10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16926
In recent years, in Italy, the increasing role of Universities’ third mission fostered public engagement activities carried out by universities in the field of urban planning and policy. This followed a broad scientific debate on university/city relationships. Within this framework, this contribution focuses on the role that the university plays as an urban actor in (multi)local activation processes in the field of bottom-up urban regeneration and climate change adaptation. It draws on the Academy initiative experience, developed within the CLIM-ACT! program promoted in Verona by a network of actors including Iuav University of Venice. This project aimed at building knowledge at the intersection between environmental sustainability and civic activism.
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Carla Tedesco
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Urbana
Urban Innovative Actions
The  City/University Link beyond Proximity: a Learning Experience between Climate Adaptation Strategies and Civic Activism
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Carla Tedesco
2024/01/25
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Università Iuav di Venezia , Dipartimento di Culture del Progetto
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The  City/University Link beyond Proximity: a Learning Experience between Climate Adaptation Strategies and Civic Activism
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                                                              URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024              241




The City/University Link beyond
Proximity: a Learning Experience
between Climate Adaptation Strategies
and Civic Activism
PEER REVIEWED


Stefania Marini1

IUAV University of Venice

smarini@iuav.it

Klarissa Pica

IUAV University of Venice

kpica@iuav.it

Carla Tedesco

IUAV University of Venice

ctedesco@iuav.it


1.       Introduction.

This contribution starts from interpreting the relationship between the
university and the city as an interaction between several non-unitary
actors, which becomes a learning practice.2 It draws on a small
education—and research—activity carried out in Verona, the “CLIM-ACT!
In azione per il clima” Project—focused on bottom-up urban regeneration
practices for climate adaptation—with the aim of developing some
reflections about the geographies of ‘social engagement’ of universities as
well as about the notion of social engagement itself, by beginning from
the following question: What can we learn about the university/city
relationship ‘following’ research practices even beyond the boundaries of
territories which universities assume as ‘their territories’?
Research and education activities carried out by universities in
interactive contexts can be considered to be relevant learning
experiences for all the actors involved: «... knowledge is 'practical' not
only because applied, but also because it is produced during the action,

1
 Corresponding author.
2
 Pier Luigi Crosta, Politiche. Quale conoscenza per l’azione territoriale (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 1998),
355.


                                                                            Copyright 2024 The Author(s)
                                                        This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16926                        Attribution 4.0 International License
                                                           URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024          242



by all the actors who interact». 3 In the view of Dewey, experience is the
basis of knowledge, and «The attainment of knowledge of some things is
necessarily involved in common sense inquiries [...], and not [...] for its
own sake».4 So the knowledge occurs in «the environment in which
human beings are directly involved, the common sense environment or
"world," and inquires that take place, in making the required adjustments
in a behavior common sense inquires, 5 so where the problems arise in
situations of interaction in the world in which individuals live, and they
can become the object of inquires. Furthermore, if we assume the
pedagogical approach proposed by Freire and, more generally, a
problem-posing education approach, knowledge is not a passive act. It is
praxis, composed of reflection and action (Freire, 1968). It's a dialogic and
cooperative process, transformation-oriented, led by a humble attitude,
that requires a relationship with the context. This statement means
identifying in the interaction with local contexts the possibility of
activating innovative training strategies and understanding education not
as mere teaching but as the outcome of learning processes (Crosta, 1997-
1998). This opens up the possibility of investigating the forms of
knowledge produced in the interaction between the actors involved from
the point of view of both research and training.
Moreover, as far as sociospatial relations are concerned, if one «questions
the privileging of a single dimension of sociospatial relations» in favor of
the acknowledgment of «polymorphous organization of sociospatial
relations in multiple forms and dimensions6 new interpretations of the
territories of universities emerge, which do not give for granted the
boundaries of such territories. In general, «our experiences tell us that
our social worlds, even of daily interaction, may stretch well beyond the
area of a particular city, and that the webs which matter to us may be quite
different to those of our neighbors».7
According to Jessop, Brenner and Jones,8 not only were places
increasingly understood as relationally constituted,9 but the connections
between four distinct socio-spatial concepts - that have been developed
by social scientists over the last thirty years—territory, place, scale, and
network—and their dimensions have to be all considered for the
investigation and the understanding of the contemporary transformation
of sociospatial relations.10

