PNRR-funded Research Projects - PRIN | DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE STORICHE, GEOGRAFICHE E DELL’ANTICHITÀh1.desc-dip-logo{display:none;}

PNRR-funded Research Projects - PRIN

Projects funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU — NRRP Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.1 ‘Fund for the National Research Programme and Projects of National Interest (NRP)’

PRIN 2022 (MUR Directorial Decree nr. 104 of 2/02/2022)

2022MZTN82 - Nationalist networks in Europe 1919-1933

Abstract:
The aim of this project is to analyse the forms taken by nationalism in interwar Europe by examining the web of relations between European nationalist movements, with special reference to southern and central-eastern Europe; the ideological and cultural axes and political objectives which gave rise to convergences between different nationalist groups; and the relations between nationalist and Fascist milieus. These investigations aim to provide an understanding of nationalism’s development that goes beyond national history so as to promote a more confident adoption of the perspectives of transnational history and histoire croisée enabling to fully grasp the complex dynamics of interwar nationalism.

The project thus seeks to study the “nationalist field” which emerged in Europe between 1919 and 1933. One of the aims is to verify up to which point in this year Italy stood as a centre of gravity and a source of ideas. We will also consider how this field changed with the crisis that began in 1929 and with Hitler’s rise to power. While carefully considering the various intersections and overlaps between nationalism and Fascist totalitarianism, the project seeks to reconstruct the independent profile of the former, which had its own distinct cultural and ideological profile, and in part also political, so as to offer an original perspective on the political, cultural, and ideological dynamics of the period and a more in-depth understanding of the nationalist phenomenon during a crucial historical period for its development.

The study of this “nationalist field” will revolve around two geopolitical areas: south-western and central/south-eastern Europe, envisaged as political and cultural spaces in which the networks of relations and ideas connected to nationalism found a point of reference in Italy in the 1920s and until 1933.

2022MZTN82 - Nationalist networks in Europe 1919-1933
CUP C53D23000220006
Coordinator Università degli Studi Roma Tre (PI Adriano Roccucci)
Associated PI Prof. Giulia Albanese
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026Abstract:
The aim of this project is to analyse the forms taken by nationalism in interwar Europe by examining the web of relations between European nationalist movements, with special reference to southern and central-eastern Europe; the ideological and cultural axes and political objectives which gave rise to convergences between different nationalist groups; and the relations between nationalist and Fascist milieus. These investigations aim to provide an understanding of nationalism’s development that goes beyond national history so as to promote a more confident adoption of the perspectives of transnational history and histoire croisée enabling to fully grasp the complex dynamics of interwar nationalism.The project thus seeks to study the “nationalist field” which emerged in Europe between 1919 and 1933. One of the aims is to verify up to which point in this year Italy stood as a centre of gravity and a source of ideas. We will also consider how this field changed with the crisis that began in 1929 and with Hitler’s rise to power. While carefully considering the various intersections and overlaps between nationalism and Fascist totalitarianism, the project seeks to reconstruct the independent profile of the former, which had its own distinct cultural and ideological profile, and in part also political, so as to offer an original perspective on the political, cultural, and ideological dynamics of the period and a more in-depth understanding of the nationalist phenomenon during a crucial historical period for its development.The study of this “nationalist field” will revolve around two geopolitical areas: south-western and central/south-eastern Europe, envisaged as political and cultural spaces in which the networks of relations and ideas connected to nationalism found a point of reference in Italy in the 1920s and until 1933.

2022T382KE - From deglobalization to autarky: crisis and metamorphosis of Italian economy in the 1930s

Abstract:
This research program contends that Italian autarkic policies should be understood into the framework of the deglobalization of the world economy of the 1930s instead as a consequence of mere national policies. Moreover, it investigates the consequence of the patterns of international economy on the Italian productive system. Former studies have often either stressed the political causes of autarchy, proposing it as the outcome of Mussolini’s megalomania, or explored the failures of the Italian attempt to pursue a policy, for using Keynes’ words, of ‘national self-sufficiency (1933)’. Actually, Italy was only one country amongst others to opt for autarkic policies in the aftermath of the 1930s. Moreover, autarchy was an essential part of Polanyi’s ‘Great Transformation’ (Polanyi 1941): the fragmentation of the global markets and the rise of protectionism, along with the disruption of the international monetary system, led all industrial states to adopt policies of interventions, central planning, exchange controls and import substitution policies. In this sketch, Italy had a peculiar position for at least two reasons. On the one hand, it was a major player in the deglobalization process, through its aggressive policies that culminated in the invasion of Ethiopia, on the other hand, it was - and traditionally is - one of the countries most dependent on the international market (Italy is practically devoid of raw materials, as Cipolla (1995:XIV) points out). It was forced, for many respects, to adopted specific solutions to improve its international position, trying to extend exports while reducing imports of goods and to increase its attractiveness to foreign capitals and investors. New commercial, industrial and financial patterns started in the 1930s, while specific monetary and financial policies underpinned them.

Even if outcomes were contradictory with these goals, autarchy contributed to reshape the Italian economy on the long run. Autarchy not only means privations for civil populations, restrictive policies on wages and civil consumption, economic inefficiencies, which had all a negative impact also in the Italian economic development, and a dramatic increase of regional inequalities. At the end, it also negatively affected the military effort to WWII, which was, according to the former scholarly studies, the main goal of Mussolini’s autarkic policies. Both causes and outcomes of the autarkic shift are strongly related to the global economic context: this neither means that the fascist regime mechanically adopted policies imposed by external constraints, nor that Italian policies simply focused on self-sufficiency and self-containment. Instead, this research program aims to explore which replies autarchy provided to the specific economic, political and geopolitical context, proposing a global history of Italian autarchy and retrieving, thanks to new sources and methodologies, the general understanding about the fascist economy.

2022T382KE - From deglobalization to autarky: crisis and metamorphosis of Italian economy in
the 1930s
CUP C53D23000260001
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Padova
PI Prof. Marco Bertilorenzi
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026Abstract:
This research program contends that Italian autarkic policies should be understood into the framework of the deglobalization of the world economy of the 1930s instead as a consequence of mere national policies. Moreover, it investigates the consequence of the patterns of international economy on the Italian productive system. Former studies have often either stressed the political causes of autarchy, proposing it as the outcome of Mussolini’s megalomania, or explored the failures of the Italian attempt to pursue a policy, for using Keynes’ words, of ‘national self-sufficiency (1933)’. Actually, Italy was only one country amongst others to opt for autarkic policies in the aftermath of the 1930s. Moreover, autarchy was an essential part of Polanyi’s ‘Great Transformation’ (Polanyi 1941): the fragmentation of the global markets and the rise of protectionism, along with the disruption of the international monetary system, led all industrial states to adopt policies of interventions, central planning, exchange controls and import substitution policies. In this sketch, Italy had a peculiar position for at least two reasons. On the one hand, it was a major player in the deglobalization process, through its aggressive policies that culminated in the invasion of Ethiopia, on the other hand, it was - and traditionally is - one of the countries most dependent on the international market (Italy is practically devoid of raw materials, as Cipolla (1995:XIV) points out). It was forced, for many respects, to adopted specific solutions to improve its international position, trying to extend exports while reducing imports of goods and to increase its attractiveness to foreign capitals and investors. New commercial, industrial and financial patterns started in the 1930s, while specific monetary and financial policies underpinned them.Even if outcomes were contradictory with these goals, autarchy contributed to reshape the Italian economy on the long run. Autarchy not only means privations for civil populations, restrictive policies on wages and civil consumption, economic inefficiencies, which had all a negative impact also in the Italian economic development, and a dramatic increase of regional inequalities. At the end, it also negatively affected the military effort to WWII, which was, according to the former scholarly studies, the main goal of Mussolini’s autarkic policies. Both causes and outcomes of the autarkic shift are strongly related to the global economic context: this neither means that the fascist regime mechanically adopted policies imposed by external constraints, nor that Italian policies simply focused on self-sufficiency and self-containment. Instead, this research program aims to explore which replies autarchy provided to the specific economic, political and geopolitical context, proposing a global history of Italian autarchy and retrieving, thanks to new sources and methodologies, the general understanding about the fascist economy.

2022SW2XRF - Sacred Fire: Inquisitions, Capital Punishment and Rites of Justice in Italy (13th-19th centuries)

2022SW2XRF - Sacred Fire: Inquisitions, Capital Punishment and Rites of Justice in Italy (13th-19th centuries)

CUP C53D23000250006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Bologna (PI Vincenzo Lavenia)
Associated PI Prof. Lucio Biasiori
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026

Abstract:
This project aims to reconstruct the history of death sentences imposed by the courts of the medieval Inquisition and the Roman Holy Office in the Italian peninsula from the 13th to the 19th century. Through a database, it will record the victims condemned for crimes of heresy, while an interdisciplinary approach will analyse the historical, anthropological, legal, medical, material, emotional, iconographic and narrative implications of the death penalty between the late Middle Ages and the end of the ancien régime, when the courts of faith dependent on the Papal Curia were active. The project members will analyse a wide range of sources (legal and theological-moral texts, manuals and instructions for judges, medico-legal treatises, collections of sentences, documents of confraternities for the spiritual comfort of convicts, account books, trials for magic spells, chronicles, diaries, avvisi, engravings, paintings, epigraphs, graffiti in court prisons) in order to address and better understand the following issues: how and to what extent the Inquisition applied the death penalty; how it was justified or contested; whether burning was the only way to wipe out the “heretical infection”; what impact the sentences had on families and communities; what political and religious significance this manifestation of ecclesiastical justice had in specific contexts; how the spectacle of public punishment was staged; how the reaction of the crowd was controlled; what fate the remains of the condemned had, what fears they aroused and what use was made of them in magical practices; what memories the death sentences left behind in monuments, iconography, diaries, news sheets and chronicles; how the bloody image of the Inquisition was constructed, and what differences existed between the punitive practice of the Roman Holy Office, that of the secular courts and the more spectacular practice of the Iberian Inquisitions in Europe and the rest of the Catholic world.

