Research Projects

REWORLDING is a EU-funded Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network (GA 101119451) that provides high-level training to doctoral researchers within an international and interdisciplinary context. The training programme identifies and articulates reworlding design capabilities that can support next-generation researchers in tackling the connections of social and ecological challenges. This is achieved through interdisciplinary methodology based on collective learning and participatory action research, embedded in inter-sectoral collaborations with non-academic partners who address socio-ecological issues from diverse perspectives. The research program explores the capabilities needed to address socio-ecological issues, and their translation to specific skills and training needs. Ecological issues are experienced differently by different actors, communities and organisations, leading to societal polarisation and inhibiting urgently needed actions around these issues. We observe a need for design approaches that can bring diverse actors together to tackle these challenges in participatory ways, with particular attention to those who remain silent, both as human and non-human actors (e.g. plants, rivers and insects). The REWORLDING network aims to investigate and outline such a careful and situated approach that can better understand and create synergies between the different worlds in which people live and work, and the more-than-human worlds they are entangled with.

More info at: https://reworlding.eu/ 

The task of achieving rapid, sustained and equitable responses to the climate emergency poses significant challenges for existing processes of decision-making across the world. Established systems of decision-making and governance, including in Europe, have struggled to deliver appropriate policy responses at sufficient scale and speed. At the same time, democratic values and institutions are under increasing pressure. We are in a long democratic recession, with the rise of populism, increased political polarisation, and challenges to science and expertise pose risks to democratic governance. At the same time, democratic innovations such as citizens assemblies and juries, participatory budgeting, and novel processes for intergenerational decision making provide promising avenues to strengthen democracies. The challenge of effectively and democratically responding to the climate crisis calls for a fundamental change in our current governance model. There is an urgent need to strengthen democracies from within, and the response to the climate crisis offers a potential to re-invigorate democracy. This necessitates changing the norms that guide governance at multiple levels in order to achieve a new model of climate governance. We argue that transformative climate governance is characterised by four key characteristics: (i) Participation, including by diverse groups of citizens who are empowered to take part in inclusive decision-making spaces; (ii) Underpinned by diverse and robust expertise, ensuring that decision-making processes and outcomes are informed by and aligned with our best understanding of physical and social systems; (iii) Just, ensuring that decision-making is fair and equitable in terms of processes and outcomces; (iv) Accountable, so that decision-making is responsive to those actors affected by decisions, including human and non-human and spanning generations.

More info at: https://retoolproject.eu/ 

The SURFIT project aims to tackle the challenge of scaling Sustainable Food Networks (SFNs) within urban contexts by introducing the concept of "catalysers." These catalysers serve as strategic mechanisms to bridge the gap between food producers and consumers at the local or regional level, facilitating direct connections and promoting ecological and socio-economic benefits. By bringing together SFNs, local policymakers, and a diverse team of researchers from four mid-size cities, SURFIT employs a transdisciplinary approach through Urban Food Labs (UFLs). These labs serve as platforms for collaborative research and experimentation, utilizing an urban living lab methodology to explore the design and implementation of catalysers. Through the collaborative efforts in UFLs, SURFIT aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of how catalysers can effectively scale SFNs while addressing systemic challenges within urban food systems. By identifying design principles and reflexive guidance, the project seeks to provide actionable insights for advancing and scaling SFNs in ways that promote sustainability, equity, and resilience in urban food systems.

The TRANSFORM project will investigate how civil society actors drive change towards transformative environmental governance. Current scholarship claims that such a change is a crucial element to improve our responses to climate change, biodiversity loss and the host of daunting challenges these pose. This viewpoint is shared by key actors in global environmental governance as well as civil society actors (CSAs), and all converge in underlining the need to shift away from the existing system of environmental governance rooted in understandings of the ‘environment’ as a set of resources. While emerging work on transformative environmental governance focuses on the fundamental elements that will characterise this governance model, there is less detail available about how such a transformation will come about. Although CSAs are seen as key drivers of transformative change, questions about how their actions will drive change remain. The TRANSFORM project will unpack how different CSAs are driving changes towards transformative environmental governance by conducting multi-method, holistic case studies of actors working towards such change at multiple levels of governance. It will focus on the Italian context and investigate cases at the local, national and international levels. 

This is an interdisciplinary project. UNITN is responsible for WP3: Sociological investigation, market strategy and legal framework.

SUMMARY OF WP3: Social participation and barriers arising in the involvement of end-users in the transition towards green society, with a specific investigation on District Heating (DH), Demand Response (DR) and prosumer inclusion, will be investigated. Involvement of end-users will be analyzed (e.g. through proper surveys, carefully conceived and interviews) for touching different crucial aspects. The end-user involvement has several main aims. The first is to understand the perception and knowledge of end-users about DH and about the DH transition towards 100% RESWH. This wants to clarify which is the awareness and knowledge that end-users have of DH, e.g. positive, neutral or negative perception. The second is to clarify the habits of end-users related to the use of DH with respect to other heating systems, in order to catch specific positive or negative habits that can produce bad effects on the system. The third, the main one, is to have information on attitude respect to possible DR participation along with possible actions to push it.

