Ecological Transition vs Heritage? Common goods, energy transition and sustainable development in Sardinia

Abstract

In this contribution, I reflect on the relationship between the ecological transition, sustainable development, and the protection and safeguarding of cultural and natural heritage. The environmental question and the heritagization processes have several aspects in common, starting with their emergence as supranational issues in late industrial societies, but they can also present areas of friction that allow the detection of development models, visions of the future and different interests on goods and values at a local and national/global level, in contexts of socio-economic imbalances. To examine the issue, I analyze some socio-environmental conflicts in Sardinia (Italy), in which civic committees, movements, and associations act in defense of the common goods by opposing works (wind farms, drilling), projected towards toward a model of economic “development” which is considered “sustainable”, based on the exploitation of relatively “clean” (methane) or renewable (wind) energy sources. In particular, this contribution examines the practices and the discursive strategies adopted by the parties involved, focusing attention on the different ways of using environmental issues, and those related to heritage.