2022SW2XRF - Sacred Fire: Inquisitions, Capital Punishment and Rites of Justice in Italy (13th-19th centuries)CUP C53D23000250006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Bologna (PI Vincenzo Lavenia)
Associated PI Prof. Lucio Biasiori
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026Abstract:
This project aims to reconstruct the history of death sentences imposed by the courts of the medieval Inquisition and the Roman Holy Office in the Italian peninsula from the 13th to the 19th century. Through a database, it will record the victims condemned for crimes of heresy, while an interdisciplinary approach will analyse the historical, anthropological, legal, medical, material, emotional, iconographic and narrative implications of the death penalty between the late Middle Ages and the end of the ancien régime, when the courts of faith dependent on the Papal Curia were active. The project members will analyse a wide range of sources (legal and theological-moral texts, manuals and instructions for judges, medico-legal treatises, collections of sentences, documents of confraternities for the spiritual comfort of convicts, account books, trials for magic spells, chronicles, diaries, avvisi, engravings, paintings, epigraphs, graffiti in court prisons) in order to address and better understand the following issues: how and to what extent the Inquisition applied the death penalty; how it was justified or contested; whether burning was the only way to wipe out the “heretical infection”; what impact the sentences had on families and communities; what political and religious significance this manifestation of ecclesiastical justice had in specific contexts; how the spectacle of public punishment was staged; how the reaction of the crowd was controlled; what fate the remains of the condemned had, what fears they aroused and what use was made of them in magical practices; what memories the death sentences left behind in monuments, iconography, diaries, news sheets and chronicles; how the bloody image of the Inquisition was constructed, and what differences existed between the punitive practice of the Roman Holy Office, that of the secular courts and the more spectacular practice of the Iberian Inquisitions in Europe and the rest of the Catholic world.

2022RM5SFJ - Musealising the Italian Scientist (1839-1939): Practices, Narratives, Memories

Abstract:
This project deals with the musealisation of Italian scientists, along with all related commemorative practices, between 1839 and 1939. In this time frame, the construction of a collective memory of science stemmed from conscious political strategies that aimed at reinforcing the historical role played by men and (seldom) women of science within Italian University and the broader society. The growing patriotism of Italian scientists underpinned their program of fabrication of a shared tradition highlighted in the lives and works of Leonardo, Galileo, Volta, and few others. Our project will focus precisely on the strategies conceived by these scientists to reconstruct a consistent past through monuments and exhibitions.

Despite the cultural and political differences of 19th c. Italian cities, these strategies shared a homogenous view centred upon the glorification of the achievements of science and its national heroes. This process was paralleled by a gender dynamic by which the historical role of women scientists was progressively readjusted.

Following the thread of the Congresses of Italian Scientists (from 1839 to 1939), industrial exhibitions and national commemorative events, we shall focus our attention on a cultural phenomenon which became extremely successful, i.e. the musealisation of eminent Italian figures. The tradition of the monumentalisation of science promoted by the Risorgimento was continued during the 20th c. when, with the advent of Fascism and nationalism, the musealisation of the “great men of science” took a new political turn and was met with unprecedented success.

The creation of museums exhibiting collections of scientific instruments, naturalia, memorabilia and relics was not exclusively guided by political purposes but it evoked a secularised version of the treasures exhibited in churches and, at the same time, it envisaged a new role for science in Italian society. Such a program, in line with the political ideology of the Risorgimento and Fascism, brought the history of Italian science to the attention of the general public. In fact, this commemorative practice was a distinctive feature of the Italian tradition, and it helps to explain the predilection of Italian historiography for the biographies of eminent scientists, as well as the exceptional attention paid to the preservation and the public enhancement of collections. Both these historiographical features exerted their influence up to our time. Our project will focus on a few significant cases which are representatives of these values and that influenced the memorial practice of Italian science up to our time.

The cases we shall explore in depth are the Tribuna di Galileo in Florence (1841), Palazzo del Bo in Padova (1842-1942), the museums created in Bologna to celebrate Ulisse Aldrovandi (1864-1907), the University Museum in Pavia (1930), the Museo di Storia dell’Arte Sanitaria (1933) and the Museo di Storia della medicina (1938) in Rome.

2022RM5SFJ - Musealising the Italian Scientist (1839-1939): Practices, Narratives, Memories
CUP C53D23000240006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Bologna (PI Marco Beretta)
Associated PI Prof. Elena Canadelli
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 31/01/2026Abstract:
This project deals with the musealisation of Italian scientists, along with all related commemorative practices, between 1839 and 1939. In this time frame, the construction of a collective memory of science stemmed from conscious political strategies that aimed at reinforcing the historical role played by men and (seldom) women of science within Italian University and the broader society. The growing patriotism of Italian scientists underpinned their program of fabrication of a shared tradition highlighted in the lives and works of Leonardo, Galileo, Volta, and few others. Our project will focus precisely on the strategies conceived by these scientists to reconstruct a consistent past through monuments and exhibitions.Despite the cultural and political differences of 19th c. Italian cities, these strategies shared a homogenous view centred upon the glorification of the achievements of science and its national heroes. This process was paralleled by a gender dynamic by which the historical role of women scientists was progressively readjusted.Following the thread of the Congresses of Italian Scientists (from 1839 to 1939), industrial exhibitions and national commemorative events, we shall focus our attention on a cultural phenomenon which became extremely successful, i.e. the musealisation of eminent Italian figures. The tradition of the monumentalisation of science promoted by the Risorgimento was continued during the 20th c. when, with the advent of Fascism and nationalism, the musealisation of the “great men of science” took a new political turn and was met with unprecedented success.The creation of museums exhibiting collections of scientific instruments, naturalia, memorabilia and relics was not exclusively guided by political purposes but it evoked a secularised version of the treasures exhibited in churches and, at the same time, it envisaged a new role for science in Italian society. Such a program, in line with the political ideology of the Risorgimento and Fascism, brought the history of Italian science to the attention of the general public. In fact, this commemorative practice was a distinctive feature of the Italian tradition, and it helps to explain the predilection of Italian historiography for the biographies of eminent scientists, as well as the exceptional attention paid to the preservation and the public enhancement of collections. Both these historiographical features exerted their influence up to our time. Our project will focus on a few significant cases which are representatives of these values and that influenced the memorial practice of Italian science up to our time.The cases we shall explore in depth are the Tribuna di Galileo in Florence (1841), Palazzo del Bo in Padova (1842-1942), the museums created in Bologna to celebrate Ulisse Aldrovandi (1864-1907), the University Museum in Pavia (1930), the Museo di Storia dell’Arte Sanitaria (1933) and the Museo di Storia della medicina (1938) in Rome.

2022BMSNA3 - Work, workplaces and mobility in preindustrial Italy: a gender perspective

Abstract:
The research project aims to improve our knowledge of gender dynamics within the workplace in the pre-industrial age, focusing on the Italian peninsula between the 15th and 19th century. The objective is to quantify in which activities and in what percentage women and men were engaged and to reconceptualize of some of the main categories in historical analysis and in the current debate, such as productive/unproductive, paid/unpaid, public/private, and domestic/care/non-domestic work. Therefore, the project includes every form of work, be it rewarded with money, non-monetary means, or carried out in compliance with family duties and forms of reciprocity between family members, parents, neighbours.

While previous studies have focused mainly on urban areas, this project will also examine the rural context, which it will attempt to quantify through a geo-referenced analysis, owing to the wealth of information available for Italy. Attention will also be paid to short and long-distant mobility.

New research will be carried out in the Italian archives, making innovative use of the abundance of information especially in criminal sources. The results will then be compared in a European perspective through a final conference. The project will create a qualitative and a quantitative database using a novel methodology that links the language used, space utilisation, and forms of mobility to accomplish its goals. It will also enable us to broaden the knowledge of the dynamics affecting the world of work in the pre-industrial age by linking gender, work, workplaces and mobility in a comparative and quantitative way for the first time. A long-term perspective will offer insight on dynamics that are very important for the current debate, which the outbreak of the pandemic has exacerbated. These include gender discrimination in the workplace, the work done in the domestic sphere, gender roles, and women’s contribution to national income.

