New encounters between human and more-than-human actors (viruses and bacteria included): vulnerability of cities and the (sub)urban future

Over the past two decades, the debate about the future of the Planet has been challenged by the new climate and environmental crisis. Globalisation has been condemned as responsible for the Planet’s decline. In response, the political discourse on the link between the urban and the ecological question has increasingly dominated political agendas, worldwide, and interrogated the Urban Political Ecology (UPE) theoretical debate. This paper digs into this debate with reference to the theoretical debate that calls into question the centrality of the Earth, of its ability to act autonomously. The background idea is that the terrestrial/earthling is no longer the scenario of human action, but it takes part in it as agent/actor of a new political interplay between geo-sphere, socio-sphere and biosphere. Accordingly, the periphery is suggested as a “theoretical domain” where to explore new encounters between human and more-than-human actors (including the relationship between emerging forms of urbanization and the spreading of the infectious diseases) and rethink the “urbanisation of nature” thesis while refreshing the UPE debate which is more attentive to interactions along the urban periphery. More in general, the paper contributes to the theoretical debate on the (sub) urban future of the planet by questioning new political actors and arenas and establishing some basis for a future research agenda in this area.