Abstract

The project proposes a bottom-up perspective on socio-environmental conflicts, focusing on the theoretical relevance of working people’s ‘livelihood dilemmas’. The research perspective combines a social reproduction framework with a political ecology approach to develop a comparative study of livelihood practices, popular ecologies and socio-environmental conflicts. Industrial and post-industrial cities in Italy and Portugal have been selected to carry out in-depth ethnographic investigations. Unveiling connections and frictions between grassroots ecologies and global dynamics, the project aims at outlining a framework for thinking potential forms of grassroots agencies in creating spaces for sustainable socio-ecological transformations.