2022BMSNA3 - Work, workplaces and mobility in preindustrial Italy: a gender perspective
CUP C53D23000110006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Padova
PI Prof. Andrea Caracausi
Project duration 28/09/2023 –28/02/2026
Website https://mobilityandhumanities.it/work/ Abstract:
The research project aims to improve our knowledge of gender dynamics within the workplace in the pre-industrial age, focusing on the Italian peninsula between the 15th and 19th century. The objective is to quantify in which activities and in what percentage women and men were engaged and to reconceptualize of some of the main categories in historical analysis and in the current debate, such as productive/unproductive, paid/unpaid, public/private, and domestic/care/non-domestic work. Therefore, the project includes every form of work, be it rewarded with money, non-monetary means, or carried out in compliance with family duties and forms of reciprocity between family members, parents, neighbours.While previous studies have focused mainly on urban areas, this project will also examine the rural context, which it will attempt to quantify through a geo-referenced analysis, owing to the wealth of information available for Italy. Attention will also be paid to short and long-distant mobility.New research will be carried out in the Italian archives, making innovative use of the abundance of information especially in criminal sources. The results will then be compared in a European perspective through a final conference. The project will create a qualitative and a quantitative database using a novel methodology that links the language used, space utilisation, and forms of mobility to accomplish its goals. It will also enable us to broaden the knowledge of the dynamics affecting the world of work in the pre-industrial age by linking gender, work, workplaces and mobility in a comparative and quantitative way for the first time. A long-term perspective will offer insight on dynamics that are very important for the current debate, which the outbreak of the pandemic has exacerbated. These include gender discrimination in the workplace, the work done in the domestic sphere, gender roles, and women’s contribution to national income.

2022PC8Y93 - #EtiamEgo. Violence against women in ancient Rome: historical perspectives and symbolic constructions

Abstract:
This research aims to investigate models, behaviours and features of violence against women in Rome (VIII century BC – V century AD) through an analysis of the sources (literary, historiographic, epigraphic, legal, numismatic), and to identify the historical and cultural superstructures that may have produced or justified the phenomenon of violence against women in Western society from ancient times to present. This research aims to interpret the guidelines indicated by the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, among whose priority areas is the explicit fight against gender violence. However, knowledge of this phenomenon from a historical, legal, economic and anthropological perspective is a crucial prerequisite for any intervention strategy. The female body has been a cultural and symbolic place for the construction of gender identity and relations between sexes, and an entity from which models, norms and behaviours arise. Therefore, this research aims to verify the validity of these premises by looking at the history of ancient Rome which, for Western culture, is the main historical, ideological and symbolic reference from the post-classical age to today.

This research involves several parallel paths: the systematic analysis of the sources will highlight the protagonists, the different forms of violence, the motivations behind the violent action, the narrative format, and the lexicon/vocabulary. The investigation will be focused on the cases attested in the ancient sources during the Republican period and on the persistence of the phenomenon during the Imperial and Late Antique eras. The focus allows us to trace the cultural and anthropological origins of gender asymmetry, to explore imaginary and symbolic perspectives, to reconstruct long-lasting historical dimensions, to read correctly the historical and cultural superstructures that still persist in today’s Western society. The sagas of the regal period will be valued not for the reconstruction of the historical fabric, but as a privileged context for the codification of the system of values, thus for the understanding of social roles of ancient Rome.

The categorisation and dissemination of the results promoted by the units in relation to the different chronological segments under investigation, organized on the basis of the thematic cores of the research (protagonists, forms, motivations, pursuit), will be entrusted to: 1) an OPEN ACCESS DIGITAL PLATFORM 2) a PERMANENT OBSERVATORY on the History of Roman women, a research centre aimed at disseminating the results within the scientific community (its purpose will be to feed the network of scientific connection among universities and to connect public and private institutions, nationally and internationally, that operate to fight the phenomenon of violence) 3) a ACADEMY with specific tasks of bringing the results of research to high schools, and organizing periodic training and dissemination initiatives aimed at the general public.

2022PC8Y93 - #EtiamEgo. Violence against women in ancient Rome: historical perspectives and symbolic constructions
CUP C53D23000230006
Coordinator Università di Torino (PI Silvia Giorcelli)
Associated PI Dr. Francesca Cavaggioni
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 31/10/2025
Website https://etiamego.unito.it/Abstract:
This research aims to investigate models, behaviours and features of violence against women in Rome (VIII century BC – V century AD) through an analysis of the sources (literary, historiographic, epigraphic, legal, numismatic), and to identify the historical and cultural superstructures that may have produced or justified the phenomenon of violence against women in Western society from ancient times to present. This research aims to interpret the guidelines indicated by the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, among whose priority areas is the explicit fight against gender violence. However, knowledge of this phenomenon from a historical, legal, economic and anthropological perspective is a crucial prerequisite for any intervention strategy. The female body has been a cultural and symbolic place for the construction of gender identity and relations between sexes, and an entity from which models, norms and behaviours arise. Therefore, this research aims to verify the validity of these premises by looking at the history of ancient Rome which, for Western culture, is the main historical, ideological and symbolic reference from the post-classical age to today.This research involves several parallel paths: the systematic analysis of the sources will highlight the protagonists, the different forms of violence, the motivations behind the violent action, the narrative format, and the lexicon/vocabulary. The investigation will be focused on the cases attested in the ancient sources during the Republican period and on the persistence of the phenomenon during the Imperial and Late Antique eras. The focus allows us to trace the cultural and anthropological origins of gender asymmetry, to explore imaginary and symbolic perspectives, to reconstruct long-lasting historical dimensions, to read correctly the historical and cultural superstructures that still persist in today’s Western society. The sagas of the regal period will be valued not for the reconstruction of the historical fabric, but as a privileged context for the codification of the system of values, thus for the understanding of social roles of ancient Rome.The categorisation and dissemination of the results promoted by the units in relation to the different chronological segments under investigation, organized on the basis of the thematic cores of the research (protagonists, forms, motivations, pursuit), will be entrusted to: 1) an OPEN ACCESS DIGITAL PLATFORM 2) a PERMANENT OBSERVATORY on the History of Roman women, a research centre aimed at disseminating the results within the scientific community (its purpose will be to feed the network of scientific connection among universities and to connect public and private institutions, nationally and internationally, that operate to fight the phenomenon of violence) 3) a ACADEMY with specific tasks of bringing the results of research to high schools, and organizing periodic training and dissemination initiatives aimed at the general public.

20227AXMFY - Gendering the Tenth Century: a tailored model for exploring the sources

Abstract:
The decades from 888 to 960, the period of the "Italic" kings, correspond in common opinion to a moment of great instability, profound crisis and political decadence, all factors that are often straightforward related with the emergence - as far as one can tell on the basis of the available evidence - of a female prominence in the politics of those decades, considered both as a sign and a consequence of that crisis. As far as the documentary sources of the regnum are concerned, the 10th century is a period of strong increase in the production and preservation of documents for those episcopal sees (Lucca and Piacenza) which already housed a solid archival patrimony in the Lombard and, especially, Carolingian periods. In spite of the importance of these repositories, most of them remain unpublished to this day. The project starts on the assumption that it is possible to profoundly renew the analysis of the political, institutional, and social events of the 10th century if women are systematically included in the parental networks, and if the narrative sources of the period are analysed taking into account the gender paradigms they set out to adopt: an overall and necessary rethinking of the interpretative models still dominant in the historiography on that century. The most recent research has highlighted the potential of such a paradigm shift, both in the analysis of kinship, social and political structures and in that of their representations: a potential that has yet to be fully exploited in research. The project will be based on a corpus of heterogeneous sources: on the one hand, a large and coherent corpus of charters will allow us to understand how kinship is represented and what specific roles are attributed to women. On the other hand, a corpus of narrative sources will allow both the investigation of the representation of kinship structures and of the construction of contemporary gender discourse. The research, on both these fronts, will not be limited to the consideration of the female presence and the way this is presented in the sources, but will be aimed at the overall study of gender discourses in these texts, including the construction of masculinity, since it aims at a general rethinking of the 10th century through the contribution of a gender perspective.

The transcription of the 10th century charters of Piacenza will constitute a central core of the corpus of sources. It will be put into dialogue with other documentary evidences of Northern Italy, for a fruitful comparison with cultural, juridical, and conservative environments of different traditions, such as Ravenna and Venice.

The study of kinship ties, filiation relations and gender representations will employ an information processing system based on the marking of texts through a hierarchical set of concepts specifically designed to describe the multiple reality of ties between people with gender-related features.

20227AXMFY - Gendering the Tenth Century: a tailored model for exploring the sources
CUP C53D23000040006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Bologna (PI Tiziana Lazzari)
Associated PI Prof. Gianmarco De Angelis
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026
Website https://site.unibo.it/gendering-the-tenth-century/enAbstract:
The decades from 888 to 960, the period of the "Italic" kings, correspond in common opinion to a moment of great instability, profound crisis and political decadence, all factors that are often straightforward related with the emergence - as far as one can tell on the basis of the available evidence - of a female prominence in the politics of those decades, considered both as a sign and a consequence of that crisis. As far as the documentary sources of the regnum are concerned, the 10th century is a period of strong increase in the production and preservation of documents for those episcopal sees (Lucca and Piacenza) which already housed a solid archival patrimony in the Lombard and, especially, Carolingian periods. In spite of the importance of these repositories, most of them remain unpublished to this day. The project starts on the assumption that it is possible to profoundly renew the analysis of the political, institutional, and social events of the 10th century if women are systematically included in the parental networks, and if the narrative sources of the period are analysed taking into account the gender paradigms they set out to adopt: an overall and necessary rethinking of the interpretative models still dominant in the historiography on that century. The most recent research has highlighted the potential of such a paradigm shift, both in the analysis of kinship, social and political structures and in that of their representations: a potential that has yet to be fully exploited in research. The project will be based on a corpus of heterogeneous sources: on the one hand, a large and coherent corpus of charters will allow us to understand how kinship is represented and what specific roles are attributed to women. On the other hand, a corpus of narrative sources will allow both the investigation of the representation of kinship structures and of the construction of contemporary gender discourse. The research, on both these fronts, will not be limited to the consideration of the female presence and the way this is presented in the sources, but will be aimed at the overall study of gender discourses in these texts, including the construction of masculinity, since it aims at a general rethinking of the 10th century through the contribution of a gender perspective.The transcription of the 10th century charters of Piacenza will constitute a central core of the corpus of sources. It will be put into dialogue with other documentary evidences of Northern Italy, for a fruitful comparison with cultural, juridical, and conservative environments of different traditions, such as Ravenna and Venice.The study of kinship ties, filiation relations and gender representations will employ an information processing system based on the marking of texts through a hierarchical set of concepts specifically designed to describe the multiple reality of ties between people with gender-related features.

