From War Economies to Peace Pathways. The Warfree Project as a Living Laboratory in a Militarized Mediterranean Context

This paper examines ethically committed and environmentally sustainable alternatives to war economies through the case study of Warfree, a network operating in a de-industrialized and heavily militarized territory, with arms production and military bases, in South Sardinia (Italy). Warfree, a project supporting small enterprises and professionals in rejecting war-related activities, fosters a peace-oriented model grounded in civil economy and environmental sustainability. We question how to make visible existing practices of nonviolent resistance in a political environment influenced by the European ReArm plan, which has sparked debate. To what extent is the association between economic development and the arms industry sustained by dominant social imaginaries rather than structural necessity? This case study contributes to critical debates on “sacrifice zones” by conceptualizing them as dynamically expanding territories produced through accelerating extractivist processes and sustained by asymmetrical power relations, regimes of invisibility, and socio-environmental dispossession. In dialogue with Peace Studies, Environmental Justice, and Militarization Studies, the analysis of this case unfolds a three-point interpretive framework. First, it critically examines how territory in Sardinia is produced as "violent space," structured by war economies and military misuse. Second, it demonstrates the structural unsustainability of war economies and underscores the importance of spatial practices that connect peace economies/ecologies with socio-environmental sustainability. Third, it interprets the Warfree experience as a living laboratory of nonviolent civil resistance.