Governing Climate Change: a foucaultian reading of the DESENACT project

This contribution explores the DESENACT project – Desenzano for Community Transition towards Climate Adaptation – using key ideas from Michel Foucault. Launched by the Alta Scuola per l’Ambiente (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brescia) and the Municipality of Desenzano del Garda, the project supports local climate adaptation through action-research, environmental education, and citizen participation. DESENACT starts from the idea that climate adaptation is not only a technical or legal issue, but also a cultural and social challenge. It requires communities to recognize their vulnerability, share knowledge, and build local responses. The project promotes a bottom-up approach that values local knowledge and supports intergenerational dialogue. This approach challenges the dominance of expert-based knowledge, opening space for subjective and everyday experiences. A survey of 500 residents shows that people’s knowledge about climate is often fragmented and influenced by symbolic or non-scientific views. DESENACT does not treat these views as wrong but uses them as a starting point for contextual and inclusive education (Malavasi, 2017; Birbes, 2017). This choice reflects Foucault’s idea that knowledge is always linked to power and can support transformation. In this context, the concept of biopolitics (Foucault, 2005) helps us understand how climate adaptation becomes a way of governing life – managing health, safety, and the environment. However, this form of governance can also risk producing passive behavior or blaming individuals instead of addressing systemic problems. DESENACT tries to avoid this by promoting real participation. Citizens are seen as active agents who can contribute to decisions and promote change. This connects with Foucault’s idea of governmentality (Foucault, 2015): a form of power that works not by force, but by guiding people’s behavior through norms, education, and self-regulation. In this way, adaptation becomes an example of ecological governmentality. People are invited to act responsibly, but this also requires critical thinking. It is important to distinguish between real empowerment and subtle control. DESENACT proposes an educational path that supports ecological subjectivation (Cappa, 2013). Inspired by the ancient idea of epimeleia heautou (care of the self), the project encourages people to reflect, take care of others, and protect their environment. Through “meeting places” created by the project, different kinds of knowledge meet and citizens co-create shared narratives. Finally, DESENACT can be seen as a practice of situated epistemology, where knowledge is built in relation to people, places, and experiences. Here, discourse (Foucault, 2004) is not only a way of communicating, but also a powerful tool for change – shaping new subjectivities, practices, and collective visions of the future.