2022EKBY9R - Boundless Mobilities. People, Geographies and the Courts of Italian Military Justice in the 20th century

Abstract:
Boundless mobilities (BouMo) aims to answer to a relative lack of military justice studies in Italy. BouMo will analyse the people, places and ways in which Italian military justice has been applied during the 20th century. The movement of personal, territorial and doctrinal boundaries known to military law and jurisdiction will be studied. This will be done through an interdisciplinary analysis between historical and historical-legal studies, focusing on the analyses of the doctrinal evolution of military law, on the biographical events of military magistrates, and in a comparative perspective, on three different but representative case studies: the territorial military courts of Turin, Trieste, and Rhodes between 1911 and 1945. The research will be conducted by the two Units (Padua and Uniecampus Como/Rome) with the collaboration of the Sub-Unit of Istoreto (Turin) through a joint use of investigative historical and juridical methods and techniques of prosopographical analysis.

The Padua unit will be responsible for the general framework of the research, the prosopography of military magistrates and the creation of a database. At Padua, in the PI’s department, there is a Digital Laboratory for Mobility Research (MobiLab) that will be used to create the database with software designed for this type of historical and geographical research. The Como unit will analyse the normative and jurisprudential evolution of Italian military criminal law during the 1900s. The three case studies will be studied by means of Research Grants 1 (Padua, Triest military court), 2 (Padua, Turin military court), and 3 (Como, Rhodes military court). These cases, ordered according to a centre-periphery axis, represent three distinct applications of military justice, challenged by the extension of its jurisdiction to ever larger geographical areas and subjects (military and civilian). In the three case studies identified, both the judges and their jurisprudential activity and the defendants will be studied.

The Turin sub-unit will provide support for Research Grant 2, and will help the research by making available its relations with local military archives and institutions concerning Turin's military judiciary.
The research will consider the geographical, territorial, symbolic and personal mobility of military law in Italy, on the north-eastern border, and in the subject territories.

BouMo intends to build a model that will honour the priorities set out in the Pillar 2-Cluster 2 (Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness-Culture, Creativity, and Inclusive Society) of Horizon Europe 2021-27 Programme; and those outlined in the NRP Programme 2021-27 (involvement for the development and enhancement of the cultural, historical and creative heritage, and the reduction of social and economic inequalities). The knowledge produced will be available to the scientific community, the public debate and the policy-makers.

2022EKBY9R - Boundless Mobilities. People, Geographies and the Courts of Italian Military Justice in the 20th century
CUP C53D23000150006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Padova
PI Prof. Giovanni Focardi
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 31/01/2026Abstract:
Boundless mobilities (BouMo) aims to answer to a relative lack of military justice studies in Italy. BouMo will analyse the people, places and ways in which Italian military justice has been applied during the 20th century. The movement of personal, territorial and doctrinal boundaries known to military law and jurisdiction will be studied. This will be done through an interdisciplinary analysis between historical and historical-legal studies, focusing on the analyses of the doctrinal evolution of military law, on the biographical events of military magistrates, and in a comparative perspective, on three different but representative case studies: the territorial military courts of Turin, Trieste, and Rhodes between 1911 and 1945. The research will be conducted by the two Units (Padua and Uniecampus Como/Rome) with the collaboration of the Sub-Unit of Istoreto (Turin) through a joint use of investigative historical and juridical methods and techniques of prosopographical analysis.The Padua unit will be responsible for the general framework of the research, the prosopography of military magistrates and the creation of a database. At Padua, in the PI’s department, there is a Digital Laboratory for Mobility Research (MobiLab) that will be used to create the database with software designed for this type of historical and geographical research. The Como unit will analyse the normative and jurisprudential evolution of Italian military criminal law during the 1900s. The three case studies will be studied by means of Research Grants 1 (Padua, Triest military court), 2 (Padua, Turin military court), and 3 (Como, Rhodes military court). These cases, ordered according to a centre-periphery axis, represent three distinct applications of military justice, challenged by the extension of its jurisdiction to ever larger geographical areas and subjects (military and civilian). In the three case studies identified, both the judges and their jurisprudential activity and the defendants will be studied.The Turin sub-unit will provide support for Research Grant 2, and will help the research by making available its relations with local military archives and institutions concerning Turin's military judiciary.
The research will consider the geographical, territorial, symbolic and personal mobility of military law in Italy, on the north-eastern border, and in the subject territories.BouMo intends to build a model that will honour the priorities set out in the Pillar 2-Cluster 2 (Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness-Culture, Creativity, and Inclusive Society) of Horizon Europe 2021-27 Programme; and those outlined in the NRP Programme 2021-27 (involvement for the development and enhancement of the cultural, historical and creative heritage, and the reduction of social and economic inequalities). The knowledge produced will be available to the scientific community, the public debate and the policy-makers.

2022TF9CK2 - Corpus of the Medieval and Renaissance Scribes in Italy (ScribIt)

Abstract:
Scholars interested in the history of writing, in the transmission of Latin and vernacular texts and, more generally, in the history of written culture during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance do not yet have at their disposal a tool that allows them to know in a simple and immediate way who copied the manuscript they are studying. The aim of the project is to provide such a tool, thanks to the creation of an online corpus that will collect information on Italian scribes (and not, but working in Italy) from the 13th to the 16th century and on their manuscripts, signed or attributed to them.

The search for information can be done in two ways: starting from the shelfmark of the manuscript to get to the name of the copyist, or from the name of the copyist to get to the manuscripts signed by him or attributed to him. The corpus of scribes and manuscripts will be available in the form of an open and linked database ("ScribIt"), containing records and open access images useful for future recognition and verification of attributions.

The construction of this corpus will follow three different paths:

1) Retrieval of bibliographic information: names of the scribes and manuscript shelfmarks will be retrieved through the systematic examination of catalogues, repertories, studies and websites.

2) Ex novo cataloguing: new catalogues of dated manuscripts related to some of the most significant Italian graphic areas will be published.

3) Thematic in-depth studies focused on graphic areas of particular relevance for the history of writing and books and on the activity of scribes.

The project foresees the drawing up of prosopographical files on copyists, on the basis of archival research, and the analysis of particular cultural environments, in order to define specific work methods and writing characteristics. The feasibility of the project is ensured by the long experience of all the members of the RUs, who for over thirty years have been involved in the cataloguing of manuscripts and have devoted numerous studies to the history of writing and the manuscript book in Italy during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with particular reference to the identification of scribes and the reconstruction of their activity. In fact all the members of the RU have been collaborating in important cataloguing projects: "Manoscritti datati d’Italia", "Manoscritti medievali del Veneto", "Nuova Biblioteca Manoscritta", "Codex: inventario dei manoscritti medievali della Toscana", "Autografi dei letterati italiani", "Manus Online", "Autographa Medii Aevi". The members of the RUs also worked on catalogues of exhibitions dedicated to eminent scribes (such as Boccaccio and Salutati); they also investigate the condition of scribes between the early and late Middle Ages, the handwriting of Italian humanists, the experience of Greek scribes in Italy, and the use of the vernacular.

2022TF9CK2 - Corpus of the Medieval and Renaissance Scribes in Italy (ScribIt)
CUP C53D23000270006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Firenze (PI Teresa De Robertis)
Associated PI Prof. Nicoletta Giové
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026
Website https://www.nuovabibliotecamanoscritta.it/ScribIt/Abstract:
Scholars interested in the history of writing, in the transmission of Latin and vernacular texts and, more generally, in the history of written culture during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance do not yet have at their disposal a tool that allows them to know in a simple and immediate way who copied the manuscript they are studying. The aim of the project is to provide such a tool, thanks to the creation of an online corpus that will collect information on Italian scribes (and not, but working in Italy) from the 13th to the 16th century and on their manuscripts, signed or attributed to them.The search for information can be done in two ways: starting from the shelfmark of the manuscript to get to the name of the copyist, or from the name of the copyist to get to the manuscripts signed by him or attributed to him. The corpus of scribes and manuscripts will be available in the form of an open and linked database ("ScribIt"), containing records and open access images useful for future recognition and verification of attributions.The construction of this corpus will follow three different paths:1) Retrieval of bibliographic information: names of the scribes and manuscript shelfmarks will be retrieved through the systematic examination of catalogues, repertories, studies and websites.2) Ex novo cataloguing: new catalogues of dated manuscripts related to some of the most significant Italian graphic areas will be published.3) Thematic in-depth studies focused on graphic areas of particular relevance for the history of writing and books and on the activity of scribes.The project foresees the drawing up of prosopographical files on copyists, on the basis of archival research, and the analysis of particular cultural environments, in order to define specific work methods and writing characteristics. The feasibility of the project is ensured by the long experience of all the members of the RUs, who for over thirty years have been involved in the cataloguing of manuscripts and have devoted numerous studies to the history of writing and the manuscript book in Italy during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with particular reference to the identification of scribes and the reconstruction of their activity. In fact all the members of the RU have been collaborating in important cataloguing projects: "Manoscritti datati d’Italia", "Manoscritti medievali del Veneto", "Nuova Biblioteca Manoscritta", "Codex: inventario dei manoscritti medievali della Toscana", "Autografi dei letterati italiani", "Manus Online", "Autographa Medii Aevi". The members of the RUs also worked on catalogues of exhibitions dedicated to eminent scribes (such as Boccaccio and Salutati); they also investigate the condition of scribes between the early and late Middle Ages, the handwriting of Italian humanists, the experience of Greek scribes in Italy, and the use of the vernacular.

