10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16770
In order to explore the unreleased declination of the relationship between the urban and the university system, the contribution aims to analyze the “flagship projects” of the regional research “PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA. Studiare e vivere in città accoglienti e sostenibili” verifying the impacts on the regional territory, practices, and community.As an example of research action project, the “flagship projects” and their verification are configured as the “active” part of the research, able to produce real effects and tangible impacts on the territory, with the aim of producing positive changes on reality. They belong to the third phase of the research, the more operational one, as application proposals, small experiments, funded and implemented by the proposing institutions, based on the knowledge framework developed in the previous phases of the project and returning a first, tangible feedback on the territories involved.
The knowledge systematization of the “flagship projects” concluded, in progress and in the planning stage, could be useful for to extrapolate generalizable and replicable research action guidelines, new territorial policies and innovative choices in terms of right to university study.
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Alessandra Maroccia
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                                                         URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024              185




Puglia Regione Universitaria Project as
Action Research
PEER REVIEWED


Marco Cataldo

A.Di.S.U. Puglia

catamarco@gmail.com

Cristina Danisi1

Polytechnic University of Bari

cristina.danisi@poliba.it

Giovanna Mangialardi

Polytechnic University of Bari

giovanna.mangialardi@poliba.it

Alessandra Maroccia

Puglia Region

a.maroccia@regione.puglia.it


1.         Universities and Urban Transformation.

The current historical phase, characterized by economic and social
difficulties, is triggering a “knowledge challenge”2, testing the role of the
Italian university.
Student housing, for example, is a particularly contentious issue of local
policy in university towns, in relation to both the conversion of existing
housing to student rentals and the development of private purpose-built
student housing.3
The growth of private student housing across cities globally has been
linked the lack of universities to keep up with the supply of student



1
  Corresponding author.
2
  Maurizio Novelli and Giuseppe Talamo, La Terza Missione per l'Università Italiana. Una nuova
occasione per crescere? (Roma: Università di Roma Tor Vergata, 2014).
3
  Nick Revington and Alexander James David Wray, "Land-Use Planning Approaches to Near-
Campus Neighborhoods and Student Housing Development Patterns in Ontario, Canada," Housing
Policy Debate, 2022: 1-27.
                                                                         Copyright 2024 The Author(s)
                                                     This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
    https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16770                 Attribution 4.0 International License
                                                         URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024         186



housing.4 However, few researches consider the possibility that
municipalities in an urban system can approach the problems of student
housing through land-use planning and their consequent influence on
development patterns. Municipalities’ approaches in this regard reflect
the local context, in particular their relationship to the city's own regional
growth management plans.
During the pandemic period, the education system shifted to distance
learning. Most of the student population started or continued their
university studies using the various e-learning platforms provided by the
universities. As a result, university towns have “emptied” out of the
student community. Immediately after the pandemic phase, unlike in the
business world, the university system resumed almost entirely with face-
to-face teaching. The “off-campus” student flocked to university towns in
search of accommodation. This phenomenon has generated an increase
in demand for accommodation compared to pre-pandemic data,
developing and intensifying the problem of “student residency” and
causing a real “housing emergency”. In Apulia, there was an increase of
4023 applications for accommodation places, compared to 2019, which
recorded 3742 applications. In the various Apulian university cities, this
“increase” in the university population was assessed as a “wake-up call”
for municipal administrations, stimulating knowledge of the distribution
of the student population in their cities, which had hitherto been little
investigated.
Although the various stakeholders are represented in the decision-
making bodies, the construction of the processes that implement the
right-to-university study policies is often limited to single institutional
actors.
Alongside the traditional university missions of education and research,
promoting the “Third Mission” could be necessary for accompanying the
transition toward a more inclusive city-university system. The Third
Mission is defined as the «set of activities with which universities activate
processes of direct interaction with civil society and the entrepreneurial
fabric to promote the growth of a territory so that knowledge becomes
instrumental in obtaining productive output».5 Universities must open up
to the external world and try to achieve new value for the projects within
them. In fact, “Third Mission” also means interaction with the social
tissue of their urban context and territory in a fruitful dialogue between
the parties and the network6 of actors that interact and take action in
research projects.
These projects, today more than ever, cannot be limited to academic
boundaries or a merely theoretical vision of reality; instead, they must be
as adherent as possible to contemporary necessities and emergencies.

