Catholics in the Making of the Italian Water Movement: A Moral Economy


Abstract


The commitment of several Catholic groups and individuals within the Italian mobilisation for public water has been interpreted as an original experience of Catholic bottom up presence in social movements in the broader context of a Catholic awakening and renovated activism in public affairs, particularly in the aftermaths of the June 2011 referenda. The article analyses Catholics’ the role and contribution in the making of the Italian water movement, in terms of defining the contents, the identity and the practices of the mobilisation, by revisiting Edward Thompson’s notion of moral economy. The thesis of the article is twofold. On one side the Italian water movement frame of “water as human right and commons” resonates Catholic Social Doctrine, facilitating the mobilisation of Catholic groups and contributing to highlight the moral and symbolic aspects of the contention. On the other side, Catholics’ presence in the mobilisation has been mimetic and little influenced the movement’s identity and repertoires of contention.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v7i1p35

Keywords: Catholicism; Italian politics; moral economy; social movements; water

References


Bakker K. (2007), “The “Commons” Versus the “Commodity”: Alter‐globalization, Anti‐privatization and the Human Right to Water in the Global South”, Antipode, 39(3), 430-455.

Bayart J. F., Mbembe J. A., Toulabor C. M. (2008), Le politique par le bas en Afrique noire, Paris: Karthala Editions.

Bayart J. F. (2008), “Comparer en France”. Politix, 3, 205-232.

Benecomune.net (2011) Il risveglio dei cattolici, December 14, 2011, retrieved February 19, 2014 (http://benecomune.net/news.interna.php?notizia=1432)

Benedictus XVI (2008), Message in occasion of the 2008 at the International Expo of Saragoza, July 10, 2008, retrieved February 19, 2014

(http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20080710_expo-zaragoza_en.html)

Benedictus XVI (2009), Encyclical letter Caritas in veritate.

Benford R. D. (1993), “Frame Disputes within the Nuclear Disarmament Movement”, Social Forces, (71)3, 677-701.

Benford R. D., Snow D. A. (1988), “Ideology, frame resonance, and participant mobilization”, International social movement research, 1(1), 197-217.

Benford R. D., Snow D. A. (2000), “Framing processes and social movements: An overview and assessment”, Annual review of sociology, 26, 611-639, doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.611

Bersani M. (2011), Come abbiamo vinto il referendum. Dalla battaglia per l’acqua pubblica alla democrazia dei beni comuni, Roma: Edizioni Alegre.

Bianchi E. (2011), “Il risveglio dei cattolici nel paese malato”, La Repubblica, October 22.

Carrozza C. (2012), “I referendum di giugno. Una vittoria a metà”, in A. Bosco and D. McDonnell (eds), Politica in Italia: i fatti dell'anno e le interpretazioni. Edizione 2012, Bologna: Il Mulino.

Carrozza C., Fantini E. (eds. 2013), Si scrive acqua. Attori, saperi e pratiche del movimento italiano per l’acqua, Torino: Academia University Press.

Clarke J., Newman J. (2012), “The alchemy of austerity”, Critical social policy, 32(3), 299-319.

Coatanéa D. (2013), “Bene comune”, Aggiornamenti Sociali, 64(5), 424-428.

Costa G. (2011), “Cattolici in politica, come superare il Berlusconismo”, Aggiornamenti Sociali, 62(11), 645-650.

Daston L. (1995), “The moral economy of science”, Osiris, 10, 2-24.

De Rita G. (2011a), “La trappola della semplicità”, Corriere della Sera, June 20.

De Rita G. (2011b), “I tre mondi paralleli (da federare) dei cattolici che guardano alla politica”, Corriere della sera, August 6.

Diamanti I. (2011), “Il movimento che rende visibile il cambiamento del Paese”, La Repubblica, June 27.

Diotallevi L. (2011), “Il compito dei cattolici sulla scena pubblica”, Avvenire, June 23.

Fantini E. (2012), “Water as Human Rights and Commons. Themes and Practices in the Italian Water Movement”, Pace Diritti Umani, 2, 15-40.

Fassin D. (2009), “Les économies morales revisitées”, Annales. Histoire, sciences sociales, Vol. 64(6), 1237-1266, Editions de l’EHESS.

Foucault M. (1994). Le sujet et le pouvoir. Dits et écrits, 4, 222-243.

Garelli F. (2013), “Religion and Civil Society in Italy and in Other Latin Countries”, in Religion and Civil Society in Europe, Springer, Netherlands.

Gemici K. (2013), “Moral Economy Redux: Social Protests in Turkey After the 2001 Economic Crisis”, Mobilization, 18(2), 143-160.

Grover C. (2011), “Social Protest in 2011: Material and Cultural Aspects of Economic Inequalities”, Sociological Research Online, 16(4), 18, doi: 10.5153/sro.2538

Hardt M., Negri A. (2009), Commonwealth, Harvard University Press.

Infanti de la Mora L. (2010), Dacci oggi la nostra acqua quotidiana, Bologna: Editrice Missionaria Italiana.

Istituto Piepoli (2012), Indagine nazionale sulla percezione del servizio idrico da parte dei consumatori.

