The research activity is situated within the field of the sociology of territory and focuses on the analysis of territorial inequalities, with particular attention to relationships and differences between central areas and inner areas, within the broader framework of regional disparities along the North–South axis. Additional areas of interest include the link between environmental and social (in)justice, and the application of GIS methodologies in sociological research.
Members
Scientific coordinator
Maurizio Bergamaschi
Full Professor, Department of Sociology and Business Law
Teaches Sociology of Territorial Social Services, Sociology of Migration and Urban Sociology. He has been editor in chief of the journal Urban and Rural Sociology since 2015. His research activities mainly focus on issues of vulnerability, poverty and severe marginalization in urban settings. His interests also include local anti-poverty services and policies, housing deprivation and housing policies, urban space and migration processes, new faces of the public library, and transformations of working-class neighborhoods.
Caterina Basso
PhD candidate in Urban Studies (URBEUR) - 41st cycle, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca
PhD candidate in Urban Studies (URBEUR) at the University of Milano-Bicocca since 2024. Her research focuses on the intersection between housing, tourism, and mobilities in Southern European cities. In particular, her interests include trajectories of socio-spatial segregation, access to housing, transformations of the housing market, gentrification processes, and touristification dynamics linked to the expansion of short-term rentals.
Teresa Carlone
Fixed-term Researcher in Tenure Track L. 79/2022, Department of the Arts
She is interested in civic engagement and participatory processes, urban regeneration and governance of urban commons. Her research activity focuses on participatory processes, co-creation methodologies in the design and implementation of urban, environmental and land policies, with a particular focus on mitigating the impacts of climate change with the application of Nature-based Solutions. She is also interested in gender and feminist perspectives in city studies and urban public policy planning and implementation.
Marco Castrignanò
Full Professor, Department of Sociology and Business Law
He teaches Methods and Techniques of Social Research on the Territory, Urban Sociology, Sociology of Communities and Urban Neighborhoods at the University of Bologna, is Director of the series Sociology of the Territory (FrancoAngeli), and member of the editorial board of the journal Urban and Rural Sociology. His research interests mainly focus on the topics of urban sustainability, urban social exclusion and neighborhood approach, community, and social capital.
Mattia Fiore
PhD Student, Department of Sociology and Business Law
PhD candidate in Sociology and Social Research at the University of Bologna since 2021. His research focuses on urban transformation related to the arrival of temporary populations, with a particular focus on the student population and the process of studentification, as well as its interaction with the financial dimension. He is also interested in touristification processes, specifically related to the short-term rental market and the Airbnb platform.
Elisabetta Francolini
Teaching tutor, Department of Sociology and Business Law
She works as a community social worker, with a particular experience in projects supporting families in vulnerable situations. She obtained a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Bologna (XXII cycle) with a thesis on female poverty. In professional practice, her topics are community work, participatory public welfare, and housing policies. She maintains a collaboration with the Bachelor's Degree Program in Social Work, supporting teaching and organizing internships. She collaborates with private social organizations for training and supervision activities.
Irene Giunchi
PhD Student, Department of Sociology and Business Law
Her research focuses on the relationships between school segregation and school dropout phenomena, using a territorial and mixed-methods approach. She is also interested in the analysis of urban spaces from a feminist perspective and in the application of GIS methodologies to social research.
Alessandra Landi
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Business Law
Her studies and research activities mainly concern the issues of socio-ecological transition and the spatialization of inequalities connected to eco-innovations, with particular reference to urban contexts. She teaches Environmental Sociology and Urban Studies and Climate Change.
Patrizia Leone
Phd Student, Department of Sociology and Business Law
Phd Candidate in Sociology and Social Research since 2022, she is conducting her research on Urban and Environmental Sociology with a focus on practices of urban sustainability. In her PhD she is studying the intersection between urban daily mobility and gender equality through qualitative creative methods.