3
  ibid., 363, authors' translation.
4
  John Dewey, Logic: the theory of inquiry (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1938), 60-61.
5
  ibid., 60.
6
  Bob Jessop, Neil Brenner and Martin Jones, “Theorizing sociospatial relations,” Environment and
Planning D: Society and Space 26 (2008): 389-401.
7
  Patsy Healey, “A Planner’s Day: Knowledge and Action in Communicative Practice,” Journal of
the American Planning Association 58 (1992) (1): 9–20.
8
  Bob Jessop, Neil Brenner and Martin Jones, “Theorizing sociospatial relations,” Environment and
Planning D: Society and Space 26 (2008): 389-401.
9
  Dooren Massey, For Space (London: Sage, 2005).
10
   Bob Jessop, Neil Brenner and Martin Jones, “Theorizing sociospatial relations,” Environment and
Planning D: Society and Space 26 (2008): 389-401.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           243



This contribution is divided into four sections in addition to this
introduction. In the first section, a literature review concerning the
university/city relationship in Italy is carried out. In the second one, the
peculiarities of the CLIM-ACT! Project are framed within the climate
adaptation and bottom-up regeneration debate, with an in-depth look at
some relevant Urban Innovative Actions experiences. In the third section,
the activities, the knowledge involved, and the local actors engaged in the
project are described in detail. The last paragraph contains conclusive
reflections, opening some points for developing a research agenda 11.

2.       University and the City.
The role played by Iuav University within the CLIM-ACT! Project can be
understood within the broad scientific debate developed in Italy on the
City/University relationships,12 which has been progressively followed by
the experimentations of several research and teaching activities
developed in interactive contexts where Universities share knowledge
with urban and territorial actors. Put differently, cities have increasingly
become a fundamental resource for Universities.13
This phenomenon is undoubtedly linked to the changing dynamics of
knowledge production within the evolving new set of activities within the
so-called Third Mission of the University, which can be considered a
critical dimension of university activities. 14
In the Italian case, Cognetti, 15 referring to the Ministry of the University
and Research documents, singles out within the Third Mission activities:
activities related to knowledge transfer to enterprises; activities
concerning the role of the University as an urban actor involved in urban
regeneration/new developments strategies; and the social engagement
activities, concerning knowledge sharing in social interaction contexts
and the participation to cultural life.
Although the field of Third Mission activities is broad and
multidisciplinary, if one observes it from the specific point of view of




11
   This paper derives from the joined work and the lively discussion among its authors in the last
phases of the CLIMACT Project implementation. Authors' main contribution may be singled out
as follows: Carla Tedesco: introduction and first section; Stefania Marini: second section (“Main
features of the CLIMACT project” sub-section) and section 3 jointly with Klarissa Pica; Klarissa
Pica,: second section (“In between UIA” sub-section) and section 3 jointly with Stefania Marini.
The first part of the second section and the 4th section were jointly written by all authors, review
& editing were jointly carried out by all authors.
12
   Michelangelo Savino (ed.), “Città e università - università vs città,” Archivio di studi urbani e
regionali (1998 1997): 60–61.
13
   Nicola Martinelli, “Università e territorio in una diversa competitività,” Urbanistica 149 (2012):
6–11.
14
    Philippe Laredo, “Revisiting the Third Mission of Universities: Toward a Renewed
Categorization of University Activities?,” Higher Education Policy 20 (2007) (4): 441–56.
15
   Francesca Cognetti, “La third mission dell’università: lo spazio di soglia tra città e accademia,”
Territorio 66, (2013) (3): 18–22.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            244



urban and regional planning schools, the most significant dimension of
Third Mission can be identified with social engagement activities.16
The assumption that through interaction with "their communities,"
universities can contribute to the economic, social, and cultural
development of the regions in which they operate is widely accepted.17
However, the relationships between the performance of universities in
research and training and the economic development of the regions in
which they operate are somehow given for granted: the idea is that
knowledge spillovers occur in areas that are in close geographical
proximity to efficient universities.18 On the other hand, it is the same
ministerial documents relating to the social segment of the third mission
refer to the «context factors» in terms of «geographical proximity». 19
If one changes perspective, what are the territories of universities about
social engagement activities becomes a research question. Although the
universities are located within large networks of national and
international relationships, in fact, the attention of scholars, with
particular reference to the social engagement segment of the third
mission, seems to have focused mainly on how the university/city
relationship is configured in the local context where the University is
located, which is taken for granted and not investigated starting from the
multilocal trajectories of research practices. Only in some cases have the
social activities of the universities been interpreted broadly, aggregating
the initiatives aimed at themes of international cooperation and those
related to social engagement in local contexts.20