Jampaglia C., Molinari E. (2010), Salvare l'acqua: contro la privatizzazione dell'acqua pubblica in Italia, Milano: Feltrinelli Editore.

John Paul II (1991), Encyclical letter Centesimus annus.

Lonsdale J. (1992), The moral economy of Mau Mau: wealth, poverty and civic virtue in Kikuyu political thought. Unhappy Valley: Conflict in Kenya and Africa. London: James Currey, 315-505.

Mattei U. (2012), Beni comuni. Un manifesto, Bari: Laterza.

Mattei U., Reviglio E. Rodotà S. (eds. 2007), Invertire la rotta. Idee per una riforma della proprietà pubblica, Bologna: il Mulino.

Matteucci N. (1983), “Bene comune”, in N. Bobbio, N. Matteucci, G. Pasquino (eds), Dizionario di Politica, Torino: Utet (Seconda edizione riveduta e ampliata).

Mazzoni D., Cicognani E. (2012), “Water as a Commons: An Exploratory Study on the Motives for Collective Action Among Italian Water Movement Activists”, Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 23(4), 314-330, doi: 10.1002/casp.2123

Molinari E. (2007), Acqua: argomenti per una battaglia, Milano: Punto rosso.

Molinari E (2012), “Il referendum, la politica nel contesto della crisi. Considerazioni sul movimento dell'acqua con tanti "se" e tanti "ma", January 7, 2012, retrieved February 19, 2014 (http://www.fondfranceschi.it/cogito-ergo-sum/il-referendum-la-politica-nel-contesto-della-crisi 7 January 7; 2012.

Mosse D. (1997), “The symbolic making of a common property resource: history, ecology and locality in a tank‐irrigated landscape in south India”, Development and change, 28(3), 467-504, doi: 10.1111/1467-7660.00051

Näre L. (2011), “The Moral Economy of Domestic and Care Labour: Migrant Workers in Naples, Italy”, Sociology, 45(3), 396-412, doi: 10.1177/0038038511399626

Paul V. I. (1967), Encyclical letter Populorum progressio.

Petrella R. (2001), Il Manifesto dell’acqua. Il diritto alla vita per tutti, Torino: Edizioni Gruppo Abele.

Petrini C. (2010), “Acqua. Quando il bene comune diventa una merce”, La Repubblica, May 6.

Pontificium Consilium Justixia et Pax (2004), Compendio della dottrina sociale della chiesa, Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Pontificium Consilium Justixia et pax (2013), Water. An essential element for life. Holy seat contributions to the World Water Fora, Città del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Popoli (2011), “E dopo? I cattolici nell’Italia post Berlusconi”, Popoli, November.

Ostrom E.
 (1990), Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Roitman, J. (2000), “Economie morale, subjectivité et politique”, Critique internationale, 6(1), 48-56.

Scott J. C. (1977), The moral economy of the peasant: Rebellion and subsistence in Southeast Asia, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Rodotà S. (2012), Il diritto di avere diritti, Bari: Laterza.

Siméant J. (2011), “Économie morale» et protestation–détours africains” Genèses, (4), 142-160.

Sorcinelli P (1998), Storia sociale dell’acqua. Riti e culture, Milano: Bruno Mondadori.

Tosi S., Vitale T. (2009), “Explaining How Political Culture Changes: Catholic Activism and the Secular Left in Italian Peace Movements”, Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest, 8(2), 131-147, doi:10.1080/14742830902770282

Toso M (2011), “La caritas in veritate due anni dopo. Ricezione ecclesiale e civile”, La società, 4, 594-631.

Teti V (ed. 2003), Storia dell’acqua. Mondi materiali e universi simbolici, Roma: Donzelli.

Tilly C. (1986), The Contentious French. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Thompson E. P. (1963), The making of the English working class, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.

Thompson E. P. (1971), “The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century”, Past & present, (50), 76-136, doi: 10.1093/past/50.1.76

Trawick, P. (2001). The moral economy of water: Equity and antiquity in the Andean commons. American Anthropologist, 103(2), 361-379, doi: 10.1525/aa.2001.103.2.361

Trawick P. (2002), “The Moral Economy of Water: General Principles for Successfully Managing the Commons”, Gaia, 11(3), 191-193.

Trawick P. (2003), “Against the privatization of water: An indigenous model for improving existing laws and successfully governing the commons”, World Development, 31(6), 977-996, doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(03)00049-4

Trawick P., Reig M.O, Salvador G. P. (2014), “Encounters with the moral economy of water: convergent evolution in Valencia”, WIREs Water, 1, 87-110.

Van Aken M. I. (2012), La diversità delle acque. Antropologia di un bene molto comune, Lungavilla: Edizioni Altravista.

Vatican Council I. I. (1965), Pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world. Gaudium et spes.

Wutich A. (2011), “The moral economy of water re-examined: Reciprocity,

Water Insecurity, and Urban Survival in Cochabamba, Bolivia”, Journal of anthropological research, 67(1), 5-26.

Zanotelli A. (2010), Giù le mani dall’acqua. Diario e ragioni di un impegno, Bologna: Editrice Missionaria Italiana.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.