Welcome to Open Lecture: Shaping a future without waste - despite all odds

Organised by the Urban Future Open Research School, Mistra Urban Future
 

Laura Saija, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning University of Catania, Italy

Shaping a future without waste, despite all odds. Lessons learned from a decade-long action-research partnership in Sicily

When:13th of February

Time: 17.30–19.00

Where: Lecture room SBH3, Entrance floor of the Architecture and Civil Engineering Building, Sven Hultins gata 6, Chalmers, Göteborg

Tram stop: Chalmers 

Registration: You don´t need to register - first come, first served

The Simeto valley, in Eastern Sicily, Southern Italy, in the 80s used to be called the ‘death triangle’, due to the density of homicides connected with the organized crime. "Mafia does not kill people in the street anymore, but it still holds significant economic interests, especially in the waste management sector". Who’s so ambitious to think that this particular community could become one of the first waste-free Sicilian communities, through the implementation of a fully circular model of economic development? After more than a decade of collaborative work between community activists and action-researchers, this ‘vision’ has been translated into an official development plan officially endorsed by ten municipalities. 
Ass. Professor Laura Saija will share her experience working with the Simeto community, focusing on the ways in which action-research has helped Simeto activists impacting decision-making and the local landscape while promoting a broad social and institutional learning process on the value of Zero Waste, circular economy, and inter-species solidarity.

Laura Saija
has recently accepted a position as Assistant Professor in City and Regional Planning at the University of Catania, Italy, after holding the same position for three years at the University of Memphis, TN, USA. She earned her PhD in City and Regional Planning and Urban Design at the University of Catania, Italy. Her research interests cross the boundaries of community development, Urban and Regional planning, and landscape design. Through a Marie Curie Global Research Fellowship, 2011–2013, she has focused on action-research and how universities can play an active role in community development processes inspired by the principles of circular economy and inter- and intra-species solidarity, especially in the context of shrinking cities and regions.
 

Questions: henrietta.palmer@chalmers.se

Photo by: Talwar Phubesh, Unsplash.com