2022JNEHAS - Engaged Citizens. Public-private partnerships and hybrid practices of shared monopoly on violence in Italy, 1861-1926

Abstract:
Across the 19th and 20th century, modern States have progressively established their control on most aspects of public life thanks to a combined process of legal codification and institutional reinforcement. At the same time, according to widely prevailing narratives, they have consolidated their monopoly on the use of legitimate violence through the implementation of a series of measures that dramatically redesigned the relationship between institutions and citizenry: the creation of professional police forces; the recruitment of standing armies; the limitations on private gun ownership, among others. Yet, outside of this common narrative, things on the ground and in everyday life were much more nuanced, multifaceted and complicated: crucial issues such as defence of private property, law enforcement and military action were subject to constant negotiation and redefinition between institutions and social forces, according to the shifting needs dictated by the contingencies of the moment.

Against such a backdrop, this project aims to challenge the traditional binary contraposition between State and private law enforcement practices, carrying out a historical investigation of models of hybrid public-private partnerships that flourished in the Kingdom of Italy between 1861 and 1926. In those years, whenever in need of external additional support, the Italian State routinely resorted to the enrollment of private citizens in forms of mutual protection. At the same time, private citizens adopted models of self-organisation, establishing volunteer movements with the objective of making up for the lack of adequate defence provided by State agencies. This twofold phenomenon, which reveals the contemporary coexistence of several degrees of such monopoly at once, sits at the very core of this research project.

This project seeks to retrace and reconstruct private-public hybrid practices in relation to three main areas in which the State monopoly has usually been applied: 1) the involvement of private citizens in the enforcement of public order; 2) the persistence and flourishing of private security firms for the protection of private property; 3) the recruitment of volunteers in national or transnational armed conflicts, especially within the framework of the colonial dimension. By looking at these hybrid practices, the project argues that clear-cut distinctions between private and public actors in crucial domains of statehood are largely theoretical and rarely reflect the complexity, contradictions and overlaps of historical reality. In conclusion, the project aims to show that, even at the apex of the modern State trajectory, hybrid practices not only persisted, but rather represented fully sanctioned courses of action. Civic militias, security agencies and volunteer armed corps – in addition to police forces and the military – were fully legitimate tools available for the implementation of the State monopoly on violence.

2022JNEHAS - Engaged Citizens. Public-private partnerships and hybrid practices of shared monopoly on violence in Italy, 1861-1926
CUP C53D23000190006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Padova
PI Prof. Matteo Millan
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026Abstract:
Across the 19th and 20th century, modern States have progressively established their control on most aspects of public life thanks to a combined process of legal codification and institutional reinforcement. At the same time, according to widely prevailing narratives, they have consolidated their monopoly on the use of legitimate violence through the implementation of a series of measures that dramatically redesigned the relationship between institutions and citizenry: the creation of professional police forces; the recruitment of standing armies; the limitations on private gun ownership, among others. Yet, outside of this common narrative, things on the ground and in everyday life were much more nuanced, multifaceted and complicated: crucial issues such as defence of private property, law enforcement and military action were subject to constant negotiation and redefinition between institutions and social forces, according to the shifting needs dictated by the contingencies of the moment.Against such a backdrop, this project aims to challenge the traditional binary contraposition between State and private law enforcement practices, carrying out a historical investigation of models of hybrid public-private partnerships that flourished in the Kingdom of Italy between 1861 and 1926. In those years, whenever in need of external additional support, the Italian State routinely resorted to the enrollment of private citizens in forms of mutual protection. At the same time, private citizens adopted models of self-organisation, establishing volunteer movements with the objective of making up for the lack of adequate defence provided by State agencies. This twofold phenomenon, which reveals the contemporary coexistence of several degrees of such monopoly at once, sits at the very core of this research project.This project seeks to retrace and reconstruct private-public hybrid practices in relation to three main areas in which the State monopoly has usually been applied: 1) the involvement of private citizens in the enforcement of public order; 2) the persistence and flourishing of private security firms for the protection of private property; 3) the recruitment of volunteers in national or transnational armed conflicts, especially within the framework of the colonial dimension. By looking at these hybrid practices, the project argues that clear-cut distinctions between private and public actors in crucial domains of statehood are largely theoretical and rarely reflect the complexity, contradictions and overlaps of historical reality. In conclusion, the project aims to show that, even at the apex of the modern State trajectory, hybrid practices not only persisted, but rather represented fully sanctioned courses of action. Civic militias, security agencies and volunteer armed corps – in addition to police forces and the military – were fully legitimate tools available for the implementation of the State monopoly on violence.

2022CZZXZS - Socio-Environmental Crises and Local Responses in African Drylands: Lessons from the Global South (SECA)

Abstract:
This project aims to investigate the spatiality of the socio-environmental crises in African drylands, contributing to understanding the causes, the effects and the local reactions in the midst of multiple converging crises. The research has its theoretical basis in the literature criticizing the dualism between society and nature and is grounded in a political ecology framework. First, the research has the specific objective to map the multidimensional crises of African drylands contributing to the remaking of development maps in the area. The project focuses on the relationship between environmental degradation, competition over natural resources, food insecurity, and social conflicts. Secondly, the project aims to interpret the complex links between social and environmental processes with an accurate spatial analysis of local dynamics. Moreover, the research aims to understand the conflicts arising from the competition over natural resources and develop scenarios regarding the evolution of these dynamics. Finally, by promoting a multilevel analysis, this research aims to identify best practices in dealing with socio-environmental crises.

The research methodology combines quantitative and qualitative methods to integrate analyses ‘from above’ with place-based observation. The research will follow two complementary paths: fieldwork on a local scale and remote analysis on a broader scale. Local-level data collection will be conducted in a few selected case studies, especially through interviews, participatory methods, local archives analysis and with the contribution of local researchers. Remote sensing and big data analysis will be conducted to complement the data from above. The data collected by remote sensing instruments will be managed and processed with geographic information systems tools to analyse, represent and share geospatial data.

In terms of expected results, the research will contribute to a new cartography of socio-environmental crises in African drylands, which is necessary to support national and international organisations in the design of policies and development cooperation programs. Moreover, the research will foster a place-based understanding of socio-environmental crises and local reactions in African drylands.

The research will benefit from the long-term experience of the research units in Africa adopting place-based geographic approaches and the involvement of the research teams in several international networks focused on African drylands. Dissemination activities (workshops, conferences, seminars) will be organized both in Europe and Africa, in order to provide feedback to local players and experts and discuss the results of the research with them. Roundtables will be organized with the Italian civil society organizations on lessons learned in climate adaptation based on the experiences of African drylands.

2022CZZXZS - Socio-Environmental Crises and Local Responses in African Drylands: Lessons from the Global South (SECA)
CUP C53D23004810006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Padova
PI Prof. Andrea Pase
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026
Website https://atlasahel.it/Abstract:
This project aims to investigate the spatiality of the socio-environmental crises in African drylands, contributing to understanding the causes, the effects and the local reactions in the midst of multiple converging crises. The research has its theoretical basis in the literature criticizing the dualism between society and nature and is grounded in a political ecology framework. First, the research has the specific objective to map the multidimensional crises of African drylands contributing to the remaking of development maps in the area. The project focuses on the relationship between environmental degradation, competition over natural resources, food insecurity, and social conflicts. Secondly, the project aims to interpret the complex links between social and environmental processes with an accurate spatial analysis of local dynamics. Moreover, the research aims to understand the conflicts arising from the competition over natural resources and develop scenarios regarding the evolution of these dynamics. Finally, by promoting a multilevel analysis, this research aims to identify best practices in dealing with socio-environmental crises.The research methodology combines quantitative and qualitative methods to integrate analyses ‘from above’ with place-based observation. The research will follow two complementary paths: fieldwork on a local scale and remote analysis on a broader scale. Local-level data collection will be conducted in a few selected case studies, especially through interviews, participatory methods, local archives analysis and with the contribution of local researchers. Remote sensing and big data analysis will be conducted to complement the data from above. The data collected by remote sensing instruments will be managed and processed with geographic information systems tools to analyse, represent and share geospatial data.In terms of expected results, the research will contribute to a new cartography of socio-environmental crises in African drylands, which is necessary to support national and international organisations in the design of policies and development cooperation programs. Moreover, the research will foster a place-based understanding of socio-environmental crises and local reactions in African drylands.The research will benefit from the long-term experience of the research units in Africa adopting place-based geographic approaches and the involvement of the research teams in several international networks focused on African drylands. Dissemination activities (workshops, conferences, seminars) will be organized both in Europe and Africa, in order to provide feedback to local players and experts and discuss the results of the research with them. Roundtables will be organized with the Italian civil society organizations on lessons learned in climate adaptation based on the experiences of African drylands.

