Contribution short abstract

This study analyzes socio-environmental movements in the Mar Menor (Spain), exploring how activists build human and more than human coalitions, mobilize discursive frameworks, and generate governance alternatives, including the lagoon’s legal personhood.

Contribution long abstract

Our research explores socio-environmental movements involved in conflicts over water in ecologically sensitive enclaves in Europe, focusing on the Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia, Spain. The Mar Menor is the first aquatic ecosystem in Europe to receive legal personhood, offering a unique case to examine how socio-environmental movements generate alternatives to the eco-social crisis.

Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews with activists and legal experts, participant observation, and field journals, the study analyzes how movements participate in and develop narratives about coalitions between human and more-than-human actors in the territory—including agro-industrial systems, pig farms, historical mining residues, and ecological restoration initiatives—and how these coalitions trigger conflicts and innovations in socio-ecological governance. The research highlights how activists mobilize discursive frameworks to defend the ecosystem, engage citizen participation, and advocate for governance models that recognize nature as a rights-bearing entity.

By situating the Mar Menor case within broader debates on eco-social conflict, rights of nature, and socio-environmental activism, this study demonstrates how grassroots movements transform territorial, political, and social imaginaries. It also shows the potential of collective action to co-constitute socio-natural identities, shape governance alternatives, and influence institutional frameworks. This work contributes to understanding how socio-environmental movements in Europe navigate eco-social conflicts and actively produce knowledge, practices, and policies that advance environmental justice and sustainable governance of aquatic ecosystems.