{ transhumance – transumanza }
Transhumance – in italian transumanza – refers to a seasonal form of pastoral mobility in which the shepherds move livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures, following ecological cycles, climate conditions and the availability of grazing land. Therefore is not merely a movement of animals, but a long-term spatial organization of the landscape based on adaptation and ecological interdependence.
The project investigates, in the military area of Capo Teulada, how transhumance emerges not merely as a traditional pastoral practice, but as a conceptual and analytical framework for
rethinking territory. Transhumance can be understood as a mobile social infrastructure: a system that organizes space through movement, seasonal rhythms, and social relations rather than
through fixed boundaries and permanent constructions. A practice through which affirm and maintain agency.
In Sardinia, transhumance connects fragmented landscapes, linking pastures, water sources, and communities into a living network that sustains both human and non-human life over time. Within a militarized context, this form of infrastructure reveals its critical potential. The spatial logic of transhumance stands in direct contrast to that of military occupation of land. While the latter produces enclosed, segmented, and intermittent territories, transhumance depends on permeability, continuity, and ecological integrity. Its routes require access across multiple zones,
stable environmental conditions, and the absence of contamination.
The environmental damage generated by military exercises (polluted soils, disrupted ecosystems) called here as ecocide, is therefore not incidental but structurally incompatible with transhumant practices. It interrupts routes, compromises grazing lands, and undermines the very conditions that sustain this mobile system. The conflict between militarization and transhumance is thus not merely a matter of land use, but a deeper clash between infrastructural logics.
This opposition is also epistemological. Transhumance embodies a situated form of knowledge produced through movement and direct engagement with the land. Its paths are not fixed lines on a map but are continuously redefined through practice. As such, transhumance trails can be interpreted as forms of counter-mapping, challenging the abstract, top-down and colonial mapping methodology. It is a mode of action that does not directly confront power but operates within and against it by reconfiguring its effects. By traversing militarized landscapes, shepherds enact a subtle yet persistent form of resistance, maintaining alternative spatial practices within a regime of control.
At the same time, transhumance exposes the contradictions of securitarian governmentality. While the state claims to protect life through military presence, its material effects—pollution, health risks, ecological degradation—produce conditions of vulnerability for local populations. This inversion reveals a biopolitical tension: the protection of some is predicated on the exposure of others.
In this sense, transhumance functions both as a diagnostic and a projective concept. It reveals the limits of militarized spatial regimes while simultaneously suggesting alternative ways of organizing territory based on continuity, care, and interdependence.
Through its practice, transhumance articulates an economy of life that stands in contrast to the military economy of death. It redefines infrastructure not as a fixed support system, but as a living, adaptive network of relations. Transhumance emerges not as a residual practice, but as a critical spatial concept capable of challenging and negotiating the conditions of a militarized territory.