3.       CLIM-ACT and Bottom-up Climate Adaptation Initiatives.

The CLIM-ACT Project was promoted by a local partnership involving
third-sector actors, the Iuav University of Venice, schools, the
municipality of Verona, young people associations, consultants, and local
businesses. It was led by a local environmental association called Rete
Verso–Verona Sostenibile–. The project aimed to involve young people in
civil activism initiatives for climate adaptation in urban areas.
The approach adopted for CLIM-ACT! put into tension the possibility of
contributing to the construction of bottom-up actions in a policy field,

16
    Robin Hambleton, “Purpose and Collegiality in Planning Education: An International
Perspective,” Journal of Planning Education and Research 26, 1 (2006): 107–17.
17
    Tommaso Agasisti, Cristian Barra and Roberto Zotti, “Research, Knowledge Transfer, and
Innovation: The Effect of Italian Universities’ Efficiency on Local Economic Development
2006−2012,” Journal of Regional Science 59 (2019) (5): 819–49.
18
   ibid., 820.
19
   Anvur, La valutazione della terza missione nell’Università e negli enti di ricerca- Manuale per la
valutazione. Nota integrative (2015): 6.
20
   Alessandro Balducci, “Polisocial, un progetto di responsabilità sociale del Politecnico di Milano,”
Territorio 66 (2013) (3): 46-48.
Laura Montedoro, Alice Buoli, and Alessandro Frigerio, Towards a Metropolitan Vision for the
Maputo Province. An agenda for an integrated and sustainable territorial development in the South of
Mozambique (Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli, 2020).
                                                                 URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024              245



such as the environmental one, where expertise is central, albeit eroded
by conflicts.21 The project as a whole involves the simultaneous
experimentation of multiple actions, all based on the idea of building
knowledge through experience.
The action developed by the Iuav University of Venice–called CLIM-ACT!
Academy–focused on building competencies for young people on bottom-
up practices for ecological transition, at the intertwining between actions
to adapt cities and territories to climate change, and creative urban
regeneration processes.
The organization of education activities came along with a literature
review and a review of ‘good practices’ aiming at framing the CLIM-ACT!
Project within the increasing number of similar national and
international activities. This allowed to interpret the Academy experience
as a research experience concerning the social engagement role of the
University.
The rhetorical ambitions of co-production, networking, participation,
and conflict resolution pervade the current context of planning.
However, the profiles and roles of planners within these processes still
need to be analyzed in detail: some forms of expert knowledge, in fact,
still emerge as hierarchically superordinate compared to others.22
Furthermore, the current context should be seen from the perspective of
longer-term dynamics. In the last thirty years, on the one hand, a
progressive acquisition in the scientific debate of awareness of the
plurality of expert–and non-expert–knowledge which are at play in
planning processes and which planners themselves possess emerged;23
on the other hand, the change in the understanding of planning as
processes of multiple interactions 24 in which the roles of planners and
other actors are perceived differently occurred.
In the specific field of climate adaptation, the recent scientific debate and
the numerous studies at the national and international levels that have
focused on the impacts of climate change on the built environment and
the risks for settled populations have declined the topic of knowledge in
planning in a peculiar way. In particular, attention has not only been
placed on the relationship between climate change and territorial
planning and on the need to overcome consolidated approaches and
'institutional traps' that undermine the ability to shape decisions in the
direction required by current challenges in favor of innovative responses




21
   Luigi Pellizzon (ed.), Conflitti ambientali. Esperti, politica, istituzioni nelle controversie ecologiche
(Milano: Il Mulino, 2011).
22
    Mike Raco and Federico Savini (curated by), Planning and knowledge: How new forms of
technocracy are shaping contemporary cities (1a ed. Bristol: Policy Press, 2019).
23
   Patsy Healey, “A Planner’s Day: Knowledge and Action in Communicative Practice,” Journal of
the American Planning Association 58, (1992) (1): 9–20.
Luigi Mazza, “Attivista e Gentiluomo?,” Archivio di studi urbani e regionali 48 (1993).
24
   Pier Luigi Crosta, Politiche. Quale conoscenza per l’azione territoriale (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 1998).
                                                           URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           246



able to manage the conditions of uncertainty;25 but reflections also
emerged on the relevance of participatory approaches in the fight against
climate change: the involvement of communities with the activation of
capacity building paths, social learning and co-planning for adaptation is
at the center of numerous reflections and projects.26 In particular, nature-
based solutions–understood as solutions offered by nature to
environmental challenges, capable of generating environmental, social,
and economic benefits to promote resilience- assume a prominent role in
this sense,27 identifying themselves as ready-made answers, helpful in
making cities more resilient.28 On the other hand, it is widely recognized
at the institutional level that citizens play a crucial role in climate action.29
The importance of third-sector organizations as connectors capable of
creating spaces to promote a more concrete involvement and move from
awareness to action has been underlined. 30 This move occurs above all
through co-production and co-design processes, involving citizens and
potential and actual users of the spaces from the early stages of the
adaptive design and transformation process.
Within this framework, the CLIM-ACT! Project presents itself as an
opportunity for reflection on knowledge sharing in a specific field of
planning, bottom-up regeneration initiatives linked to climate
adaptation, as it cross-cuts these issues.




