Table of Contents

Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword by John Eglin
Acknowledgments
 
Introduction: The Venice Problem and a Proposed Solution
 
PART ONE – VENICE’S MYTHICAL TRADITIONS
Chapter One: Founding Myths of the Venetian Republic
Chapter Two: Cultural Myths
 
PART TWO – FROM CONSERVATIONISM TO ENVIRONMENTALISM
Chapter Three: The Triumph of Conservationism
Chapter Four: Transforming Conservationism into Environmentalism
 
PART THREE – CLAIMS-MAKING ABOUT VENICE’S MOBILE DAMS
Chapter Five: Environmentalists Challenge Venice’s Mobile Dams
Chapter Six: Environmental Claims about Venice’s Mobile Dams
Chapter Seven: Myths about Venice’s Mobile Dams
 
PART FOUR – MYTHS ABOUT MODERNIZATION
Chapter Eight: Modernization and Environmentalism
Chapter Nine: Modernizing or Sustaining Venice?
 
Conclusion: The Reconstitution of the Venetian Metaphor
 
Appendix A: Profiles of Venetian Environmentalists Interviewed
Appendix B: List of Non-Governmental Organizations
Appendix C: List and Abbreviations of Political Parties
Appendix D: Glossary of Terminology
Chronology: Venice and its Protection
Bibliography
Index
 

About the Author

Dominic Standish, Ph.D., is British and lectures for the University of Iowa at its CIMBA campus in the Venice region of Italy, where he has lived since 1997 (see www.dominicstandish.com for more information).

Reviews

Venice is a glory of human achievement, and this book is the human-centered defense that the city deserves.
*Mick Hume, columnist for The Times (London)*

…A groundbreaking book for understanding the politicization of the environment.
*Dr. Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology, University of Kent at Canterbury*

…In Venice it’s impossible to ignore the cases where the science has been affected by politics.
*Jane Da Mosto, co-author of The Science of Saving Venice*

Standish has succeeded in locating the transforming history of Venice as metaphor for Western preoccupations and self-understanding - from the highest realization of mercantile politics and republican statehood through romance and degenerate decadence, to its contemporary invocation as a symbol of unease and discomfort with the achievements of modernity and the attempt to master nature. This is an important contribution to the critique of the diminished political and historical imagination that underpins the construction of climate change as an insurmountable social problem.
*Dr. James Panton*

Standish’s project is to re-conceptualize Venice’s historic relationship to human endeavor and to remind us that it was the energy and innovation of Venetians themselves that made Venice great. He succeeds admirably. His book is a valuable contribution not only to Venice’s future but to the wider debate on the efficacy of human intervention.
*Alan Hudson, director of Leadership Programs for China, University of Oxford*

Venice in Environmental Peril? Myth and Reality offers compelling evidence to disprove the arguments that Venice is in peril. . . . Recommend for the excellent critique Venice in Environmental Peril provides the contemporary concerns and preoccupations of environmentalism. . . . Dominic Standish represents a powerful response to the perception of Venice in peril, with a message that is loud and clear.
*The Future Cities Project*