4
   James J. Gregory and Jayne M Rogerson, "Studentification and Commodification of Student
Lifestyle in Braamfontein, Johannesburg", Urbani Izziv 30 (2019): 178-193.
5
  ibid., 182.
6
  Rupert F. Chisholm, "Action Research to Develop an Interorganizational Network," in Handbook
of Action Research, (Londra: SAGE, 2001), 324–332.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           187



Hence the importance and scientific value of the applied part of the
research and the territorial effects.
The relationship between the academic reality and the external world,
represented by the network of stakeholders, institutions, and actors of the
territory, is an added value because it generates processes capable of
bringing together common and complex interests and outputs. The
“action” part of the research includes experimentation and involvement
of researchers in the social field and the realization of the objectives of a
project, going far beyond mere “knowledge problems”.7
In this context, the "PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA. Studiare e vivere
in città accoglienti e sostenibili" project, the object of this contribution,
represents an interesting example for analysis. The project results from
an Agreement Protocol between the Apulia Region 8, the Regional Agency
for the Right to Study (A.Di.S.U. Puglia), the university cities9, and the
Apulian universities10 and is coordinated by urban@it, the National
Centre for Urban Policy Studies11. PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA was
conceived as a strongly applicative and multi-actor research project
involving the entire regional territory in innovating the relationship
between the urban and university systems. Indeed, the project's vision is
based on the conviction that constant dialogue and direct collaboration
between the university institution and the administration, together with
interaction with local stakeholders and students, can give new life to the
needs of the student community and the way it relates to the city and its
policies, concerning the Right to Study.12 The active involvement of
students, who are the primary users of “knowledge spaces”,13 and the
establishment of a dense network of relations and interchanges of
knowledge, points of view, and initiatives, represent challenges and, at
the same time, medium-long term opportunities for the territory.
Following a survey and data processing phase, the project provided a
third “operational” phase, currently underway, dedicated to the flagship
projects experimentation on the regional territory, transversal to the
project themes14, which are tangible operations of the research.

7
  Jean Dubost and André Lévy, "Ricerca-azione e intervento," in Dizionario di psicologia, (Milano:
Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2005), 377-402.
8
   Department of training and labour, labour policies, right to study, school, university,
professional training.
9
  Apulian university cities: Bari, Lecce, Foggia, Brindisi, Taranto.
10
   The five universities are: Polytechnic University of Bari, University of Bari, University of
Salento, University of Foggia, LUM University.
11
   https://www.urbanit.it/
12
   Nicola Martinelli, "Diritto allo studio e diritto di cittadinanza nel rapporto università-città,"
Territorio 73 (2015): 94-99.
13
   Nicola Martinelli, Spazi della conoscenza. Università, città e territori (Bari: ADDA, 2012).
14
   The five in-depth themes are:
Theme 1: University facilities of the Right to Study, as an opportunity for urban regeneration,
Scientific     referee    Prof.     M.    Montemurro,         Polytechnic       University   of Bari;
Theme 2: The role of the university system in urban cultural and youth policies, Scientific referee
Prof. G. Volpe, University of Bari;
Theme 3: Urban University Sustainability Agendas on mobility and energy efficiency, Scientific
referee Prof. M.A. Aiello, University of Salento;
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            188