2022LB3WKL - Water management and environmental change in Central Asia: politics, society and transnational connections (1948-2020s)

Abstract:
This historical and anthropological research project focuses on water management and land use in the lower Aral Sea basin in Central Asia, the epicenter of the greatest ecological crisis of the twentieth century, the desiccation of the Aral Sea. This project is the first to systematically study the global connections of Soviet and post-Soviet agricultural and environmental policies from late Stalinism to the present. The research team is composed of historians and anthropologists with extensive experience in archival and fieldwork in the region. The chronological framework starts with the late Stalinist era, as the decisions taken back then regarding water management had consequences for decades to come. Then, starting from the late 1950s, the Soviet Union opened up to the decolonizing world. One little studied aspect of this transnational entanglement is that agricultural and water management projects were exported from Soviet Central Asia to the “Third World” (especially the Middle East, North Africa, India, Afghanistan, and Cuba).

The period of post-Soviet decollectivization and economic crisis during the 1990s and 2000s was studied by one of the project investigators through his fieldwork in the early 2000s in Uzbekistan. By relying on materials and data collected back then and crossing them with newly retrieved archival materials from Central Asia and from archives of international institutions (World Bank, FAO), this project will be able to provide a narrative of the interaction between local communities, state policies and international institutions in the post-Soviet years that does not exist in the scholarly literature so far. The research will be carried out at different scales of analysis. The micro scale will focus on a few communities (which will be chosen based on the availability of archival records and fieldwork accessibility) in three areas of the region: Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, and the Hungry Steppe. The focus is on three main factors: the lower Aral Sea basin’s global connections, the political economy of the region, and the progressive deterioration of environmental conditions. The main research question is how the evolution of those factors, and their interaction, affected on the one hand the use of land and water resources, and on the other hand the power relations at the local level between administrators, bearers of scientific knowledge, and peasants of different generations and gender groups. In terms of global connections, the historians among the project’s investigators will study how the Soviet development model in Central Asia was exported abroad during the Cold War, and what were the political, economic, environmental consequences of these transnational connections both abroad and in the USSR. Anthropologists will focus instead on how present-day global connections (in terms of imported technologies, skills, and development models) help explain the current state of water management and land use in Central Asia

2022LB3WKL - Water management and environmental change in Central Asia: politics, society and transnational connections (1948-2020s)
CUP C53D23005820006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Padova
PI Prof. Niccolò Pianciola
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026Abstract:
This historical and anthropological research project focuses on water management and land use in the lower Aral Sea basin in Central Asia, the epicenter of the greatest ecological crisis of the twentieth century, the desiccation of the Aral Sea. This project is the first to systematically study the global connections of Soviet and post-Soviet agricultural and environmental policies from late Stalinism to the present. The research team is composed of historians and anthropologists with extensive experience in archival and fieldwork in the region. The chronological framework starts with the late Stalinist era, as the decisions taken back then regarding water management had consequences for decades to come. Then, starting from the late 1950s, the Soviet Union opened up to the decolonizing world. One little studied aspect of this transnational entanglement is that agricultural and water management projects were exported from Soviet Central Asia to the “Third World” (especially the Middle East, North Africa, India, Afghanistan, and Cuba).The period of post-Soviet decollectivization and economic crisis during the 1990s and 2000s was studied by one of the project investigators through his fieldwork in the early 2000s in Uzbekistan. By relying on materials and data collected back then and crossing them with newly retrieved archival materials from Central Asia and from archives of international institutions (World Bank, FAO), this project will be able to provide a narrative of the interaction between local communities, state policies and international institutions in the post-Soviet years that does not exist in the scholarly literature so far. The research will be carried out at different scales of analysis. The micro scale will focus on a few communities (which will be chosen based on the availability of archival records and fieldwork accessibility) in three areas of the region: Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, and the Hungry Steppe. The focus is on three main factors: the lower Aral Sea basin’s global connections, the political economy of the region, and the progressive deterioration of environmental conditions. The main research question is how the evolution of those factors, and their interaction, affected on the one hand the use of land and water resources, and on the other hand the power relations at the local level between administrators, bearers of scientific knowledge, and peasants of different generations and gender groups. In terms of global connections, the historians among the project’s investigators will study how the Soviet development model in Central Asia was exported abroad during the Cold War, and what were the political, economic, environmental consequences of these transnational connections both abroad and in the USSR. Anthropologists will focus instead on how present-day global connections (in terms of imported technologies, skills, and development models) help explain the current state of water management and land use in Central Asia

2022HAELRH - Material culture and risorgimento: activism, emotions, mobility

Abstract:
The importance of things, the vitality and mobility of objects, their ability to offer different viewpoints on life in the past, are all themes that have emerged from the many recent historical studies on material culture. The aim of this project is to link materiality to political history, taking 19th-century Italy and its transnational networks as our field of enquiry. The focus of our analysis will be the complex and changeable lives of a number of objects which took on political significance in various ways and on diverse occasions, thereby contributing to the construction of political and national identities. In 19th-century Europe not only personal accessories, every-day and decorative objects, artwork, but also natural specimens played a significant role in new forms of political mobilisation and dissent and in the articulation of political discourse in new repertoires and narrative forms. Whereas studies on the social life of objects and their contribution to the construction of social and gender identities have already found numerous and articulated developments, much less has been done on the materiality of the political experience and its specificities. Our research project intends to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between politics and the world of objects in the belief that this will shed light on new aspects of individual and collective political experience, at a time, in the 19th century, when the modern political sphere was being built.

The project will reconstruct and give meaning to the political lives of a number of objects, focusing on two different perspectives (and their ongoing relationships):

Objects in action, variously linked to activism and political dissent during the Risorgimento;
Objects and the politicisation of nature, particularly botanical objects created and collected by intellectuals and /or patriots.

Far from adopting a static point of view, our research will highlight mobility, re-use, cultural translations and the transnational circulation of political objects in their different dimensions. These things embodied new practices and criss-crossed private and public spaces, political upheavals and commercial trade routes. Thus, this project will, on the one hand, bring out novel aspects in Italian 19th-century political practices and nationalisation channels, and, on the other, make new and innovative educational and dissemination tools available to a wider public. Bringing together the work of scholars who in three Italian universities have been working on political objects for some time, the project intends to build an innovative collective workshop on the material history of politics, reflect on the methodological aspects of approaching politics through objects and finally develop an intense dissemination and public history project.

2022HAELRH - Material culture and risorgimento: activism, emotions, mobility
CUP C53D23000160006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Padova
PI Prof. Carlotta Sorba
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026Abstract:
The importance of things, the vitality and mobility of objects, their ability to offer different viewpoints on life in the past, are all themes that have emerged from the many recent historical studies on material culture. The aim of this project is to link materiality to political history, taking 19th-century Italy and its transnational networks as our field of enquiry. The focus of our analysis will be the complex and changeable lives of a number of objects which took on political significance in various ways and on diverse occasions, thereby contributing to the construction of political and national identities. In 19th-century Europe not only personal accessories, every-day and decorative objects, artwork, but also natural specimens played a significant role in new forms of political mobilisation and dissent and in the articulation of political discourse in new repertoires and narrative forms. Whereas studies on the social life of objects and their contribution to the construction of social and gender identities have already found numerous and articulated developments, much less has been done on the materiality of the political experience and its specificities. Our research project intends to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between politics and the world of objects in the belief that this will shed light on new aspects of individual and collective political experience, at a time, in the 19th century, when the modern political sphere was being built.The project will reconstruct and give meaning to the political lives of a number of objects, focusing on two different perspectives (and their ongoing relationships):

Objects in action, variously linked to activism and political dissent during the Risorgimento;

Objects and the politicisation of nature, particularly botanical objects created and collected by intellectuals and /or patriots.

2022B9MBWY - Framing the People (Italy, 12th-16th centuries)

Abstract:
Our project aims at systematically analysing the many historical morphologies of the medieval and early modern notion of ‘people’ (‘popolo’) by attentively investigating its configurations and its hold within the multifarious political world of the Italian peninsula between 12th and 16th century. This is the age encompassing the political and social, cultural and ecclesiological transformation generated by the so-called Reform of the Church and the turning point represented by the Italian wars. Our research aims at offering useful ideas and evidence for a better understanding of the long story of the notion of the ‘popolo’ and its transformation to become, in our modern world, its dual configuration as both the bearer of the sovereignty par excellence, and the symbol of the anonymous masses at the fringes of the political space.

We outline three basic methodological options. First of all, a chronology that goes beyond the best-known and most investigated moment of this story, namely that of the so-called «comune di popolo»: within this chronological framework, our research will focus on a range of moments of crisis or emergency (military, political, social, economic), understood both as the product of single revealing events and as the manifestation of longer-term processes. Complementary to this chronological choice is the decision to include a geopolitical framework of peninsular scope, which aims to take into account, by selecting significant moments and case studies, as many political realities as possible. Finally, the project will analyse the recurrences and meanings of the different senses of ‘people’ through the systematic investigation of two concomitant and complementary levels: the social and political practices that construct and use these meanings, and the representations that ‘tell’ and define these practices. This investigation will be carried out by crossing different literary, doctrinal, and historiographic texts, pragmatic writings and iconographic sources. The sources will be analysed not by accumulating juxtaposed or occasional case studies or by aiming at a lexicographic study, but by selecting dense and significant moments, and working qualitatively on them around a unified grid of questions.

Our project therefore aims to carry out, through the crossing of different sources both published and unpublished, a series of case studies articulated along a long but coherent chronology, and focused on a complex of different political and social contexts and situations along the peninsula. In this way, we intend to offer the community of historians some useful tools for advancing their knowledge of a range of problems that have so far been only partially addressed for the late Middle Ages and the early Modern Age, and at the same time a clearer understanding of the implications of the use of the past in the public debate on the ‘people’ as the basis of political legitimacy.

