Thesis title: Relazionalità in movimento. Lavoro in mare, rivendicazioni ecologiche, ambizioni economiche nei margini dell’oceano Indiano (Comore).
The dissertation investigates the transformations of marine and maritime economies in the Comoros archipelago, with particular attention to the impact of ecological and development policies on artisanal fishing activities and, more broadly, on coastal communities. Focusing on everyday work at sea—inter-island connections, fishing, informal economies—it aims to highlight the importance of technical and ecological knowledge in negotiating access to marine resources, property regimes, and identity and social recognition by historically marginalized actors. Furthermore, starting from material relations with the ocean, the thesis seeks to reflect on ways of conceptualizing nature and interspecies relations, going beyond the universalizing perspectives of the emerging blue economy paradigm in the Indian Ocean, and instead emphasizing the inequalities, the power relations, and political and economic expectations that shape the peripheral role of the archipelago within global processes.