Rights of Nature and European Water Bodies: Ways of Relating from the Confluence
open access | peer reviewed-
edited by
- Pietro Consolandi - University of Southampton - email
- Martin Hultman - University of Gothenburg - email
- Angela Snæfellsjökuls Rawlings - University of Iceland - email
- Julia Schasfoort - Delft University of Technology - email
Building on a diverse wealth of contributions around the topic of Rights of Nature (RoN) in Europe, this Special Issue stems from the artists, activists and academics, water people who animate the Confluence of European Water Bodies network. The essays focus on different ways of relating with water bodies in order to grant them recognition before the law and within more-than-human systems of law and governance. The Special Issues contributes to the lively discussion on how to move beyond anthropocentric environmental law and policy, giving voice to the web of life in which we are entangled and the grassroots, marginalised communities participating in this struggle. The geographical focus on Europe shows the manifold points of view within the continent, often described as late in joining the RoN movement or culturally allergic to any kind of ecocentric shift.
Keywords Embodied knowledges • Collective • Relationality • Social-ecological transformation • Local ecological knowledge • Deep ecology • Embodiment • Landscape • Siphonophorae Society • Lake Vättern • Pedagogy • Environmental humanities • Amphibious living • Natural entities • Institutional design, Green Legal Theory • Water bodies • River justice • Literature • Spatial design • Wales • River personhood • Representation • Buen Vivir • Socio-ecological systems • Co-creation • Meuse • Constitution • River as a subject • Ecofeminism • Sketchbooks • Voice • Legal personhood • Altered nature • Hydro bodies • North Sea • Venice Lagoon • Rights of nature • Ecological justice • Degrowth • Multispecies • Posthumanism • Making • Ethics • Poetry • More-than-Human • More-than-humandesign • Civic design • Subjectification • Listening • Waterbodies • Sedimenting • More-than-human rights • Affective pedagogy • Multi-species stewardship • Po River • Water • Democracy • Belonging • Reuss-Initiative • Orthopedics of waters • Overview effect • Collaboration • Unlearning • Walking • Charter of the Rights • Biopolitics • Colère publique • Situated practice • Ontological politics • Fundamental rights • Legal personality • Temporalities • Decolonisation • Placed-based art research • Commons • Venice • River Taff • Textile • Ecocentrism • Rights for Nature • Rights of Nature • Limits • Artistic research • Aquatic doppelgängers • Drawing • Bioregional governance • Water governance • Somatic listening • Care • Hydrofeminism • Political legibility • Mar Menor • Sensory ethnography • Imaginaries • Ceremony • Conviviality
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2026/01 | Published Aug. 6, 2026 | Language en
Copyright © Pietro Consolandi, Martin Hultman, Angela Snæfellsjökuls Rawlings, Julia Schasfoort. 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.