Workers’ and union representatives' assessments of the future of the MOSE mobile barrier project in Venice, Italy, position the Italian state as a bureaucratic entity unwilling to respond to the shared needs of workers and the lagoon. Skilled workers and union leaders were interviewed in early 2024 to map power relations around the flood defense infrastructure during its first years of operations. Their responses outline two growing contradictions within the state ‘safeguarding’ mandate. First, essential roles on the MOSE project are becoming more precarious without guaranteed future employment. Second, high water event protocols are appearing more short-sighted as sea-level rise threatens to disrupt lagoon stability. Workers hope that the government resolves both contradictions through creation of the long-delayed Authority for the Lagoon. They also express visions for a future economy that revalourises maintenance work and provides clear guidelines for future interventions. This aspirational framing of coastal adaptation work aligns with calls for good climate jobs across the world, suggesting that a just transition for the lagoon workscape requires equity-oriented leadership to make social and ecological spaces endure.

VeniceMOSEsea-level riselabourmaintenance