Volume 2 | Handout | The Anthropocene Waterscapes of Venice

The Anthropocene Waterscapes of Venice

open access
    edited by
  • Pietro Daniel Omodeo - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email
  • Pietro Consolandi - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email

Abstract
This handbook is an interdisciplinary introduction to the Anthropocene, the epoch in which the combined impact of humans and their technologies on the Earth system is comparable to that of natural forces. To more concretely consider the historical, political, and epistemological conditions behind the Anthropocene, the handbook takes the water city of Venice, along with its cultural–natural ecology, as the paradigm of the ongoing geoanthropological transformation of the planet. In connection with the educational program of the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the contributions herein reflect environmental humanities research, with an emphasis on hydrosociology, supported by the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chair on Water Heritage and Sustainable Development and the NICHE Centre for Environmental Humanities. The handbook contains a series of lessons, in which scholars with different backgrounds and disciplinary training examine the historical development of the human–nature relationship from multiple comparative perspectives. Unit One (four lessons) offers an overview of Anthropocene Venice, ranging from a discussion of riverine and aquatic mythologies to the history of water science and management, from antiquity to the industrial age. Unit Two (three lessons) deals with the general question of the Anthropocene, the genealogies of the concept, and its articulation as a problem of oversight and knowledge economy, including artistic vistas (e.g., bird’s-eye view, vedute, and aerial photography). Unit Three (three lessons) is a comparative discussion of water cities – Venice, Tenochtitlán, and Bangkok – against the background of hydrophilia, the lasting connection between humans and aquatic environments in history. Unit Four (four lessons) explores the cultural politics of the Anthropocene, with a special emphasis on the following issues: the social underpinnings of science and technology, the mission of eco-artistic movements, resistance to the extractivism of material resources and cultural commons, and the struggles for the rights of nature against ecocide.

Keywords Water cities • Anthropocene • Water heritage • Sustainable development • Hydrosociology • Environmental humanities • Ecology • Venice • Geoanthropology

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-933-7 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-933-7 | ISBN (PRINT) 978-88-6969-934-4 | Published June 10, 2025 | Submitted April 2, 2025 | Language en

Copyright © 2025 Pietro Daniel Omodeo, Pietro Consolandi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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