Starting from these premises, the contribution aims to explore the
operational and experimental phase of the Apulian regional project
“PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA. Studiare e vivere in città accoglienti
e sostenibili”15 (Apulia as a university region. Studying and living in
welcoming and sustainable cities), to verify its impacts on the territory
(processes, actors, policies, etc.). In detail, the goals is to qualitatively
check if and how all the flagship projects, and consequently the entire
PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA project, can be defined as action-
research.
Action research is «characterized by the immediate application of the
produced knowledge to deal with a certain problem and includes the
evaluation of the effects».16 For this reason, it is based on the direct
relationship between the researcher and external actors and between the
researcher and analysis of the territory, addressing complex issues,
which deal with, for example, the different scales of action and multiple
knowledge necessary for the formulation of policies adherent to the
needs of contemporary societies in transformation.
To achieve the goals mentioned above, the article intends to map and
analyze all the flagship projects to extrapolate reflections and preliminary
assessments. Furthermore, this systematic regional exploration may be
helpful to evaluate the project’s ability to bring real transformations on
the territory and orient new territorial policies and innovative choices
regarding the right to study at university. The contribution is organized
as follows. After this introduction and a brief overview of the impacts of
some action research projects, the PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA
project is illustrated, describing the research method, mapping flagship
projects and reporting on the first evaluations of the project's operative
phase. Finally, after a discussion that provides an overview of the issues
that emerged concerning the action research themes, the study's
limitations and conclusions are outlined.

2.       Action Research. Some Examples.

In the scientific literature, the expression “action research”17 is associated
with Professor Kurt Lewin, who was the first to theorize the concept in
the 1940s18, qualifying it as a «research activity conducted outside a




Theme 4: Services Innovation for the Right to Study, Scientific referee Prof. F. Fanizza, University
of Foggia;
Theme 5: Disability and accessibility of university facilities and urban spaces, Scientific referee
Prof. A. Tarzia, LUM University.
15
   https://regioneuniversitaria.puglia.it/
16
   Laura Saija, La ricerca-azione in pianificazione territoriale e urbanistica (Milano: Franco-Angeli,
2016).
17
   Kurt Lewin, "Action Research and Minority Problems," Journal of social issues 2.4 (1946): 34-46.
18
   Michael Foster, "An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Action Research in Work
Organizations," Human Relations 25 (1972): 529-556.
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            189



university laboratory, in a life context, linked to problems of action and
therefore value-driven».19
Action research, intended as an evolution of the classical concept of
scientific work because it implies a collective intervention,20 is a method
capable of producing and verifying a project's real effects and tangible
impacts in any field application. It describes a cognitive activity that aims
to make changes in reality,21 which take the form of new behaviors and
practices, new attitudes, or new approaches to phenomena. Action
research, therefore, proves to be an essential tool for the group of
disciplines that deals with the production of projects, plans, and policies
for management, conservation, and urban and territorial development,
interacting, in this sense, with the concept of planning, intended as a field
of technical knowledge that reflects on how society could/should relate to
its living environment22.
The complexity of this multi-scalar topic has always led planners to
combine their specific knowledge with that of other technical and non-
technical disciplines. Today, more than ever, researchers claim a new
research approach closely related to the territory. Despite this, compared
to other fields, it is still uncommon in disciplines dealing with cities and
territories in Italy.
The capacity of action research is to positively affect the territorial
contexts in which it is applied, as a concrete transformation of it, going
beyond the walls within which the study, traditionally intended, is
developed.
As an example, at the European level, mention is made of the
“Store4HUC” project23 within the framework of the European program
“INTERREG Central Europe”, whose pilot case in 2019 was the city of
Cuneo. The experimentation, helpful in assessing the impacts of the
project on the territory involved and the potential effects in transforming
behavior and triggering good practices (action research), envisages the
new, totally renewable energy supply system of the city's panoramic lift.
The energy storage will have an immediate impact on the territory. In
addition to upgrading a significant infrastructure of the city, an overall
improvement in energy efficiency from renewable sources is expected,
with a consequent decrease in overall costs. 24 The long-term objective of
the “Store4HUC” project is to propose virtuous examples, adaptable to

