Civic Engagement and The Urban Politics of Biodiversity. A Qualitative Inquiry on Grassroots Initiatives in Milan

Biodiversity has recently emerged as a key issue for the urban governance of the ‘smart city’ (Nilon et al. 2017). Traditionally conceived as a property of ‘wildernesses’ within the field of environmental conservation, it is now becoming part of a wider debate investing the green urban regeneration projects. Its definition is thus far from just a scientific concern and it is subjected to various operational declinations linked to urban policies and politics. It can be observed as part of bottom-up citizen discourses and practices of ‘right to nature’ (urban community gardens) (Blok et al. 2022) as much as part of a top-down strategy of ecological modernization of the urban growth machine (Logan and Molotch, 1987) – as a commodity enriching new forms of soil consumption or green investments. Current programs of urban biodiversity are thus part of the new governance of ‘smart cities’ that become the more and more mainstream (Angelo, Wachsmuth, 2020). New initiatives regarding urban biodiversity triggers also interesting dynamics regarding the relations among technical experts, citizens, and green politics. Notwithstanding its 'naturalistic' appeal, urban biodiversity is neither a 'technical' nor a 'political' issue but the outcome of a boundary-making process involving social and political dimensions as much as the scientific and collective actors promoting it (Gieryn, 1983). Along the scientific and technical domain: conservation ecologists can have an idea of urban biodiversity that ‘protects’ currently existing urban voids where nature has spontaneously arisen (dismissed urban factories or railway stations); urban planners can promote biodiversity as a key component of a process of green modernization of the city. On the other hand, the public interest toward biodiversity implicates: business groups promoting new forms of urban growth and thus making of biodiversity a commodity or a service; civic initiatives at the local level promotes very different bottom-up practices of a ‘right to nature’ in the city, that resist these processes and claim for biodiversity as a common good. Following these points, the main question driving this paper is the following: if biodiversity is becoming a key asset of the new urban governance, what are the characteristics of the urban politics of biodiversity? How is the problem of nature politicized by the main relevant collective actors within the new green/sustainable/smart city? How does biodiversity become a public good subjected to conflicts and aspirations? How is it possible to speak about a democratic participation on biodiversity? The presentation compares evidence from in-depth cases of citizens participation and conflicts in the metropolitan area of Milan. It pinpoints the key challenges and opportunities of the politics of urban biodiversity and link them to the broader attempts to 'democratize the green city'. The proposal aims to discuss methodological challenges and opportunities that regards civic engagement on green initiatives in the urban area of Milan, looking at the spatial characteristics of neighborhoods as much as the agency and the cultural practices put in place by citizens. The goal of this work is to provide a sociological explanation of the civic relations developed around urban biodiversity, and how this issue can inform new debates around: forms of green gentrification triggering new forms of inequalities and exclusion (Gould and Lewis, 2017), the ‘right to nature’ linked to environmental justice and common good (Gilbert and Phillips, 2003).