25
   Leonora C Angeles, Victor D. Ngo and Zoë Greig, “Inert Resilience and Institutional Traps:
Tackling Bureaucratic Inertias Towards Transformative Social Learning and Capacity Building for
Local Climate Change Adaptation,” Planning Theory & Practice 22 (2021) (1): 51–71.
Heather Campbell, “Is the Issue of Climate Change too Big for Spatial Planning?,” Planning Theory
& Practice 7 (2006) (2): 201–30.
Francesco Musco and Laura Fregolent, Pianificazione urbanistica e clima urbano (Padova: Il
Poligrafo casa editrice, 2014).
Robert Wilby, “A Review of Climate Change Impacts on the Built Environment,” Built Environment
33 (2007) (1): 31–45.
26
   Leonora C Angeles, Victor D. Ngo and Zoë Greig, “Inert Resilience and Institutional Traps:
Tackling Bureaucratic Inertias Towards Transformative Social Learning and Capacity Building for
Local Climate Change Adaptation,” Planning Theory & Practice 22 (2021) (1): 51–71.
27
   European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, H. Bulkeley, S.
Naumann, Z. Vojinovic, C. Calfapietra, K. Whiteoak, T. Freitas, S. Vandewoestijne and T. Wild,
Nature-based solutions: state of the art in EU-funded projects (Publications Office of the European
Union, 2020).
28
   European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Towards an EU
Research and Innovation Policy Agenda for Nature-Based Solutions & Re-Naturing Cities: Final Report
of the Horizon 2020 Expert Group on ’Nature Based Solutions and Re Naturing Cities’, 2015.
Valerie MacKinnon, Kathy Sobrevila and Claudia Hickey, Biodiversity, Climate Change, and
Adaptation: Nature-Based Solutions from the World Bank Portfolio (Washington D. C.: World Bank,
2008).
29
   European Commission, Special Eurobarometer 513. Climate Change Report, 2020.
30
    Patrizia Nanz and Miriam Fritsche, La partecipazione dei cittadini: un manuale. Metodi
partecipativi: protagonisti, opportunita’ e limiti (Bologna: Regione Emilia-Romagna, 2014).
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           247



4.       Main Features of the CLIM-ACT Project.

Recently, at the national and international levels, research projects,
territorial cooperation projects, and exchange of experiences initiatives
on climate adaptation in a participatory perspective multiplied. To
highlight the peculiarities of CLIM-ACT, focusing, in particular, on the
role played by the University, a literature review, and a review of 'good
practices' circulating in the international context–in particular within
programs fostered by the EU–and focusing on climate adaptation from a
bottom-up regeneration perspective was carried out. In particular,
initiatives within the Urban Innovative Actions program promoted and
funded by the EU through ERDF funds with the aims of scalability and
replicability, were focused on. In particular, the survey focused on multi-
actor experiences involving the University, promoting participatory
processes including the younger generations and students. Most are
ongoing projects, which can be explored and articulated through several
criteria and related to universities for the role, contribution, and
knowledge mobilized.31
The first criterion concerns the promoters of the initiative. Based on this
criterion, it is possible to identify experiences promoted by research
institutions/universities and/or local bodies, the third sector and/or
private subjects, in which the involvement of young people and school
students is part of broader participatory processes, aimed at involving
other populations as well. The second criterion concerns the contents of
the projects. In most of the projects explored, the students are engaged in
theoretical training courses aimed at increasing knowledge and
awareness of the younger generations on these issues and sometimes go
so far as to create dissemination tools to raise awareness of the risks of
the changing climate or the benefits of answers such as nature-based
solutions for the restoration of natural ecosystems. In other projects,
however, students are actively involved in implementing transformative
actions, through co-planning and playful co-creation of nature-based
solutions, especially in the spaces pertaining to the school or in its
proximity. Therefore, the school becomes a trigger, an outpost from
which to start to counter the impacts of climate change on cities,
recognizing the school building pertinent spaces as a «climatic refuge for
socio-ecological regeneration». In these experiences, the University is
supposed to be an expert actor responsible for knowledge transfer
through training courses and for making available the know-how of
scientific research concerning good practices and the exchange of
experiences developed in other contexts.
A third criterion for describing the cases examined concerns the
production of knowledge at the interweaving of different expertise and