European societies have experienced multiple crises in recent years, from the 2008 Great Recession to the covid-19 pandemic. Such crises have exacerbated the living conditions of many social categories. Low-skilled workers, that is, workers who perform work that is either routine or manual, have been among the most severely hit. While pronounced effects of the crises have been observed on a variety of life dimensions, the consequences for our democracies remain largely unexplored.

In this framework, RESCRISES focuses on the political dimension of the crises and investigates whether low-skilled workers reacted to the covid19 pandemic by engaging in forms of political resistance or whether they resigned from politics tout court. Joining theories of political behavior, contentious politics, media studies with those related to economic sociology RESCRISES aims to understand different forms of participation by low-skilled workers: electoral and extra-electoral individual activities, collective and connective actions. It particularly examines whether political engagement by low-skilled workers and the ensuing inequalities are related to differences in: grievances/resources; types of trade unions and grassroots organizations mobilizing workers; local institutional arrangements. 

Empirically, RESCRISES focuses on low-skilled workers in the logistic and the metal industry sectors in three Italian provinces –Verona, Firenze and Bari - and on the 2019-2023 timeframe to cover the pre and core period of the covid19 crisis. The project combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies and joins three levels of analysis: (1) The contextual (macro) level to examine the role of local political institutions and local welfare regimes through secondary sources; (2) the organisational (meso) level that investigates collective actions, offline and online organizational activities and inter-organizational networks through a protest event analysis, an organizational survey and online organizational data; (3) the individual (micro) level investigating political engagement, individual characteristics and resources through semi-structured interviews.

The synthesis of the results is of utmost relevance to our societies as political engagement is crucial for an inclusive and active citizenship that characterizes democratic processes and institutions. Any shrinking effect on political engagement is a “serious democratic problem” as it lowers trust in democracy and the acceptance of a democratic form of government.

The project "Making Food Democracy" is driven by the imperative need to develop sustainable food production, distribution, and consumption as part of the ecological transition. The current food systems contribute significantly to climate change, with 21–37% of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to them. Societal impacts include obesity and undernourishment, despite significant food waste. This unsustainable status underscores the critical nexus between food security and the instability inherent in the current food provision, exacerbated during crises like the Covid-19 pandemic and conflicts. With projections indicating that by 2050, 66% of the global population will reside in urban areas, cities must play a pivotal role in addressing climate change and enhancing food security. To confront these challenges, there is a growing emphasis on bolstering local food systems and fostering a sustainable circular economy. This shift has prompted the adoption of Urban Food Strategies (UFS) worldwide. The research project "Making Food Democracy" aims to advance theoretical knowledge, empirically investigate ongoing endeavors, and transfer learnings to two Italian cities, Trento and Padua, through a living lab methodology. By addressing these aims, the project seeks to contribute to the transition towards more sustainable food systems, leveraging the nexus between local governance, sustainability, and democracy to create resilient and equitable food systems.

NUECity is a research initiative dedicated to unraveling the intricacies of New Urban Economies (NUEs) amid evolving territorial landscapes shaped by capitalist dynamics and rapid digital transformations. Focused on three distinct Metropolitan Areas, the project endeavors to offer comprehensive insights into the multifaceted dimensions of these emerging urban economies, spanning economic, social, and environmental realms. At its core, NUECity aims to address both theoretical and empirical gaps within the framework of the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Through a meticulous comparative analysis of diverse urban contexts, it seeks to uncover the unique opportunities and challenges inherent in the digitalization, innovation, ecological transition, and social inclusion processes shaping NUEs. Particular emphasis is placed on identifying specific sectors within urban life—such as Food, Mobility, and Care—as focal points for NUE-driven social innovation. These sectors are recognized as critical domains where NUEs have the potential to drive transformative changes, reshaping urban landscapes and enhancing residents' quality of life. By delving into the intricacies of these sectors and understanding the underlying mechanisms driving NUEs' emergence, NUECity aims to contribute to the creation of resilient, inclusive, and sustainable urban environments.

Food consumption significantly influences resource use and the environmental effects of food production and distribution. Currently a rather homogenous group of well-educated and affluent consumers is strongly interested in organic food. The mainstream food supply chains and their governance are characterised by a food regime that creates large quantities of standardised food. A more diverse food system could deliver more choices and could be more sustainable. What is lacking is a systematic and practice-oriented characterisation of diversity in the food system and its impact on resilience, enhancing socio-economic and environmental pillars of sustainability.The FOOdIVERSE project aims to produce practice-oriented knowledge on how diversity in diets, novel food supply chains and food governance contributes to more organic and sustainable food systems. The project provides multi-level perspectives on transforming local food systems across Europe by promoting diversity of consumers, producers and key stakeholders.

