WORKSHOP GSSI
SOCIAL INNOVATION
IN SOUTHERN EUROPEAN CITIES: Discourses, practices, policies
and politics

L'Aquila, Italy
Workshop dates: 4-5 June 2019
• Gran Sasso Science Institute | GSSI
Viale Francesco Crispi 7, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy

ABSTRACT
In recent years, the notion of social innovation has gained momentum among academics and practitioners also in relation to its possible role in supporting alternative understandings of dominant modes of accumulation and distribution of goods and services. Looking at Southern European cities, social innovation has been frequently linked to ways of creating new urban commons and to efforts aimed at establishing a ‘citizenist’ democracy through the promotion of networks of solidarity, cooperativism, local grassroots initiatives, and new social movements.
Ten years after the beginning of the global financial and economic crisis, time has come to pose the question whether social innovation discourses and practices, unleashed in a context of crisis and transition, have effectively gained ground in Southern European cities and in what ways. How much is it ‘social’ in terms of focusing on local communities, creating inter-class cooperation, or bringing new sources of support to counter-hegemonic struggles? And how much is it mere ‘innovation’ that pays less attention to aspects of social justice and to the transformation of inherited neoliberal urban development and governance models, promotes entrepreneurialism, and involve just middle-class interests?
The present workshop explores the discourses, practices, policies and politics of socially innovative projects that have been induced by global and local challenges. And in doing so, it takes into account how much these projects are shaped by structural constraints and whether they are able to escape historical or geographical path dependencies characterizing Southern European urban societies.

PROGRAMME

4 June

11.00 | Welcome and Registration

11.30 | Social Innovation in Southern European Cities: New Perspectives and Challenges
Luca Bródy (GSSI)
Alessandro Coppola (GSSI)
Marianna D'Ovidio (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro)
Marc Pradel (Universitat de Barcelona)

13.00 | Lunch

14.00 | Parallel Working Groups
SESSION 1: LOCAL POLICY DISCOURSES AND SYSTEMS
discussant Francesco Chiodelli
(1) Public support to social innovation. Processes of institutional learning in Italy and Spain | Elena Ostanel (Universitá Iuav di Venezia)
(2) Social innovation in the contemporary Madrid. Influence and institutionalization of civil movements in the redefinition of local governance | Clara Medina García (architect & urbanist)
(3) Between Conflict and Negotiation: the Local Municipalities' Informal Governance of Housing Squats in Rome (Italy) | Margherita Grazioli (GSSI)

SESSION 2: PLACE-MAKING, CULTURE AND ARTS
discussant Giulia Pezzi
(1) Social innovation for scaling up urban regeneration: community and stakeholders activation in the Sanità district of Naples | Luigi Delle Cave, Mariavittoria Cicellin, Stefano Consiglio, Fabio Corbisiero, Anna Maria Zaccaria, (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II)
(2) Co-design your neighbourhood. A participatory process for multicultural regeneration | Annachiara Autiero, Franziska Füller, Fabio Landolfo, Graziella Portia (Aste & Nodi)
(3) Learning from Grigri Pixel. Artistic pluricultural co-productions as assets for public place-making | Alice Buoli (Politecnico di Milano), Blanca Callén, Susana Moliner, David Pérez (Grigri Pixel Network)

16.00 | Coffee Break

16.15 | Plenary Discussion

17.30 | Tour of Rebuilding L'Aquila

5 June

9.30 | Parallel Working Groups
SESSION 3: CONCEPTS, CRITERIA AND IMPACTS
discussant Audrey Lumley-Sapanski
(1) The architect in the network | Hülya Ertas (KU Leuven)
(2) Housing the migrants: civil society response to the housing needs of asylum seekers and refugees in Italy | Gaja Maestri (University of Leicester)
(3) New economic practices and urban space as a common good. The case of a flea market in Palermo | Federico Prestileo (Universitá degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca)

SESSION 4: ACTORS AND IDENTITIES
discussant Paolo Spada
(1) Evaluating the impact of social innovation: local policies through an ecosystemic approach | Francesco
Gerli, Benedetta De Pieri (Politecnico di Milano)
(2) The "field" of social innovation: subjects, conflicts and stakes | Paolo Inno (Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro)
(3) Intermediate places as urban units for social innovation in Bologna | Martina Massari (Universitá di Bologna)

11.30 | Coffee Break

11.45 | Plenary Discussion

12.45 | Lunch

14.00 | Final Roundtable: Emerging Issues and Ways Forward
All authors with Filippo Celata (Sapienza Università di Roma) and Serena Vicari - Haddock (Universitá degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca)

15.30 | Departure

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Participation is free but places are limited. Please reserve by filling the form at this link:
https://forms.gle/6ogejsEhjD33vTCm6

INFO & CONTACTS
• lucasara.brody@gssi.it
• GSSI Workshop page