31
  Stefania Marini, Klarissa Pica, Carla Tedesco and Julie Pellizzari, “Adattamento ‘dal basso’. Primi
esiti di una sperimentazione a Verona,” Urbanistica Informazioni 306 (2022): 298–300.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            248



various disciplinary fields, as well as the relationship between expert and
local knowledge. Indeed, in some projects, citizens' knowledge,
perspectives, and perceptions are identified as valuable resources for
local adaptation. From this perspective, the role of Universities becomes
significant - sometimes leaders, other times partners in initiatives - whose
activity is often limited to training or the evaluation of experiences and
rarely goes so far as to experiment with concrete actions to re-design and
transform places.32

5.       In-between UIA.

Within this literature and projects investigation, some relevant
experiences developed within the third call of the UIA-Urban Innovative
Action and relating to the theme of climate adaptation have been singled
out. In particular, the attention was placed on two parallel projects: OASIS
- Schoolyards: Openness, Adaptation, Sensitisation, Innovation, and
Social ties: Design and transformation of local urban areas adapted to
climate change, working jointly with users in Paris and GBG_AS2C - Blue,
Green & Grey_Adapting Schools to Climate Change in Barcelona.
In both projects, climate change adaptation measures were implemented
in schools and, in particular, in the outdoor spaces of school courtyards,
experimenting with nature-based projects and promoting participatory
processes with the involvement of educational communities.33 In these
experiments, the external space of the schools finds a physical and social
centrality within the neighborhoods, becoming an opportunity for
community aggregation.34 Within these experiences, several different
actors established broad partnerships: municipalities, educational
institutions–in particular, some primary schools–, and other institutional
and public service actors linked to the promotion of public health and the
water cycle in the case of Barcelona and the study of meteorological
phenomena in the case of Paris. Both projects, through the involvement
of schools, aim to address climate challenges by helping to raise
awareness and cohesion of the communities involved.
In these cases, the partner universities of the project have mainly had the
role of monitoring and evaluating the actions and the social and
environmental impacts of the interventions, putting in place the expert
skills to identify, describe, and disseminate to a broad audience of
policymakers and practitioners the lessons learned. These projects aim at

32
   ibid.
33
    Francesc Baró, David A. Camacho, Carmen Perez del Pulgar, Isabel Ruiz-Mallén and Pablo
García-Serrano, “Nature-Based Climate Solutions in European Schools: A Pioneering Co-Designed
Strategy Towards Urban Resilience,” Urban Resilience to the Climate Emergency: Unravelling the
Transformative Potential of Institutional and Grassroots Initiatives, ed. Isabel Ruiz-Mallén, Hug
March and Mar Satorras (The Urban Book Series. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022),
125–46.
34
    Valentina R Zucca, “Un sasso in uno stagno. Le scuole come spazio di centralità sociale e
culturale in contesti in transizione nella Sardegna meridionale,” Archivio di studi urbani e regionali
132 Suppl. (2021): 138-15.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           249



possible scalability and replicability at the European level, promoting
innovative practices in tackling the challenge of urban space re-design for
climate adaptation.

6.       A Workshop Open to Knowledge Interactions.
The Academy program was built through the intersection of different
disciplinary perspectives–from ecology to planning to the arts–. It
consisted of three webinars35 and three workshops held in Verona. The
latter focused on the shared analysis of vulnerability maps and the design
of strategies and devices for mitigation/adaptation to climate change–
nature-based solutions–to be implemented in a participatory manner.
Starting from Verona's relationship with its river, considered, from a
historical perspective, as a connecting element as well as an ecological
corridor and biodiversity reserve, a number of areas vulnerable with
respect to the risk of flooding and heat waves were selected, with
particular attention to socio-economically marginal neighborhoods.
Comparing the maps based on the perceptions of high school 36 students
and the maps of vulnerability - with the assessment of areas exposed to
heat waves and heavy rains in the entire Verona area 37 - realized by the
university research staff 38, allowing an initial identification of target
areas.
The Academy program was built through the intersection of different
disciplinary perspectives–from ecology to planning to the arts–. It
consisted of three webinars and three workshops held in Verona. The
latter focused on the shared analysis of vulnerability maps and the design
of strategies and devices for mitigation/adaptation to climate change–
nature-based solutions–to be implemented in a participatory manner.
Starting from Verona's relationship with its river, considered, from a
historical perspective, as a connecting element as well as an ecological
corridor and biodiversity reserve, several areas vulnerable to the risk of
flooding and heat waves were selected, with particular attention to socio-