More info at: https://susfood-db-era.net/main/FOOdIVERSE 

Consumer choices significantly influence the use of resources and environmental effects of the production, distribution, and consumption phases related to food. With the technological advances of the last decade as well as the increase in consumer driven modes of provisioning, new platforms of food provisioning have emerged that may represent significant opportunities to enable and upscale sustainable food consumption. As of now, little is known about the potential of these platforms to promote sustainability on a larger scale. PLATEFORMS aims to produce in-depth and practically oriented knowledge on how sustainable food practices can be enabled through socio-technical innovations in food provisioning platforms. 

More info at: https://plateforms.oslomet.no

This SNIS project aims to examine how the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) can effectively contribute to building solidarity, protecting and integrating refugees, migrants, and the unemployed native-born within local communities and into labour markets, and what enabling policy environments are required. The potentials, challenges and tensions involved in this regard within a context of austerity and welfare retrenchment, growing xenophobia and populist politics will also be assessed. The research aims at generating evidence and policy suggestions to maximize the potential of Social Solidarity Economy Organizations (SSEOs) to integrate refugees, migrants, and the unemployed native-born at local level, and to create spaces and relationships of solidarity in times of controversy. 

More info at: https://www.unige.ch/sciences-societe/sse/ 

European countries have witnessed the reappearance of economic and labor protests in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. Within the frame of this project, we aim to investigate, inter-alia, the following issues: the repertoire of collective action, including protests and institutional action that workers and their representative bodies engaged in; the characteristics of collective actions including the forms, the issue claimed, the scale and duration of actions; the presence of labor movements and other dynamics at work; the organizational field of actors supporting workers’ collective actions, including the analysis of trade unions and other new emerging groups; the alliances within the organizational field, its antecedents, features and outcomes, to understand how coalition building can facilitate the representation of workers, especially outsiders. Empirical analyses draw on mixed methods research: first, drawing on the well-established literature on Protest Event Analysis (PEA), we work on data collected from newspaper sources on collective action across all Italian regions since 2008. The project will also adopt a comparative perspective, by analyzing the French case and other European countries. Second, the project focuses on sector-based comparative case studies conducted within an historical perspective by placing workplace analyses into the wider market, institutional and societal environment. We intend to start with analyses of the sectors in Italy where workers experiencing precarious employment conditions, that traditional labour organizations find difficult to reach, are overrepresented such as logistics and the agricultural sector.

The main goal of this network is to bring together researchers, policy makers, and survey data producers to join efforts to improve the access, usability, dissemination and standards of the multiple and scattered survey data that exist on the economic, social and political integration of ethnic and migrant minorities (EMMs). This Action is both relevant and timely, as it will provide the mechanisms that will enhance the research capacity in Europe in the field of EMMs' economic, social and political integration, and will allow a solid and evidence based transfer of knowledge to policymakers and civil society organizations about the key consequences and social processes related to the integration of EMMs in European societies and elsewhere. The COST network will focus at once on multiplying research capacity and on transferring knowledge to a multiplicity of audiences and stakeholders. The network will achieve these goals by compiling, documenting, archiving and pooling a large amount of data coming from various comparable studies conducted around Europe, thus providing the means to improve the empirical basis of high-quality research. Data will be made available on an web-based platform or Data Hub. The Action also includes a specific research training and educational component with the aim of guaranteeing that these coordinated efforts are carried over into the future through the next generations of researchers. The Action is backed by 47 proposers undertaking research in 20 European countries and the US and its composition is balanced in terms of gender, geography, type of organization and career stage. 

More info at: https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA16111/#tabs|Name:overview 

The research, in collaboration with Antonia De Vita and Francesco Vittori from the University of Verona, wants to investigate new forms of citizen mobilization around consumption, production and distribution of renewable energy. It has been underlined by many that the active participation of consumers in energy issues is crucial for advancing society in the transition towards more sustainable energy systems based on renewable source production and energy efficiency. The recent EU legislation on renewable energy also focuses on the need to involve citizens in more informed choices regarding consumption and energy generation, through collective solutions, distributed generation and distributed storage. Consequently, in the literature increasing attention has been given to the study of community energy, a broad term to indicate the different forms in which citizens become energy prosumers. The majority of the literature focuses on the countries of Northern Europe while there is a lack of empirical investigations on Southern Europe, in particular with respect to the Italian case. Starting from these considerations, the research, using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, has three main objectives:

1. Map the most important initiatives regarding the participation and collective action of consumers in relation to the consumption, management, production and distribution of renewable energy at national level.

2. Investigate motivations and behaviors regarding the energy consumption of citizens participating in forms of energy civism, such as solidarity purchasing groups, energy communities, energy cooperatives;

3. Stimulate the bottom-up mobilization of consumers on the subject of energy in order to promote an efficient and sustainable management of energy resources.