterranean, has been one of the main hubs for weapons testing and interforce training for the Italian armed forces and NATO. The book retraces the extent and the significance of military bases in Sardinia, and the rise of local collective actions and resistance. This case study offers relevant insights to understand the strategic role of islands in the post-war military space control, more specifically on geo-strategic policy in the Mediterranean and its effects on military/civil relations.
The relevance of the militarization of islands shed a light on opaque institutional decision processes that reinforce the figure of subaltern subjects - relegated to peripheral spaces and subdued to extractivism, dependency, and exclusion. It will be of interest to students and researchers of sociology, sociology of environment and risk, globalization, social movement studies, postcolonial studies and political studies.
Reviews / Votes
"This critical study of the militarization of one of the large islands of the Mediterranean Sea reveals the implicit violence of NATO operations as an everyday experience in the margins of Europe. From the impacts of contamination of training grounds for the armed forces, to the emergence of grassroots social movements that contested appropriations of the traditional commons, the Sardinian case highlights social agency in the face of environmental injustice. This book should be of widespread interest in political sociology, anthropology, geography, history, and environmental studies, and it comes at a time when we should all reflect." (Tracey Heatherington, University of British Columbia, Canada)
"One normally thinks of Sardinia as a beautiful Mediterranean island, destination for holidays and carefree days. This makes it an even more disturbing object when analysed as a case of inner colonialism in the western area. Using a varied set of methodologies, the book skillfully analyses how this has happened through the militarisation of a geographically strategic space. It shows how this process occurred through classic power relations between centre and periphery, with dynamics that we are used to thinking of for realities outside the West." (Paola Rebughini, University of Milan, Italy)
"Maddanu and Esu's rich ethnography brings out the specificities of resistance to militarization in Sardinia. At the same time, it makes clear the challenges faced by local communities all over the world as they seek some measure of autonomy and security in a world of contending powers." (Craig Calhoun, Arizona State University, USA)
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Persons
Aide ESU is Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Political and Social Sciences, at the University of Cagliari (Italy).
Simone MADDANU is Associate Professor of instruction in sociology, Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, at the University of South Florida, Tampa (US).
Content
Chapter 1: Occupying islands.- Chapter 2. Militarization, modernization, and consensus building strategy.- Chapter 3. Island militarization: beyond colonialism.- Chapter 4. Environmental risk and the decline of the military/civil relation.- Chapter 5. Collective actions and resistance.- Chapter 6. The Future of Resistance.