19
   Jean Dubost, and André Lévy, "Ricerca-azione e intervento," in Dizionario di psicologia, (Milano:
Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2005), 377-402.
20
   Michael Peters and Vivienne Robinson, "The Origins and Status of Action Research," The Journal
of Applied Behavioral Science 20 (1984): 113–124.
21
   Laura Saija, La ricerca-azione in pianificazione territoriale e urbanistica (Milano: Franco-Angeli,
2016).
22
   ibid.,50.
23
    The Store4HUC project involves a partnership made up of 10 European cities representing
Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Croatia and Italy with a total budget of around 1.8 million euros, of
which more than 300,000 are earmarked for Environment Park and the Municipality of Cuneo.
24
   Marilisa Romagno, "Sostenibilità urbana: a Cuneo un progetto pilota per l'efficienza energetica
dei centri storici," www.alternativasostenibile.it. (Marzo 22, 2019).
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            190



other contexts and able to contribute to improving and enriching urban
planning strategies from a greener perspective, seeking the right
compromise between constraints and environmental sustainability
requirements. Therefore, preliminary investigation through pilot cases
proves to be fundamental for the proper development of experimental
research, representing support, in the course of the work, to the
verification of the validity of objectives and results and, if necessary, to
their redefinition.

3.       Puglia Regione Universitaria Project.
3.1      The Research.

The multi-actor process “PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA. Studiare e
vivere in città accoglienti e sostenibili”, approved with the Regional Council
Resolution n°2383/2019, aims to renew the relationship between the
university and the urban system, capable of guaranteeing those who
choose to study in Puglia a full Right of Citizenship, as an essential aspect
of the Right to Study.25 It is a two-year institutional and research project,
started on 16 February 2021. The overall objective is to promote
sustainable and integrated regional urban development policies in
synergy with university action. The exchange of experience and
knowledge between cities promoting an inedited connection between
them, through the collective and constant involvement in the project and
its activities (focus groups, itinerant meetings, multi-thematic
workshops, project exhibitions, conferences on the topics covered
involving technicians and professionals), helps to accelerate the process
of policy innovation: to this end, the involvement of various stakeholders
is essential. The goal is to ease the exchange of experience and learning
between urban policy, decision-makers, and practitioners, helping them
to define and implement Action Plans for sustainable urban development
and acting on the major emergencies concerning the university.
The research focuses on the well-being of university students as citizens,
intersecting different actors in their specific areas, generating a complex
network where individual skills and contributions join those of the rest of
the group. In particular, with the signing of the Protocol of Agreement,
due to the work of a research group of assignees and scholarship holders
led by a scientific referee, each university has committed itself to delve
into a topic (Housing, Culture, Sustainability, Right to Study and
Accessibility) concerning the entire regional territory and to assist the
other universities, through the identification of a topic referee for each of
the other four project assets. The research activity was mainly conducted
by five Apulian universities (Polytechnic University of Bari, University of
Bari, University of Salento, University of Foggia, LUM University) and five

25
  Giovanna Mangialardi, Nicola Martinelli and Angelica Triggiano, "Rigenerazione urbana nelle
città universitarie tra Student e Social Housing. Il caso dell'Ex Ospedale Sanatoriale ‘A. Galateo’ a
Lecce," Regional Studies and Urban Development 3(3) (2022): 43-64.
                                                            URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           191



