A new year for Mangrovia

An article retracing what we have done, to understand what will change and what will remain in this new year of articles, interviews, and editorial collaborations ahead. Dedicated to those who have been reading us for a while, and to those who are just joining.

An editorial team on the move

It has been over twelve months since this magazine first came to life: on 24 February 2024, we published our first article on the mangrove economy and the first episode of the Zenit podcast. The journey so far has been intense, exciting, at times winding and challenging, yet always surprising and transformative. After some changes—such as the podcast’s suspension and a new editorial direction—we want to take this opportunity to reflect on how this first year has unfolded, and to share how we will continue to explore a constructive and transdisciplinary form of journalism, with a perspective that strives to be as intersectional and extra-European as possible.

From now on, Alessandra Navazio—already one of Mangrovia’s editors—will be leading the editorial team, while Riccardo Silvi steps in as the new editor-in-chief. Among the new contributors is Teresa Fallavolita, who has written for Fanpage.it and La Repubblica, and tells us: «After a few scattered experiences, amidst different offices and underpaid internships, I realised that what I most wanted to do—with pen in hand—was to tell stories. Especially stories of people and communities often left in the shadows, rarely caught in the spotlight».

«When I came across—somewhat by chance—the Mangrovia project, I realised it offered an inviting space: the core idea of embracing and valuing intersectionality, exchange, and dialogue between fields that appear to be separate and disconnected».

«A challenge, certainly, I will not deny some initial apprehension, but one that can only be stimulating (and hopefully fun)».

Our first year in a nutshell

In our magazine’s first year, we published 64 articles and interviews, 89 episodes of the Zenit podcast, and landed in your inbox 41 times. We spent the first six months collecting and telling new stories of culture, technology and society through the lens of habitats: we built an archive of written content focused on salt water, fresh water, forests, mangroves, hot and cold deserts, and finally, space. We then shifted towards aesthetics, understood as knowledge of the world through bodily sensitivity: we explored themes of consent, creativity, duality, performance, pleasure, and sentiment. We interviewed 88 individuals who brought with them scientific and cultural projects, research, books, artworks, exhibitions, and studies. From the sponge cities of Kongjian Yu’s for urban planning in the People’s Republic of China to the use of prompts as creative writing for theatrical sketches by The Models, touching on esports as a tool for broader participation, the creativity behind pharmaceuticals, the words needed for desert economies, and a fully submerged sculpture museum in Cyprus—our aim has always been to imagine new, sustainable futures for ecosystems at risk. Every piece has been published both in Italian and English, to support an ambitiously international readership.

Lastly, we explored branded content production by collaborating with initiatives such as Ogyre—which enables companies to protect the ocean while supporting local communities—Rome Future Week, which fosters discussion on how advanced technologies can improve quality of life, AI Festival, always engaged with the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, and Giungla, a contemporary art festival investigating the relationships between humans, nature, and technology. We also shared the Mangrovia experience to the Glocal Festival in November 2024.

What changes and what stays

In this moment of editorial reconfiguration, we have taken time to reflect on the identity of this magazine and to sharpen its central focus. Why Mangrovia? Why raise our voice in an already saturated media landscape? What visions do we want to shape with our words? What can we add to what already exists?

Let us repeat it. Mangrovia is built upon one essential principle: the convergence of knowledge. This does not merely mean placing different disciplines side by side, but rather exploring how art, technology and society intertwine in a generative dialogue. From now on, each piece will more consistently and explicitly contain three voices or viewpoints: artistic expression, technological insight, and social implications. To achieve this, we will be guided daily by philosophers and theorists who have redefined how we approach knowledge, science, and ecology. We would therefore like to share our key intellectual references, to make our chosen path clearer. Edgar Morin¹, who reminds us that the human mind naturally seeks a holistic view to understand the complexity of reality, and the need to abandon linear, reductionist and fragmented disciplinary thinking. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela², who symbolise an ecological approach to knowledge, in which no discipline is autonomous but interconnected, just like organisms within their environments. Ulrich Beck³ for highlighting that modern risks transcend national, cultural, and disciplinary borders—and require an interdisciplinary outlook that integrates the social, political, economic, natural and technical sciences. And also Bruno Latour⁴—whom we quoted in our very first backstage article—for his emphasis on deconstruction: not as destruction, but as a process that unpacks traditional epistemological and ontological categories, challenging the distance between science and the humanities, between nature and society.  To deconstruct is to include, acknowledging the limits and dependencies of our knowledge on the social and technical contexts in which it is produced.

And finally, Donna Haraway⁵ with her cyborg as a metaphor for a new way of knowing and a new vision of identity: a hybrid entity that is neither machine nor human, neither male nor female, positioned beyond the boundaries of the categories we typically use to interpret the world.

However, these theoretical references alone are not enough to capture Mangrovia’s full identity. A separate discussion must be had about art—how we speak about it, interpret it, observe it—and why we choose to dedicate space to it. Born from a cultural organisation that uses contemporary art processes to generate social impact, Mangrovia sees art as a transformative force that goes beyond aesthetic pleasure. Artists are privileged mediators, with the ability to explore and deconstruct reality, to uncover invisible connections—not merely representing what is evident but digging deeper and bringing to light what normally escapes the eye. Art is a «fundamental force for development», as American philosopher John Dewey put it in Art as Experience⁶: by evoking emotion and wonder, it makes complex ideas accessible and breaks down barriers between experts and the public, allowing everyone to take part in the debate about the society they live in. Through their often critical or provocative worldviews, artists can resist dominant narratives, of using and misusing technology—revealing both its potential and its hidden risks.

Willing to collaborate?

In this second year of the magazine’s life, we are keen to further explore potential collaborations with universities and research centres, archaeological sites and museum hubs, consortia and continuing education providers—to help those who produce new knowledge to share it more widely. We seek to serve what is known as the “third mission”: «the set of activities involving the scientific, technological and cultural transfer and productive transformation of knowledge, through direct interaction between universities and civil society and the business community, with the goal of promoting the social and economic development of the region, and ensuring that knowledge becomes instrumental in achieving social, cultural and economic benefits»⁷.

With our articles and podcasts, we aim to enhance the products of teaching and research through strategies of audience engagement, fostering dialogue, exchange and mutual development between universities and stakeholders—and contributing to the creation of a knowledge society. If this is something you wish to pursue, write to us at redazione@mangrovia.info.

---

1. Morin, E. (2000). La testa ben fatta: Riforma dell’insegnamento e riforma del pensiero. Raffaello Cortina Editore. Morin, E. (2020). I sette saperi necessari all’educazione del futuro. Raffaello Cortina Editore. ↩︎
2. Maturana, H., & Varela, F. (2012). Autopoiesis and cognition: The Realization of the Living. Springer Science & Business Media. ↩︎
3. Beck, U. (1986). La società del rischio. Verso una seconda modernità. ↩︎
4. Latour, B., & Ewald, F. (2008b). Disinventare la modernità. Conversazioni con François Ewald. ↩︎
5. Haraway, D. (1985). A Cyborg Manifesto. ↩︎
6. Dewey, J. (2023). Arte, educazione, creatività. Feltrinelli Editore. Within this context is the Ludosofici interesting work, which applies the method devised by Bruno Munari. Cfr. https://www.ludosofici.com/, ult. cons. 26/07/2023. ↩︎
7. Cos’è la Terza Missione – Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione. (2024, September 4). Dipartimento Di Scienze Della Formazione. https://scienzeformazione.uniroma3.it/terza-missione/cose-la-terza-missione/ ↩︎