35
  With the aim of strengthening and building interdisciplinary knowledge on the understanding
of the territorial impacts of climate change and participatory processes of urban regeneration.
This is the articulation of the themes and the lecturers involved: "Cities in transition: the process
of adaptation to climate change" (Denis Maragno); "Ecosystem services: concepts and good
practices"(Daniele Brigolin); "Bottom-up urban regeneration projects and practices" (Carla
Tedesco and Stefania Marini).
36
    These are the Engim Veneto Vocational School, located in the Chievo district, and the
Messedaglia State Scientific High School, based in the historic center. They are involved in another
project action through workshops run by the Energie Sociali social cooperative, one of the
partners.
37
   In the first case, the evaluations were developed through the Land Surface Temperature map:
land use data and the ratio of paved area to the permeable area were compared, producing a
classification based on the heat wave vulnerability of the Verona area. In the second case, on the
other hand, through the use of DTM (digital terrain model), simulation of water path, and
comparison with data on soil permeability, the territory was classified for vulnerability to urban
flooding by indicating the different factors of water accumulation and how soil characteristics may
or may not feed surface runoff processes.
38
   Elaborated by Denis Maragno (Planning Climate Change Lab, Iuav University of Venice).
                                                                URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            250



economically marginal neighborhoods. Comparing the maps based on
the perceptions of high school students and the maps of vulnerability -
with the assessment of areas exposed to heat waves and heavy rains in the
entire Verona area - realized by the university research staff, allowing an
initial identification of target areas.
During the workshop, many hotspots particularly vulnerable to both of
the impacts mentioned above were identified in the first step. In a second
moment, participants were able to get closer to these vulnerable contexts
through a site survey that made it possible to gain direct experience of the
places, observe urban practices, interact with local actors promoting
significant experiences of activism, and reflect on how some informal
practices turn out to be ready-made solutions for adaptation, according to
the nature-based solutions approach. The survey focused on the "Adige
River Park" areas north and south of the city. They reached through
specially designed bicycle and pedestrian paths to immerse themselves in
the river landscape and perceive the relationship with the neighborhoods
bordering the river. These experiences were opportunities for discussion
and confrontation based on the interweaving of expert knowledge and
diverse backgrounds of professors and students–ecology, planning,
design, economics, the arts, photography–.
During the site survey, students had the opportunity to meet with some
local actors who carry out urban practices that often turn out to be ready-
made adaptation solutions to climatic variations. Knowing bottom-up
experiences along the Adige River and its surrounding areas allowed
them to understand and valorize the inherent project-based dimension of
some civic activism practices.39
The Canoe Club Association, founded for the dissemination and
promotion of canoeing, now also promotes knowledge of the history and
landscape features of the Adige River through educational and cultural
activities and public awareness. In the South Adige Park area, the
association Amici del Lazzaretto [Figure 1], founded as a result of a
mobilization action of the FAI for the preservation of the historic
Lazzaretto area, promotes cultural and social activities and intensive
environmental education efforts; furthermore, it promotes actions to
mitigate and adapt to climate change and to foster biodiversity. Finally,
La Folaga farm promotes the l'Orto Al Porto association, which
encourages the care of social relations through community vegetable
gardening and cultural and social events.
All identified grassroots practices move at the intersection of cultural,
social, and educational promotion, focusing on environmental
sustainability and new lifestyles related to a fair trade economy.




39
     Carlo Cellamare, Progettualità dell’agire urbano: processi e pratiche urbane (Roma: Carocci, 2011).
                                                         URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024         251




  Figure 1| Survey and meeting with Arch. Anna Braioni (“Amici del Lazzaretto” Association).
                                  Credits: Stefania Marini.


The immersion in the area made it also possible to intercept some
informal practices, such as in the case of the small beach along the river
called "Catena Beach": a place where residents can enjoy a natural space,
which becomes a natural space of climatic adaptation, as a shaded
refreshment point compared to the areas subject to the heat island
phenomenon present in the nearby neighborhoods [Figure 2]. Urban
practices observed also designed informal everyday paths between the
neighborhoods and the embankment of the river, marked by passing
through uncultivated areas to connect with the pedestrian street that runs
along the river from the Ponte Catena area to the Chievo district [Figure
3].




                      Figure 2| Informal practices along the Adige River.
                                     Credits: Klarissa Pica.
                                                     URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           252




  Figure 3| Informal paths connecting marginal neighborhoods and the Adige embankment.
                                   Credits: Chiara Lievore.