university cities (Bari, Foggia, Lecce, Brindisi, and Taranto), constantly
involved territorial actors and students for a continuous survey of ideas
and needs. At the same time, the municipalities, as the main territorial
institutional actors, have committed themselves to define policies and
supporting the research activities carried out in the university by
including five scholarship holders in their staff. In addition, four further
trainees are working within the Regional Agency for the Right to Study
(A.di.S.U. Puglia), two experts in urban planning and construction and
one in law, who can provide the required technical-scientific support.
Further project details can be found in the article Nuove forme di
progettualità condivise. Il progetto Puglia Regione Universitaria, 26 a
contribution for the XXVI Scientific Conference SIU (Italian Society of the
Urbanists), held in June 2022 in Brescia.
The application part of the research project took moves from the analysis
phase conducted upstream by the five Apulian universities, and it is on
this stage that this contribution focuses. Starting from the theoretical
framework realized by the universities on the various topics, it focused
on the concepts and issues that have emerged in the knowledge “transfer”
process. This allows the administrations and the executive subjects to act
on the most urgent matters highlighted by research activities. Therefore,
the operation aims to develop the collective learning of the entire multi-
actor ecosystem represented by PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA.

3.2      The Method.

The two-year project is specifically divided into three phases: the analysis
of the assigned topic, declined in each of the different contexts of the five
university cities involved, followed by the elaboration of the results
obtained useful for the drafting of a detailed thematic knowledge
framework with the relative identification of strengths and weaknesses
and the subsequent definition of targeted intervention tools and actions.
The research, initially set up according to a linear process, evolved
spontaneously into a continuous “spiral” process. 27As this was an
innovative and experimental project, the workgroup conducted constant
reflections on the progress and partial outcomes of the project,
rethinking the initially planned courses of action several times, led by the
partial outcomes of each step, in line with the dynamics of action research
that operates through a cyclical process of planning, action, and
evaluation of the action leading to further planning, and so on. 28 29

26
   Cristina Danisi, Giovanna Mangialardi, Alessandra Maroccia and Angelica Triggiano, "Nuove
forme di progettualità condivise. Il progetto Puglia Regione Universitaria," "Dare valore ai valori
in urbanistica" XXVI Conferenza Scientifica SIU Brescia 2022 (2023).
27
   Stephen Kemmis, Robin McTaggart and Rhonda Nixon, The Action Research Planner. Doing
Critical Participatory Action Research, (Singapore: Springer, 2014).
28
   David Coghlan and Teresa Brannik, Doing action research in your own organization, (Londra:
SAGE, 2005).
29
  David Coghlan and N S Rashford, The Dynamics of Organizational Levels: A Change Framework for
Managers and Consultants, (Boston: Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1994).
                                                         URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024          192



During the research project, the theoretical framework was transformed
into action, using specific operational experiences conducted, for
example, through international design competitions, participatory
processes, and the recovery of disused buildings to increase student
housing. The circularity of research has generated formalized “scientific”
products but also clear influences on reality 30 and different forms of
collective learning. The integration of knowledge attained and shared
between institutions, universities, cities, territorial stakeholders, the
student community, and the community of citizens was suitable to enable
principles of socio-organizational change, valid for the definition of new
public policies between cities and universities. This approach has led to
an increase in the number of actors and territories involved and to the
evolution of the expected results and impacts, both in quantity and
complexity [Figure 1], as will be better explained in the following
paragraphs.
To better qualify the process of the PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA
project and associate it with an action research, the description of all the
projects considered “flagship” is given below. The flagship projects of
PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA allowed for immediate application
and punctual feedback on the project's research themes, identified as the
third applicative phase of the process. They could be defined the “action”
part of the project.
The reconstruction was made on the basis of the knowledge of the
authors, who represent some of the main institutions involved in the
project (Regione Puglia, ADISU, urban@it), trying to reconstruct as
faithfully as possible what happened in all areas during the two years of
the project.




30
  Hilary Bradbury and Peter Reason. The SAGE Handbook of Action Research. Participative Inquiry
and Practice. 2, (Londra: SAGE, 2008).
                                                       URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024         193




 Figure 1| Diagram comparing the planned method and the one actually carried out for PUGLIA
                                    UNIVERSITY REGION.
                       Credits: Cristina Danisi, Giovanna Mangialardi.


