- Emanuela Borgnino currently covering a tenure track Assistant Professorship at the University of Torino. I am an envi... moreEmanuela Borgnino currently covering a tenure track Assistant Professorship at the University of Torino. I am an environmental anthropologist from Italy with a major in Japanese Language and Culture and a PhD in Cultural and Social Anthropology. My work sits at the intersection of anthropology, environmental and conservation sciences, and Pacific Studies. For the last three years I have been conducting extensive research on the topic of ecological responsibility in the Hawaiian archipelago where I was a Visiting scholar at UH Manoa, Center for Pacific Island Studies. I am currently a JSPS Fellow in the Marine Climate Change Unit, where, with my cross-regional comparative focus on history, culture and ecology on Okinawa and Hawai‘i, I hope to improve our understanding of the bio-cultural dynamics between sociocultural and natural domains bearing on resilience and sustainability at fine-grained local, supra-local, and regional scales. Today my main interests are the climate change and Indigenous Science, and the role of Indigenous ontologies in the age of the Anthropocene.edit
In Oceania, the forces upon which people depend for their perceived needs are both visible and invisible. The subject ensues from the relationship with in(di)visible worlds, which are cause and result of inequalities. These last can often... more
In Oceania, the forces upon which people depend for their perceived needs are both visible and invisible. The subject ensues from the relationship with in(di)visible worlds, which are cause and result of inequalities. These last can often be independent from material actions of the subjects and rise from social relations in all their variations: "not social relations taken as distinct ontological domain, but all phenomena as potentially comprising or implying social relations" (Viveiros del Castro). "What, then counts as evidence of it? What is seen as origin of particular events, outcomes and set of behaviors?" (Strathern).
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Starting from a comparison between the Belep Islands (Kanaky New Caledonia) and O’ahu (Hawai’i), this paper aims to contribute to the debates about islands and the Anthropocene, highlighting the relevance of the social and ecological... more
Starting from a comparison between the Belep Islands (Kanaky New Caledonia) and O’ahu (Hawai’i), this paper aims to contribute to the debates about islands and the Anthropocene, highlighting the relevance of the social and ecological responsibilities deriving from genealogical connections to the islands: ‘the weight of the ancestors’. Considering the implications of these kinds of responsibilities can help to understand human and non-human relational entanglements better so as to value the agentive role of other-than-human perspectives.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Flood management has long been dominated by scientific expertise, centralized decision-making, and top-down professional management. However, changing patterns of risk probabilities instigate shifts in the ways floods are managed,... more
Flood management has long been dominated by scientific expertise, centralized decision-making, and top-down professional management. However, changing patterns of risk probabilities instigate shifts in the ways floods are managed, bringing forward the necessity for flood mitigation, preparedness and resilience. Community engagement is recognized as paramount in the attainment of these goals. This provokes risk management authorities to facilitate professionalization of community members in becoming risk management stakeholders. Professionalization of community engagement is becoming the esteemed norm, as it ensures better alignment between all stakeholders and increases capacity and efficiency of authority-community collaboration. At the same time, community engagement in flood management in general, and its professionalization, in particular, has its paradoxes. This paper examines the micro-level facets of professionalization of community engagement in Italy, Germany, England, and the Netherlands based on five-months fieldwork conducted in 2020 and discusses the ambivalent implications of professionalization for community engagement in flood risk management. We conclude that professionalization largely contributes to better coordination of the group members’ activities, their alignment with risk management needs and priorities, and enhances community members sense of belonging in the professional field of flood risk management. At the same time, professionalization entails the burden of increasing explicit and implicit state requirements for communities. It reinforces participatory limits and reproduces flood risk management unattainability for the broader public.
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This article focuses on ecological restoration and Indigenous re-claiming practices in the Valley of Mākua, on the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i, an area currently occupied by the US military. The island ‘welcomes’ an average of 6 million... more
This article focuses on ecological restoration and Indigenous re-claiming practices in the Valley of Mākua, on the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i, an area currently occupied by the US military. The island ‘welcomes’ an average of 6 million tourists a year seeking the socalled, ‘aloha experience.’ However, staging “Paradise” comes with a cost, the denial of a colonial past and an exploitative present. The aim of this article is to analyse Indigenous sovereignty eco-cultural practices through the activities of the Mālama Mākua association in the Valley of Mākua, which propose a new kind of relationship with the land a new ‘experience’ based on responsibilities and obligations rather than enjoyment and consumption.
"He wa’a he moku, he moku he wa’a” (La canoa è un’isola, l’isola è una canoa). Un detto comunemente usato alle Hawai’i, ci ricorda come il benessere collettivo e individuale dipenda dalla propensione alle relazioni, alla collaborazione,... more
"He wa’a he moku, he moku he wa’a” (La canoa è un’isola, l’isola è una canoa). Un detto comunemente usato alle Hawai’i, ci ricorda come il benessere collettivo e individuale dipenda dalla propensione alle relazioni, alla collaborazione, alla reciprocità tra esseri umani e ambiente. L'aspetto relazionale nello studio dell'ecologia, supportato da strumenti scientifici etnografici e antropologici, permette di indagare come si configurano queste relazioni ecologiche e i loro effetti concreti sul presente. La monografia si propone di approfondire il dialogo tra esseri umani e Natura in un luogo specifico, le Hawai’i considerato l’arcipelago più remoto al mondo in quanto il più lontano da altre terre emerse, ma non per questo isolato; dove il rapporto essere umano-ambiente è dipeso dalle connessioni oceaniche. Come ricorda il detto hawaiano - la canoa è un’isola, l’isola è una canoa - se pensiamo al pianeta Terra come ad un’isola, circondata dallo spazio cosmico, siamo tutti isolani e come tali sappiamo che viaggiando su una canoa (la Terra) nello spazio, abbiamo bisogno di lavorare insieme, ognuno nel suo posto, luogo, città, per superare le tempeste che ci aspettano. Vi è un elemento comune a molti saperi nativi: il senso di fiducia verso l’ambiente, che permette di agire e reagire ai cambiamenti e nell’interazione con altri organismi producendo risposte variabili e negoziate. Questa disposizione si traduce, almeno alle Hawai’i, in una fiducia nei luoghi, che custodi del passato sono al contempo espressione del presente e sentieri verso futuri immaginati. L’alternativa che viene proposta è di centrare il discorso ambientale sulle responsabilità nei confronti dei “luoghi” terresti, marini, fluviali e desertici. Attraverso un percorso etnografico verranno presentate le forme di responsabilità espresse attraverso la dimensione eco-sistemica, partecipatoria, collettiva, dell’interconnessione alla storia passata della colonizzazione e della denazionalizzazione del Regno delle Hawaii a alla consapevolezza contemporanea delle sfide ambientali sull’isola di Oahu e alla responsabilità politica per le future generazioni dei movimenti di sovranità indigena.