Sulla soglia della catastrofe: Logiche di confine e limite nel pensiero ecologico

Abstract

This paper explores the multifaceted and at times contradictory nature of the concept of the limit (articulated also as boundary, threshold, or margin) within contemporary ecological thought, analyzing its diverse ontological, ethical, and political logics. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, the essay traces the spectrum of the limit from technical-scientific parameters to its configuration as an ideological and biopolitical device within the concept of environmental catastrophe. Specifically, the study analyzes the centrality of the demographic limit in Malthusian environmentalism and its neo-Malthusian developments. It highlights how this approach tends to naturalize catastrophism in terms of deterministic destiny. This ideologization of the limit, by biologizing social issues, shifts attention away from structural inequalities and translates into logics of geopolitical exclusion. In conclusion, it proposes a critical deconstruction of the limit, aiming to transform the boundary from a site of fatalism into a threshold of creative possibility for environmental and planetary justice.