Alice Lomonaco
Junior assistant professor (fixed-term), Department of Sociology and Business Law
Her research activities mainly focus on housing and spatial inequalities, with special attention to shrinking areas, inland areas and migrants. Her interests also include housing policies, national and international migration, processes of territorial regeneration, processes of foreign population inclusion and aging processes. She teaches Inequalities and Marginalities and Workshop on Social Work with Foreign Users: experiences and practices in social services.
Mattia Lucertini
Research fellow, Department of Sociology and Business Law
Mattia Lucertini works on sustainability, mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Current research activities focus on Circular Economy, Ecological Transition and Sustainable Development within the project ECOSISTER (Ecosystems for Sustainable Transition in Emilia-Romagna), funded with PNRR funds. He is interested in eco-innovations, co-creation, participation methods, and metrics for monitoring and evaluating environmental impacts, specifically through methodologies such as Living Lab, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), systems thinking, transition management and co-creation.
Manuela Maggio
Fixed-term Researcher in Tenure Track L. 79/2022, Department of Sociology and Business Law
She carries out research in the field of housing policies, focuses on marginalization processes and spatial outcomes of housing dynamics, studying the impact of urban transformations at the neighborhood level.
Gabriele Manella
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Business Law
Gabriele Manella is Associate Professor in Urban and Environmental Sociology at the University of Bologna – Department of Sociology and Business Law. He has recently focused on several urban sustainability issues, with particular attention to land use management and energy policies. He is also interested in tourism trends in the coastline and the hinterland areas of Emilia-Romagna. He is the Coordinator of the RN37 – Urban Sociology for ESA (European Sociological Association) and the Secretary of the Mediterranean Association for the Sociology of Tourism.
Francesca Mantovani
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Business Law
Her research activity focus mainly in the field of social evaluation of parental care and on the role of social work in helping relationships. She is coordinator of the Master Degree Course in Social Work and responsible for the curricular internship activity and for the relations with the supervisors of the host institutions.
Carolina Mudan Marelli
Fixed-term Researcher in Tenure Track L. 79/2022, Department of Sociology and Business Law
She is a researcher at the Department of Sociology and Economic Law of the University of Bologna and a member of the LAA-LAVUE (Paris). PhD in Sociology and Ph.D in Urban Planning, she conducts her research in the field of urban sociology, adopting an ethnographic approach. Her main research topics range from the analysis of theories and policies for poor neighbourhoods to the critical analysis of quantification processes of urban phenomena. He has also worked on migration processes and the development of ICT local services for migrant's integration.
Maria Grazia Montesano
Post-Doc, Laboratoire de sciences sociales PACTE, Université Grenoble-Alpes // Teaching tutor, Department of Sociology and Business Law
PhD in Sociology and Social Research at the University of Bologna, she conducts her research in the field of Sociology of the Territory and Migration. Her research interests concern the residential dynamics of the foreign population, segregation processes and socio-spatial inequalities with a focus on the Southern European context. She is also interested in the gender dimension in urban and migration studies.
Tommaso Rimondi
Junior assistant professor (fixed-term), Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering
PhD in Sociology and Social Research at the University of Bologna. His research interests concern climate change and its implications on the urban environment, the socio-spatial dimension of vulnerability, territorial inequalities with a particular attention to inner areas. He is also interested in GIS methodologies and their application to territorial social research.
Selene Tondini
Research fellow, Department of Sociology and Business Law
The research activity focuses on the application of the Living Lab concept for the involvement of citizens in processes of democratising science (citizen science) and how this methodology can contribute to behavioural change in specific social groups to tackle climate change through mitigation and adaptation. She is also interested in the relationship between social science disciplines and the hard sciences, both from a multi-level perspective and systemic innovation.
Stefania Nicole Zuccato
PhD Student, Department of Sociology and Business Law
Research experiences address the development of designs to improve social welfare and cohesion, focusing on climate adaptation, migrant integration, and sustainable urban and rural development. Involved in multidisciplinary projects with various agencies and institutions, she has interest in the relationships between social disciplines and hard sciences and multi-level relationships. Research aims promote social justice and democratic participation through innovative participatory research methodologies for social challenges.