Following the site survey, in a cross-reference between the analysis of
expert maps, narratives of the experiences of local actors, and the
observation of places, participants were guided to reflect on the areas
explored in the river's northern region, particularly around the Arsenal.
Unlike the one in the south of the city - already involved in a participatory
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            253



workshop experience in 201340–this area is characterized by more critical
issues and less presence of civic activism. By crossing the perspectives of
the students involved–from different backgrounds–design, urban
planning, architecture, and economics–and the knowledge produced
during the interaction with local actors, nature-based solutions strategies
were constructed. In particular, the student groups were stimulated to
look for solutions to connect the city's adaptation to climate change with
promoting social cohesion. In this sense, the area along the Adige River
may represent strong potential for the nearest neighborhoods.
The three student groups then selected three different areas on the right
bank of the Adige River and differing in historical development and
socioeconomic composition of the population: a connection area along
the river between the Arsenal, the San Zeno district, and the Navigatori
district, with solid mobility issues; a place in the so-called "Orti di Spagna"
in the San Zeno district, which has suffered a significant demographic and
economic change in recent years; and finally, an area in the Saval
neighborhood, characterized by large portions of land designated for
community services–which now appear as unused and/or lightly
equipped through paving that is difficult to maintain–and numerous
public housing estates that accommodate a population with
socioeconomic solid fragilities.
Subsequently, the Academy's workshop course aimed to identify design
strategies and a plan of activities to intercept/support/encourage the
activation of citizenship and especially young people–including through
synergy with other projects present in the city and enhanced with the
CLIM-ACT! project–through the co-construction of climate change
adaptation devices, including from existing informal practices to be
recognized and enhanced.
The cross-disciplinary production of knowledge promoted during the
Academy was also stimulated by reflecting on the role of artistic practices
in raising awareness of environmental issues. Some students also
developed a photographic research project; the outcomes of this project
gave rise to an exhibition of the site-specific installation "Let's Degrade in
the City." This photo installation is based on a game of associations and
dissonances, in which images of the environmental "degradation"
encountered along the Adige River during the surveys relate to the graffiti
on the wall of the Arsenal, where the Academy and the final exhibition of
the projects took place.
The workshop's conclusion was characterized by a public presentation
that prompted much reflection among the experts, project partners, and
local administration representatives [Figure 4].


40
  Liliana Padovani and Nico Cattapan, “Partecipazione e coinvolgimento dei cittadini nella
progettazione e gestione del verde urbano,” in Spazi verdi da vivere il verde fa bene alla salute, ed.
M.R. Vittadini, D. Bolla and A. Barp, (Saonara: Il Prato. 2015), 257–83.
                                                          URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           254




 Figure 4| Public presentation of the projects and the photographic exhibition "Let's degrade in
                                             the city".
                                    Credits: Stefania Marini.


7.      Concluding Remarks and Open Issues for a Research Agenda.

In this contribution, a research and training practice related to the social
engagement role of the University was 'followed' in a twofold manner. On
the one hand, the involvement of Iuav University in a specific training
activity carried out within a broader social activation project was
described in detail. On the other hand, this activity was framed within the
scientific debate through a literature review and a review of good
practices and innovative actions to focus on the peculiarities of this
specific case. These research activities allowed to develop some
reflections and to raise some questions for a research agenda.
First, concerning the micro research/teaching experience within a larger
social activation project, some strengths and critical issues emerge. The
learning experience allowed students to experience an interactive and
dialogical approach to planning, being dropped into a concrete
interdisciplinary planning context oriented to promote place
transformations by implementing low-cost NBS. Students and tutors
were, therefore, able to challenge their knowledge in a potential factual
context of action that is difficult to find within the rigid university
curricula. The short temporality of the project and the episodic nature of
this educational approach in the university context, however, have, on
the one hand, contributed to disregarding some of the expectations of the
project partners who would have wished to turn young students into
activists with the possibility of engagement for the implementation phase
of the projects; on the other hand, they have made it challenging to
consolidate the collaboration between the university and local
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            255



