Paper short abstract:

Building on the metaphor of scratching in a huge petrochemical hub in southern Italy, this paper analyzes current conservation battles within emerging conversations about ecological frictions, late capitalist dynamics and politics of time-space in a climate of increasing industrial decline.

Paper long abstract:

Abandoned archaeological sites, a shooting range off-limits to the public, the rubble of a dismissed chemical factory on the horizon in an apocalyptic, almost fossilized, 1990s landscape and the prototype for a futuristic solar plant in south-eastern Sicily, in one of the largest petrochemical hubs in Europe, open up a frictional zone between the accumulation of historical traces over time and the presentification of possible alternative futures. In this paper, the metaphor of scratching sheds light on a form of agency that hinges on the manipulation of these contested, heterotopic landscapes displaying the effects of industrial processing and land grabbing. Indeed, transforming the environment into a DJing deck to fight and battle it out, environmental justice movements in Siracusa on the one hand muffle the latent anxiety and acquired insensitivity of everyday forms of disaster, while on the other expand the ring of light in which to imagine future alternatives through a phantasmagoric mix of natural and heritage conservation. Scratching thus represents a virtuoso technique used by groups who manage to disrupt late industrial logic, and reveal its gaps and latent contradictions. Building on the analysis of one specific case - a public demonstration, halfway between an eco-cultural outing and a protest march that I have captured during my fieldwork in this declining petrochemical hub -, I will analyze current conservation battles in the area within emerging anthropological conversations about ecological frictions, capitalist dynamics and politics of time-space in a climate of increasing industrial decline.