2022B9MBWY - Framing the People (Italy, 12th-16th centuries)
CUP C53D23000100006
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Firenze (PI Andrea Zorzi)
Associated PI Prof. Alfredo Viggiano
Project duration 28/09/2023 – 28/02/2026Abstract:
Our project aims at systematically analysing the many historical morphologies of the medieval and early modern notion of ‘people’ (‘popolo’) by attentively investigating its configurations and its hold within the multifarious political world of the Italian peninsula between 12th and 16th century. This is the age encompassing the political and social, cultural and ecclesiological transformation generated by the so-called Reform of the Church and the turning point represented by the Italian wars. Our research aims at offering useful ideas and evidence for a better understanding of the long story of the notion of the ‘popolo’ and its transformation to become, in our modern world, its dual configuration as both the bearer of the sovereignty par excellence, and the symbol of the anonymous masses at the fringes of the political space.We outline three basic methodological options. First of all, a chronology that goes beyond the best-known and most investigated moment of this story, namely that of the so-called «comune di popolo»: within this chronological framework, our research will focus on a range of moments of crisis or emergency (military, political, social, economic), understood both as the product of single revealing events and as the manifestation of longer-term processes. Complementary to this chronological choice is the decision to include a geopolitical framework of peninsular scope, which aims to take into account, by selecting significant moments and case studies, as many political realities as possible. Finally, the project will analyse the recurrences and meanings of the different senses of ‘people’ through the systematic investigation of two concomitant and complementary levels: the social and political practices that construct and use these meanings, and the representations that ‘tell’ and define these practices. This investigation will be carried out by crossing different literary, doctrinal, and historiographic texts, pragmatic writings and iconographic sources. The sources will be analysed not by accumulating juxtaposed or occasional case studies or by aiming at a lexicographic study, but by selecting dense and significant moments, and working qualitatively on them around a unified grid of questions.Our project therefore aims to carry out, through the crossing of different sources both published and unpublished, a series of case studies articulated along a long but coherent chronology, and focused on a complex of different political and social contexts and situations along the peninsula. In this way, we intend to offer the community of historians some useful tools for advancing their knowledge of a range of problems that have so far been only partially addressed for the late Middle Ages and the early Modern Age, and at the same time a clearer understanding of the implications of the use of the past in the public debate on the ‘people’ as the basis of political legitimacy.

PRIN 2022 PNRR - MUR Directorial Decree nr. 1409 of 14/09/2022

P20223EZAS - Waste, Sustainability and Innovation in Renaissance Italy: the Case of the Textile Industry

Abstract:
The research project aims to improve our knowledge about the historical transformations of textile-clothing manufacture in the light of waste and refuse management during production, focusing on the Italian peninsula between 1350 and 1650. The goal is to analyse the impact on work organisation, business strategies, technological changes and show how a historical approach can contribute to a sustainable approach in the sector.

The project includes all types of waste and refuse resulting from the production cycle in the woollen and silk industry, analysing their disposal or recycling for sub-productions or adjacent sectors. On the other hand, the issue of recycling during and after the consumption of products will not be investigated, an issue that would open up further considerations about the value chain.

Despite the extensive literature on textile production, waste management in urban areas and technological innovation, the issue of waste in textile-clothing has never been the focus of a systematic research project with quantitative and qualitative approaches. The project aims to fill this gap with new research from the Italian archives, making extensive use of the wealth of information present in statutory, accounting, notarial and judicial sources. The results will be compared in a global perspective through a final conference.

The project will create a quantitative database on the rules applied to waste management and the privileges granted by state and corporate authorities. The focus on the Renaissance - which experienced the first major recycling and reuse of waste - will help to understand key issues on current dynamics of the circular economy, since the recycling of fibres and textile products is becoming an increasingly pressing problem for the fashion industry, in search of processes and products defined by sustainability.

P20223EZAS - Waste, Sustainability and Innovation in Renaissance Italy: the Case of the Textile Industry
CUP C53D23009350001
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Firenze (PI Francesco Ammannati)
Associated PI Prof. Andrea Caracausi
Project duration 30/11/2023 – 28/02/2026Abstract:
The research project aims to improve our knowledge about the historical transformations of textile-clothing manufacture in the light of waste and refuse management during production, focusing on the Italian peninsula between 1350 and 1650. The goal is to analyse the impact on work organisation, business strategies, technological changes and show how a historical approach can contribute to a sustainable approach in the sector.The project includes all types of waste and refuse resulting from the production cycle in the woollen and silk industry, analysing their disposal or recycling for sub-productions or adjacent sectors. On the other hand, the issue of recycling during and after the consumption of products will not be investigated, an issue that would open up further considerations about the value chain.Despite the extensive literature on textile production, waste management in urban areas and technological innovation, the issue of waste in textile-clothing has never been the focus of a systematic research project with quantitative and qualitative approaches. The project aims to fill this gap with new research from the Italian archives, making extensive use of the wealth of information present in statutory, accounting, notarial and judicial sources. The results will be compared in a global perspective through a final conference.The project will create a quantitative database on the rules applied to waste management and the privileges granted by state and corporate authorities. The focus on the Renaissance - which experienced the first major recycling and reuse of waste - will help to understand key issues on current dynamics of the circular economy, since the recycling of fibres and textile products is becoming an increasingly pressing problem for the fashion industry, in search of processes and products defined by sustainability.

P2022C4A7N - Per imagines, per scripta. Forms of interaction between texts and images in Latin culture and its reception: innovative methodologies, new interpretations, digitisation initiatives

Abstract:
The project plans to carry out a systematic analysis of the forms of interaction between text and image in Latin culture and its reception, in a long-term perspective that ranges from Antiquity to the 20th c. Other than being particularly relevant and innovative in the field of classical studies, the project will make it possible to promote and enhance the cultural, textual, and material heritage of Rome through study, cataloguing, digitisation, and dissemination initiatives, in accordance with the aims of the first mission of PNRR, the Horizon Europe 2021-27 Programme, and the PNR 2021-27.

The theme of the project will be declined along three lines of research, from images to texts (LoR1), Texts for images (LoR2), and From texts to images (LoR3), which are complementary to each other and closely interrelated from a chronological and methodological point of view. In LoR1, the tools offered by intermediality and transmediality studies will be innovatively applied to Latin antiquity, with the aim of developing and testing new methodologies to reconstruct lost literary texts from iconographic sources, as well as of providing a comparative analysis of the strategies of visualisation which characterise Roman literature through sample investigations of its rhetorical and poetic production. In LoR2, we will systematically investigate the forms of interaction between the visual and the written dimension in the two textual typologies that most imply a relationship between text, image and monument, i.e. (literary and inscriptional) epigrams and epigraphs, from Martial to Late Antiquity. Finally, in LoR3 we will examine the iconographic reception of Latin authors, from Medieval illuminated manuscripts to contemporary artists' books, focusing on some exemplary genres and authors (Terence, Livy, the didactic genre, Apuleius), to verify how the visual tension that permeates Latin literature has been reinterpreted by artists and illustrators.

Our research group will promote collaboration between philology, archaeology, and epigraphy, adopting an interdisciplinary and intermedial approach. For this reason, the project will not only foster a significant advancement in the knowledge of the interactions between Latin texts and the visual dimension, resulting in new editions, commentaries, and other specialised publications, but will also promote the knowledge of Rome's cultural heritage among a wider public and in particular among the new generations, through various dissemination initiatives which will be also carried out via the web. In accordance with the guidelines of the PNRR and PND, the digital dimension will be crucial for our project: studies and research will be integrated with digitisation initiatives that will make it possible to enhance the cultural heritage of (manuscript and printed) books through databases and digital exhibitions.

P2022C4A7N - Per imagines, per scripta. Forms of interaction between texts and images in Latin culture and its reception: innovative methodologies, new interpretations, digitisation initiatives
CUP C53D23008610001
Coordinator Università degli Studi diPadova
PI Prof. Francesco Lubian
Project duration 30/11/2023 – 28/02/2026Abstract:
The project plans to carry out a systematic analysis of the forms of interaction between text and image in Latin culture and its reception, in a long-term perspective that ranges from Antiquity to the 20th c. Other than being particularly relevant and innovative in the field of classical studies, the project will make it possible to promote and enhance the cultural, textual, and material heritage of Rome through study, cataloguing, digitisation, and dissemination initiatives, in accordance with the aims of the first mission of PNRR, the Horizon Europe 2021-27 Programme, and the PNR 2021-27.The theme of the project will be declined along three lines of research, from images to texts (LoR1), Texts for images (LoR2), and From texts to images (LoR3), which are complementary to each other and closely interrelated from a chronological and methodological point of view. In LoR1, the tools offered by intermediality and transmediality studies will be innovatively applied to Latin antiquity, with the aim of developing and testing new methodologies to reconstruct lost literary texts from iconographic sources, as well as of providing a comparative analysis of the strategies of visualisation which characterise Roman literature through sample investigations of its rhetorical and poetic production. In LoR2, we will systematically investigate the forms of interaction between the visual and the written dimension in the two textual typologies that most imply a relationship between text, image and monument, i.e. (literary and inscriptional) epigrams and epigraphs, from Martial to Late Antiquity. Finally, in LoR3 we will examine the iconographic reception of Latin authors, from Medieval illuminated manuscripts to contemporary artists' books, focusing on some exemplary genres and authors (Terence, Livy, the didactic genre, Apuleius), to verify how the visual tension that permeates Latin literature has been reinterpreted by artists and illustrators.Our research group will promote collaboration between philology, archaeology, and epigraphy, adopting an interdisciplinary and intermedial approach. For this reason, the project will not only foster a significant advancement in the knowledge of the interactions between Latin texts and the visual dimension, resulting in new editions, commentaries, and other specialised publications, but will also promote the knowledge of Rome's cultural heritage among a wider public and in particular among the new generations, through various dissemination initiatives which will be also carried out via the web. In accordance with the guidelines of the PNRR and PND, the digital dimension will be crucial for our project: studies and research will be integrated with digitisation initiatives that will make it possible to enhance the cultural heritage of (manuscript and printed) books through databases and digital exhibitions.

