Working-class communities and ecology: reframing environmental justice around the Ilva steel plant in Taranto (Apulia, Italy)

The first part of this chapter offers a critical review of environmental sociology and political ecology, highlighting the contribution they have made to a redefinition of class, and social inequalities in general. The authors then elaborate on their definition of ‘Working-Class Community Ecology.’ The second part of this chapter applies this concept to the case of a working-class community in the city of Taranto, southern Italy, where the 2012 confiscation of a giant steelmaking complex, the ILVA plant – due to serious violations of environmental regulations – is jeopardizing thousands of jobs, thus forming a threat to the local community’s subsistence and identity. The authors investigate the surreptitious way through which both governmental and business actors have actively prevented the making of a class-based environmental consciousness in Taranto.