Giusy Pappalardo

• Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Planning and Design
• Autonomous University of Barcelona

Within the debate on coproduction, framed as an immanent characteristic of strategic spatial planning aimed at enhancing transformative processes, the paper questions the difficulties and limits that emerged from a long-term action-research partnership leading to the experimentation of the Simeto River Agreement, a river contract in an inner area o...

Drawing on critical scholarship on commoning processes, this article aims to contribute to the debate by reflecting on an argumentative case that took place in a neighbourhood public park on the northern outskirts of the city of Catania in Italy. Based on our direct engagement in such a process, we discuss the rise and fall of this ‘commoning attem...

In the search for practices that link education (in a Freirean sense) with a critical reflection upon the past aimed at empowering citizens in shaping their future deliberately, this paper aims to explore the common ground between the fields of museology and urban planning reflecting upon trans-national and undisciplined intersections. After recall...

In the search for practices that link education (in the Freirean sense) with a critical reflection on the past in order to empower citizens in the deliberate shaping of their future, this paper aims to explore the common ground between the areas of museology and urban planning, reflecting on transnational and undisciplined intersections. After resu...

This article briefly presents and discusses some examples in Catania and the surrounding area that could be intended as practices within the framework of New Museology, and the social function of museums, in a Southern European city that suffers a gap compared with other cities in the so-called Global North. The presented cases are very diverse fr...

This article presents some preliminary notes elaborated within a research project that explores the question of democratizing the approaches for taking care of territorial heritage and marginal landscapes from a community based-perspective, moving from a critique to the mainstream debate on the Anthropocene. The author discusses the need to cross s...

This book is the result of a series of transnational and transdisciplinary conversations around one leading question: how people relate to the tangible and intangible heritage, to plan a more just and inclusive future, in times of ecological transition and societal changes. Such a wide question has been explored digging into theories and practices,...

The concept of collection and the idea of collecting open some problematic challenges. In this contribution, we move from Mathilde Bellaigue's notions of institutional collection and operational collection, applied in the Creusot Ecomuseum, and subsequently spread among Brazilian ecomuseums and community museums, even beyond Brazil. Breaking taboos...

The special issue brings six themes and seven chapters on planning practices and theories from the global South. The booklet is uploaded here by one of the editors.

This paper examines a community-based food system which emerged recently around the Simeto River Valley Agreement (SRA) in Sicily (Italy) through the lens of food citizenship. The concept of food citizenship develops an understanding of how food systems function to ensure that individuals and communities have agency, access, and engagement with the...

The paper focuses on the challenges faced by planners committed to quality of life in ‘inner areas’ (i.e. distant from major urban poles and often affected by the decline of population, public services, economic performances, and/or ecological integrity). It presents research findings developed by a long-term action-research partnership between pla...

Heritage is not only what societies inherit from the past: it is also an opportunity for practicing the principles of sustainability in the making of the future. A community-based approach is pivotal for generating long lasting processes aimed at revitalizing heritage. This assertion has been widely stated in several norms and conventions, such as...

https://www.insegnadelgiglio.it/prodotto/i-bacini-culturali/ https://www.torrossa.com/en/resources/an/4779474 --- Il volume rappresenta la tappa finale della prima stagione di implementazione del Progetto ABACUS (giugno 2019 - settembre 2020), sostenuta dal finanziamento pubblico garantito dalla Regione Siciliana e dalla Presidenza del Consiglio...

Territorial cohesion and internal cohesion of Inner Areas: why does the local governance matter. The 2007 Lisbon Treaty stimulated new discourses related with the concept of territorial cohesion. The importance of adopting a place-based approach to such policies has emerged, considering the people that live in specific places at the core of the d...

In this article, we present Toxic Bios, a public environmental humanities (EH) project that aims to coproduce, gather, and make visible stories of contamination and resistance. To explain the rationale of the project and its potentialities, first we offer a brief reflection on the field of the EH and its (possible) contribution to environmental jus...

This article builds upon a rich scholarship that has proposed, though with different shades, the concept of socionatures, meaning by this the inextricable hybrid of ecological and social facts. In this article, we aim to explore how the Mafia produces particular socionatural formations, entering into landscapes, becoming rivers and cities, penetrat...

After decades of both enthusiasm and criticism over participatory mapping in planning, some scholars are accusing it of being an empty ritual, unable to deal with substantial issues or being servile in the face of power. This article presents a participatory mapping and planning experience carried out by an action-research partnership in the Simeto...

This article focuses on two case-studies related to the self-recovery of an ancient building and a public space in San Berillo, a historic neighborhood of Catania that was partly demolished during the ’50s. Today it is scarcely populated and often illegally occupied by immigrants and prostitutes. According to the common belief, this “bad neighborho...

This article focuses on two case-studies related to the self-recovery of an ancient building and a public space in San Berillo, a historic neighborhood of Catania that was partly demolished during the ’50s. Today it is scarcely populated and often illegally occupied by immigrants and prostitutes. According to the common belief, this “bad neighborho...

In this Interface we examine the challenging and innovative work of community and environmental mapping in the Simeto Valley of Sicily. In the Fall of 2015 Daniela De Leo and John Forester interviewed diverse Italian planners to learn about the obstacles, opportunities and surprising turns of their practices. De Leo and Forester hoped, along the wa...

This paper presents lessons learnt through empirical research work developed in three metropolitan cities in South Italy aimed at exploring if and how the “Smart” framework might improve urban planning in cities with lacks in planning processes. Authors argue that organized networks of citizens (such as non-profit organizations or private associati...