P2022X5L8B - WALC Walking Landscapes of Urban Cultures initiatives

Abstract:
The main objective of the WALC project is the analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective (critical-literary, geographical, sociological, etc.) of walking in urban spaces as an intangible cultural heritage of contemporary urban mobility in European cities.

The social and humanistic perspective proposed by this project suggests the importance of walking as a cultural practice that has to be re-evaluated especially in light of the aim to rethink cities and urban mobilities in the post-pandemic time and of the current social changes and climatic crisis that ask to rethink the transport means and practices by which we move in space. In European cities, walking in urban space is an often neglected but widely accessible everyday activity: allowing one to reflect on the conformation of the city, perceive and embody the map of the city, and identify new routes for experiencing and exploring everyday environments. Far from being a mere self-reflecting, individual practice, walking represents a common tool for empowering citizens, allowing them understand the value of urban narratives traced by walking paths as intangible heritage that could be enhanced by new types of open-air, mobile, and public museum activities; to re-imagine interactions between places and stakeholders; to promote dialogues between transgenerational non specialistic-audiences and academic, cultural, and institutional actors (i.e. universities, museums, local administrations and institutions). The geographical distribution of the RUs in three urban contexts, Bologna, Padova and Milano, represents an opportunity to test this approach in different cities; furthermore, the disciplinary specificities of the three RUs’ coordinators allows to read walking landscapes through a complex, transdisciplinary lens, bringing experts from literary criticism, geography, and sociology into conversation. The outputs of the project will be both scientific publications and policy proposals for cultural institutions, in order to bring urban cultures to the centre of the international socio-political debate. The WALC team firmly believes that a humanistic approach is fundamental to face the challenges of Europe’s present and future, in particular to achieve some of the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015: Goal 4 Quality Education; Goal 5 Gender Equality; Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities; Goal 17 Partnership for the Goals.

P2022X5L8B - WALC Walking Landscapes of Urban Cultures initiatives
CUP C53D23008650001
Coordinator Università degli Studi di Bologna (PI Filippo Milani)
Associated PI Dr. Giada Peterle
Project duration 30/11/2023 – 28/02/2026
Website https://site.unibo.it/walc/it/il-progettoAbstract:
The main objective of the WALC project is the analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective (critical-literary, geographical, sociological, etc.) of walking in urban spaces as an intangible cultural heritage of contemporary urban mobility in European cities.The social and humanistic perspective proposed by this project suggests the importance of walking as a cultural practice that has to be re-evaluated especially in light of the aim to rethink cities and urban mobilities in the post-pandemic time and of the current social changes and climatic crisis that ask to rethink the transport means and practices by which we move in space. In European cities, walking in urban space is an often neglected but widely accessible everyday activity: allowing one to reflect on the conformation of the city, perceive and embody the map of the city, and identify new routes for experiencing and exploring everyday environments. Far from being a mere self-reflecting, individual practice, walking represents a common tool for empowering citizens, allowing them understand the value of urban narratives traced by walking paths as intangible heritage that could be enhanced by new types of open-air, mobile, and public museum activities; to re-imagine interactions between places and stakeholders; to promote dialogues between transgenerational non specialistic-audiences and academic, cultural, and institutional actors (i.e. universities, museums, local administrations and institutions). The geographical distribution of the RUs in three urban contexts, Bologna, Padova and Milano, represents an opportunity to test this approach in different cities; furthermore, the disciplinary specificities of the three RUs’ coordinators allows to read walking landscapes through a complex, transdisciplinary lens, bringing experts from literary criticism, geography, and sociology into conversation. The outputs of the project will be both scientific publications and policy proposals for cultural institutions, in order to bring urban cultures to the centre of the international socio-political debate. The WALC team firmly believes that a humanistic approach is fundamental to face the challenges of Europe’s present and future, in particular to achieve some of the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015: Goal 4 Quality Education; Goal 5 Gender Equality; Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities; Goal 17 Partnership for the Goals.

P20223SFMN - Postdevelopment geographies of Local Food Systems: Community-based networks addressing food insecurity

Abstract:
The project aims to identify locally conceived solutions to food problems, beyond established discourses based on efficiency and technological transfer, and rather identify social innovations promoted by localized grassroots groups and transnational movements of producers and consumers. It will explore Local Food Systems (LFS) by investigating alternative spaces of diverse food production and food consumption in order to make them “more present as everyday life realities that touch our lives and dynamically shape our future” (Gibson-Graham, 2008: 9).

LFS encompasses all social, economic, cultural, environmental elements of food producers and consumers in a particular place (Bèné, 2020). By alternative spaces of LFS, we refer to diverse configurations of localized food production and consumption that are not captured by key food security indicators. As development geographers, we aim to approach LFS not just from an economic perspective in terms of food availability, food access, and food utilization, but to also uncover marginal practices and forms which are integral to community food production and distribution of food. Illuminating marginal practices in the LFS contributes to designing more ‘real’ food policies, which for instance is crucial in the Milan Urban Food Policy Act (Dansero & Nicolarea, 2016) and contributing to the Sustainable Development (SDGs) 2, ‘Zero Hunger’.

According to FAO (2022), the global number of people affected by hunger rose to 828 million in 2021. Global food crises are exacerbated by corporate food regimes that promote the role of agribusiness and neglect the role of local food knowledge and systems (McMichael, 2009). Covid-19 revealed the fragility of the industrial-globalized food systems and the urgent need for a transition toward more socially just and ecologically resilient LFS (Altieri & Nicholls, 2020). Thus, a transition towards policies that tackle food insecurity by integrating localized alternative configurations of the LFS and their relationality in spatio-temporality is urgently needed.

The project aims to engage theoretically and in action-oriented ways to investigate diverse assets of LFS in selected communities in Lebanon and Tanzania, where the RUs have consolidated cooperation networks. In particular, the project will make use of photo-voice and community mapping as methods consistent with participatory action-research in order to co-produce knowledge that will be able to capture the complexity in which alternative LFS are spatially situated, and how different socio-economic, political, and cultural aspects can impact differently how people access certain food spaces.

While contributing to reinforce the subfield of development geography within the Italian scientific community, the project results will be able to feed future policies targeting the growing global condition of food insecurity, by providing a sound recognition of LFS diversity including aspects overlooked until now.

P20223SFMN - Postdevelopment geographies of Local Food Systems: Community-based networks addressing food insecurity
CUP C53D23008730001
Coordinator Università di Torino (PI Paola Minoia)
Associated PI Prof. Chiara Rabbiosi
Project duration 30/11/2023 – 28/02/2026
Website https://www.foce.unito.it/Abstract:
The project aims to identify locally conceived solutions to food problems, beyond established discourses based on efficiency and technological transfer, and rather identify social innovations promoted by localized grassroots groups and transnational movements of producers and consumers. It will explore Local Food Systems (LFS) by investigating alternative spaces of diverse food production and food consumption in order to make them “more present as everyday life realities that touch our lives and dynamically shape our future” (Gibson-Graham, 2008: 9).LFS encompasses all social, economic, cultural, environmental elements of food producers and consumers in a particular place (Bèné, 2020). By alternative spaces of LFS, we refer to diverse configurations of localized food production and consumption that are not captured by key food security indicators. As development geographers, we aim to approach LFS not just from an economic perspective in terms of food availability, food access, and food utilization, but to also uncover marginal practices and forms which are integral to community food production and distribution of food. Illuminating marginal practices in the LFS contributes to designing more ‘real’ food policies, which for instance is crucial in the Milan Urban Food Policy Act (Dansero & Nicolarea, 2016) and contributing to the Sustainable Development (SDGs) 2, ‘Zero Hunger’.According to FAO (2022), the global number of people affected by hunger rose to 828 million in 2021. Global food crises are exacerbated by corporate food regimes that promote the role of agribusiness and neglect the role of local food knowledge and systems (McMichael, 2009). Covid-19 revealed the fragility of the industrial-globalized food systems and the urgent need for a transition toward more socially just and ecologically resilient LFS (Altieri & Nicholls, 2020). Thus, a transition towards policies that tackle food insecurity by integrating localized alternative configurations of the LFS and their relationality in spatio-temporality is urgently needed.The project aims to engage theoretically and in action-oriented ways to investigate diverse assets of LFS in selected communities in Lebanon and Tanzania, where the RUs have consolidated cooperation networks. In particular, the project will make use of photo-voice and community mapping as methods consistent with participatory action-research in order to co-produce knowledge that will be able to capture the complexity in which alternative LFS are spatially situated, and how different socio-economic, political, and cultural aspects can impact differently how people access certain food spaces.While contributing to reinforce the subfield of development geography within the Italian scientific community, the project results will be able to feed future policies targeting the growing global condition of food insecurity, by providing a sound recognition of LFS diversity including aspects overlooked until now.

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