associations. Within standard educational programs, this type of
experience tends to be occasional: the short research/teaching
experience, and the lack of continuity of action, within a context of
limited resources–and of continuous competition for resources–have
partially undermined the creation of activities with a strong impact and
solid learning chains, which can have spillovers at the local level, or
manifest themselves in other places as well, given the multi-locality
induced by contemporary living.41 Indeed, such short-term experience is
challenging to evaluate regarding student learning and its impact on the
local context. These weaknesses point out how this planning educational
practice should be more widely adopted in university programs to be
more effective and add value in knowledge and multiple learnings for the
students, the researchers, and the local actors involved.
Second, coming back to the territory where the public engagement role
of the University is played, first of all, it is possible to highlight that the
starting of this project is due to initial contacts with a network of local
associations by a researcher from the Iuav University, who is an activist
in the Verona context. As pointed out above, the University's social
engagement context cannot be defined a priori. Still, it emerges through
urban and territorial practices–not only academic–of its researchers.
Even so, in this specific case, although the local University–University of
Verona–does not deliver urban and regional studies courses and the city,
where the CLIM-ACT! Project was held, is located in the same region
where the IUAV University of Venice is located–the Veneto region–, it is
not possible to easily frame this region as a whole in terms of
“geographical proximity”. However the issues raised are certainly
broader: the urban and territorial practices of researchers–as well as
those of students and other university workers–are not limited to the local
area. They are neither defined by administrative boundaries nor based on
the geographies considered in ministerial documents for evaluating
universities. The breadth of these «territories circulatoires» 42 concretely
affects the possibility of activating social engagement initiatives. It gives
us a particular perspective of the universities' territories.

If we assume a notion of city and territory as «the use that is made of it»
and practice as «what people do» 43 by following the research practices–of
researchers–beyond both the cities–and territories–in which the
universities are located and the modes in which each specific university
'labels' its third mission activities, it is possible to develop some
reflections on the university/city relationship from a different

41
   Carla Tedesco, “Negli intestizi delle azioni innovative di rigenerazione urbana,” Archivio di studi
urbani e regionali100, (2011): 82-98.
42
    Alain Tarrius, “Territoires circulatoires et espaces urbains : Différentiation des groupes
migrants,” Les Annales de la Recherche Urbaine 59-60 (1993): 51-60, quoted in Pier Luigi Crosta,
Pratiche. Il territorio è «l’uso che se ne fa» (Milano: FrancoAngeli,. 2010), 119.
43
   (authors' translation) Pier Luigi Crosta, Pratiche. Il territorio è «l’uso che se ne fa» (Milano:
FrancoAngeli,. 2010), 7.
                                                        URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024         256



perspective. In other words, it is possible to shift the focus to the
University's role concerning scientific dialogue with society, no longer
taking it for granted that this is one confined to a predefined territorial
context (where the university is located): if territories are not «a datum,»
but are «constituted by the forms of social interaction, overlapping, but
never coinciding, always interfering with each other», 44 investigating
what the territories of universities are becomes a research strategy.
From a different perspective, the peculiar interactive approach assumed
by the CLIM-ACT! Project carried out through the involvement in a
network of local actors can be considered within the 'micropolitics of
planning' and how people interact even with objects to establish mutual
understandings.45
Not only understanding the distinction between a site as «the place being
planned,» a context as «the socio-political, cultural and economic
conditions … that shape the planning process» and the «place of practice»
embodying actors as well as the materiality of the settings of the planning
process46 is essential for planning education, but this distinction also
allows us to recognize that the places where researchers carry out social
engagement activities and the connections thereof design geographies
which deserve investigation as they constantly build up the territory of
the University as a place of–planning education and research–practice.
Third. A further element for reflection concerns the strongly bottom-up
nature of this initiative. The project promoter is neither a research
institution nor a local authority but a non-profit association. Despite
operating mainly through collaborations with other associations in
proximity networks, it managed to involve both the municipal
administration and the Iuav University of Venice, going beyond the
narrow administrative boundaries of the municipal territory. By acting as
a facilitator between schools, universities, and the third sector, the lead
association encourages interaction and the exchange of knowledge:
although the role of expert knowledge bearer on the subject cannot be
recognized ex-ante, it succeeds, through the collaborative nature of the
project, in creating a multi-actor network in which subjects capable of
producing knowledge interact during the action. Consequently, the
expertise the University brought to the project was as important as the
capacity to interact with all partners, particularly with the lead partner,
following procedures and tacit rules utterly different from those used
within research networks. Researchers had to adapt their research
routines to this new context.
Ultimately, the university and territory relationship is no longer between
two given elements but becomes a relationship built in and through
action.From this perspective, the experimentation that was activated

44
   (authors' translation) ibid., 11.
45
   Robert A. Beauregard, “Planning with Things,” Journal of Planning Education and Research 32
(2012) (2): 182–190.
46
   ibid., 9.
                                               URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024   257



through the CLIM-ACT! Project is a circumscribed experience, but it
makes it possible to question what we are talking about when we talk of
both the social engagement of universities and universities' communities
of reference.


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