Florence and the River Arno: notes for a redefinition of their mutual relations from a gender perspective

Abstract

The main aspiration of this article is that the brief notes it contains can foster a political debate on the possibility of establishing a renewed, multifactorial and multiscale relationship between the city of Florence, its territorial context and the river that runs through them (the Arno), in order to reconsider it on the basis of a renewed point of view and from an ecofeminist perspective, not only in spatial and physical terms but also in temporal and sociocultural terms. The work methodology adopted combines documentary-type bibliographic research with experience and direct observation of the places analysed. The text is structured in a first part in which new views and a renewed theoretical framework for analysis and critical reading of the current situation are proposed, in a second more historiographical part which very briefly explores in what terms the relationship and interaction between city, territory and river has favoured the development of certain activities at the expense of others, in a third part of discussion of the analysed data and, finally, in a conclusive part in which potential cultural, economic and spatial strategies are outlined to renovate that relationship.