Paper short abstract:

EU conservation schemes, while broader in scale, continue trends long underway in parts of Europe. Through examples from Italy, I unpack the ideological contiguity with previous processes of modernistic homologation of the countryside, and discuss possible directions for future intervention.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I explore the idea that EU-inspired conservation schemes, although more impactful in scale, are a continuation of broader trends long underway in parts of Europe. Drawing examples from Italy, I argue that these policies are indeed the latest stage in historical processes of modernistic regulation and cultural homologation of the countryside. Over the centuries, these processes have hinged on the predatory supremacy of urban centers at the expense of rural peripheries. Successively, they have found legitimization in scientific ideologies that idolize a supposed state of nature without humans, and in naive views of tourism as a passe-partout to economic development. In recent years, colonization of the countryside has enjoyed ideological support almost from the entire political spectrum, including environmental parties. The most common outcome has been a rapid loss of cultural heritage and productive spaces, while the expected benefits have been slow in being delivered: once functional links to the landscape are removed, establishing tourist circuits and other activities reveals more problematic than initially assumed.

I conclude that, in virtue of this intricate background, a multifocal approach is needed to try to redress current EU's "green" policies. In particular, closer collaborations with biologists can help deconstruct the myth that ecosystems without humans are necessarily more "natural" and desirable. Most important, however, will be that rural and marginal populations can rely on appropriate political representation: all attempts at democratizing land management and governance across Europe are bound to fail without this first step.