Solastalgia as Disruption of Biocultural Identity. The Mount Amiata Geothermal Conflict

Abstract

Some residents of Mount Amiata in Tuscany, Italy, are experiencing emotional distress and solastalgia due to changes in their beloved land. Mount Amiata is witnessing protests by citizens’ associations and activists who criticize the alleged social, economic, and environmental sustainability of geothermal energy. The analysis of the environmental conflict around geothermal energy on Mount Amiata contributes to the empirical use of the concepts of "solastalgia” as affective rupture of biocultural relationships and identities. In the area surrounding Mount Amiata, the production of geothermal energy is experienced as an attack on the biodiversity of the "Mother Mountain," as a loss of the sense of home, and as part of a "predatory philosophy" employed by ENEL (Ente Nazionale per l’Energia Elettrica, National Electricity Board). This ethnographic study aims to analyze how the transformation of places influences the affective and biocultural identity of their inhabitants.

Keywords:

• Solastalgia
• biodiversity
• emotions
• environmental conflict
• geothermal energy
• biocultural identity

Ethics Statements

Names of participants were changed throughout this article for privacy reasons. The information and consent forms provided to participants were drawn up in accordance with the EU regulation 2016/679 relating to the protection of physical persons.

Notes

1 Ente Nazionale per l’Energia Elettrica (National Electricity Board).

2 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Research Council).

3 Mount Amiata is home to one of the most important and largest beech forests in Europe.

4 The local authorities, as members of the CoSviG (Consorzio per lo Sviluppo delle Aree Geotermiche-Consortium for the Development of Geothermal Areas), participate in the management of the geothermal contributions and fees collected by the consortium.

5 This is a network of companies founded in 2013 that brings together businesses holding research permits and production capacities in the geothermal field.

6 Agenzia Regionale di Sanità (Regional Health Agency).

7 Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale della Toscana (Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Tuscany).

8 See https://ecoesione.ec.unipi.it/.

9 Acronym for “Confederazione Italiana Sindacati e Lavoratori” (Italian Confederation of Trade Unions and Workers), one of the largest Italian trade unions.

10 One of the most important Italian environmental associations.

Additional information

Funding

The case study is part of the wider Ecoesione (Ecohesion) project (Social cohesion in the ecological transition). The project was founded by the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITE, Call Snsvs2, code NP 2.73) and managed by the University of Pisa (Departments of Economics and Management, Political Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Center of Sciences for Peace).