Governare la Natura, Naturalizzare la Governance: un'Analisi del Bacino Fluviale del Seveso

This chapter analyses the governance of the socio-economic transformations of the Seveso river basin, starting from the approval of the River Contract in 2006. The work offers an interpretation of the main conflicts that emerged in the negotiation process starting from two empirical focuses: the structure of power relations in the urban-fluvial regime of the Seveso and the role of knowledge and technical-engineering expertise in conflict resolution. The proposed study is the result of a research work started in 2013. The data collected include secondary and primary resources: the analysis of community and local environmental legislation was accompanied by focus groups, participatory observation of public debates and 38 semi-structured interviews with mayors and municipal officials, managers and officials of the Lombardy Region, Basin Authorities, technicians and local environmental organisations.