Contested flood risk reduction: an analysis of environmental and social claims in the city of Genoa

The most recent significant episodes of floods in terms of victims and damages in the city of Genoa occurred in 2011 and 2014. After 2014, the Italian government has changed its approach to flood risk management (FRM), adopting what has been called a change of direction towards flood risk reduction (FRR). Accordingly, the city has been involved in a process of governance and urban restructuring. In the wake of these governance and infrastructural transformations, I have conducted thirty-five semistructured interviews with local stakeholders. I use the results to discuss the adopted measures and their acceptability for the local community, focusing in particular on identifying the reasons and different narrative frames that move social dissent. The main reasons for dissent have been identified following two situations: no-recognition of the effectiveness of some works, and lack of adequate measures. Conclusions are that such manifestations of dissent could generate a discussion about the validity by the adopted FRR measures and claim for a more participative approach to the analysis of benefits and impacts produced by such measures. What emerges is in line with last international calls to overcome a technocratic approach to post-disaster, giving more space to community’s needs.