The politics of coastal erosion in Sicily: Concrete infrastructures and the economy of disaster

• Emergency and mafia rationales have formed a ‘disaster economy’ around coastal erosion in Sicily. • A better understanding of different narratives of sustainability is crucial for future coastal land use. • Arts-based methods can open up ways of producing knowledge in a participatory way and for opening up dialogue for transformative change. This paper analyses how coastal governance and coastal protection infrastructure in Sicily are driven by specific interests that produce and stabilise unsustainable coastal protection practices and contribute to a coastal ‘disaster capitalism’. The driving logics of the coastal ‘disaster economy’ are rooted in mafia socionatures and rationalities of speculation and are reinforced by the widespread belief that coastal protection requires large-scale cement infrastructure. This belief is based on a dualistic divide between nature and culture and on narratives of controlling the sea. As these narratives appear to be consensual in Sicily, unsustainable coastal protection infrastructures become not only possible, but publicly desirable. The article is based on an analytical lens of political ecology and on extensive ethnographic research. I have also developed a tentative transformative research approach. This approach is based on the idea of shaping more just and sustainable coastal futures through public engagement and through art-based methods. Together with photographer Barbara Dombrowski, our vision was to create a space where the issue of coastal erosion could be discussed with reference to the photographs. The photos were taken during a joint research trip and in collaboration with local people. Alongside the ethnographic analysis, the photographs offer a fresh perspective on coastal erosion, one that emphasises the political and economic interests of powerful actors rather than the engineering perspectives that otherwise dominate. The photographs are currently being exhibited at various locations in Sicily, alongside public panel discussions.