In September 2024, the acronym PFAS entered the European public debate. Mario Draghi, presenting the report on the future of European competitiveness, stated that PFAS are necessary to produce clean technologies, which are fundamental for the so-called green and energy transition. This line is also expressed by Italian and European industrial associations. Hydrogen is therefore the cornerstone of the “socio-technical imaginaries” that guide the green and energy transition, with the central role of technological innovation and expertise. This strategy is useful for discursively justifying the production of potentially harmful substances. PFAS are in fact considered “universal pollutants” whose health effects have long been known epidemiologically as Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (Edc), causing damage to the liver and thyroid, obesity, fertility problems and cancer. The issue we raise in this essay lies in the territorial concentration of harmfulness: the production of PFAS involves populations and territories already made vulnerable by the pre-existence of chemical hubs, thus exacerbating their “sacrificial” condition. This transition relegates old and new unwelcome production to populations and territories already subject to the toxic legacy of the chemical industry. Sacrifice is also defended here as an antidote to the threat of decommissioning and unemployment, thus relaunching the supposed choice between work and health in a green key. In this context, the energy transition is understood as indirect, structural and cultural environmental violence, causing degradation, devastation and a general deterioration of the ma- terial foundations of human and non-human life. Our essay presents the results of qualitative research carried out around the chemical plant of Spinetta Marengo, Alessandria, Piedmont, the only PFAS production site in Italy. We explored two aspects: the role of the chemical industry in the energy transition, lobbying and the power of expert knowledge in the discursive imposition of socio-technical scenarios. The effects of narrative violence on a territorial scale, the misrecognition of local knowledge and the asymmetries of power to discursively determine the acceptabil- ity of damage to the environment and health.
L'imposizione discorsiva di una transizione ingiusta: industria chimica e violenza narrativa in una zona di sacrificio
MARTONE Vittorio
;BECHIS Eleonora
2025-01-01
Abstract
In September 2024, the acronym PFAS entered the European public debate. Mario Draghi, presenting the report on the future of European competitiveness, stated that PFAS are necessary to produce clean technologies, which are fundamental for the so-called green and energy transition. This line is also expressed by Italian and European industrial associations. Hydrogen is therefore the cornerstone of the “socio-technical imaginaries” that guide the green and energy transition, with the central role of technological innovation and expertise. This strategy is useful for discursively justifying the production of potentially harmful substances. PFAS are in fact considered “universal pollutants” whose health effects have long been known epidemiologically as Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (Edc), causing damage to the liver and thyroid, obesity, fertility problems and cancer. The issue we raise in this essay lies in the territorial concentration of harmfulness: the production of PFAS involves populations and territories already made vulnerable by the pre-existence of chemical hubs, thus exacerbating their “sacrificial” condition. This transition relegates old and new unwelcome production to populations and territories already subject to the toxic legacy of the chemical industry. Sacrifice is also defended here as an antidote to the threat of decommissioning and unemployment, thus relaunching the supposed choice between work and health in a green key. In this context, the energy transition is understood as indirect, structural and cultural environmental violence, causing degradation, devastation and a general deterioration of the ma- terial foundations of human and non-human life. Our essay presents the results of qualitative research carried out around the chemical plant of Spinetta Marengo, Alessandria, Piedmont, the only PFAS production site in Italy. We explored two aspects: the role of the chemical industry in the energy transition, lobbying and the power of expert knowledge in the discursive imposition of socio-technical scenarios. The effects of narrative violence on a territorial scale, the misrecognition of local knowledge and the asymmetries of power to discursively determine the acceptabil- ity of damage to the environment and health.
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