Ecosistemi ostili: un'impronta vittoriana sulla questione ecologica? Omaggio a Silvana Castignone

The essay hypothesizes and critically discusses a conceivable impact of the Victorian outline of the hostile environment on the ecological issue and its subsequent theoretical explanations. The colonial practices of British imperialism were used to alter and control the climate. Furthermore, they used the environment as a political category that legitimized some processes such as racialization, exploitation of natural resources and relations of domination through descriptive stereotypes that referred to both indigenous populations and Europeans settled in tropical areas: these processes were subsequently reproduced in post- and decolonial logics and institutions. Finally, the continuing influence of the Victorian hostile environment narrative, which we argue has been extending to the present day, on the Italian courts’ pronouncements on the safety of climate migrants is examined.