3.3     The Action.

The housing emergency was one of the themes that certainly conditioned
research developments in the flagship projects.
First and foremost, an incidental characteristic of the Apulian university
system is the presence of commuters and out-of-town students from all
over Apulia, in contrast to the very low percentage of out-of-region
students and the high percentage of students who enroll in universities
outside the region. This problem is particularly acute for municipal
administrations. This data intersects with the dynamics of out-of-
residence students in Apulia, who have to deal with the housing
emergency in the various university cities, which cannot guarantee
adequate      accommodation       for   this     category     of    users.
Along these lines, the objective of the flagship project “FUORI SEDE -
Design Workshop for the temporary housing of university citizens”
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024          194



[Figure 2], which took place in September 2021, was to imagine new
spaces and uses for the “E. De Giorgi” University Residence in Lecce,
together with the community of students living there and the citizens and
neighborhood associations, listening to their ideas and proposals. The
protagonists of the initiative were the students and citizens who, through
the tools of participatory planning, were involved in a workshop
preparatory to planning the extension of the residence. The area outside
the residence represents an “urban void” on which there have always
been different views on the part of the various stakeholders: the Sud-Est
cultural association based in the adjacent Knos Factories, appointed as a
workshop leader, conceived of it as a space to be naturalized, giving it new
life; the Province of Lecce, which before A.di.S.U. Puglia owned the
concession for its use and envisaged a new outdoor sports field; finally,
A.di.S.U. showed a willingness to exploit the space to create new student
residences. The workshop was an opportunity to dialogue between the
various actors and find a meeting point between ideas, needs, and
desires. Starting with presenting case studies to explore issues ranging
from the design of flexible architectures for temporary use to new
sustainable construction methods, the design phase was followed by a
discussion with university students, recent graduate designers, and
residents      of    the      Salesiani      neighborhood        in     Lecce.
The issue of student residences in university towns has produced more
immediate results due to the publication of the 5th Ministerial
Announcement of L.338/200031, which finances new projects for
university student accommodation and residences, to be implemented
primarily through the conversion of existing buildings. Following a
participatory process of territorial concertation, the municipalities,
provinces, and universities formalized their interest in submitting
disused public buildings to the 5th Call for Proposals of L. n°338/2000 for
the construction of student halls of residence, colleges, and other forms
of university housing, as well as facilities and equipment open to citizens,
which foster the relationship between university facilities and urban
functions. Three of the five design competitions were presented for the
construction of student residences in university towns in Apulia on
abandoned buildings: the former Carmelite Convent in Lecce [Figure 3],
the “Palazzo Frisini” in Taranto and the former “Cassa Mutua Artigiani”
in Brindisi. In this case, the action research of PUGLIA REGIONE
UNIVERSITARIA represented a way to accelerate the procedures
regarding one of the most significant territorial emergencies, university
housing: this resulted in the decision to carry out the first three of the five
planned competitions, which will therefore follow different timetables.
The flagship projects on the social housing theme were paved the way by




31
     Law of 14.11.2000, n° 338: Provisions on accommodation and residences for university students.
                                                          URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024          195



the National Innovative Program for Housing Quality (PINQuA) 32 urban
regeneration      projects    in     Lecce,     Taranto,     and   Brindisi.
In Lecce, the project envisaged the renovation of the former “Galateo”
building [Figure 4] to be used as a social housing complex offering
accommodation for families, students, and the elderly through a housing
re-functionalization and the creation of multifunctional spaces with
aggregative functions for commercial, sports, recreational and cultural
activities. In the north wing of the complex, a student dormitory for 20
students is planned, which A.di.S.U. Puglia is willing to manage,
intending to experiment with mixed management forms as part of a
renewed relationship between the university system and the city, which
sees students fully integrated into the city community.
The plan for the city of Taranto is to design and implement strategic urban
regeneration actions for life quality improvement in large portions of the
problematic districts of Paolo VI and “Città Vecchia”. In particular, the
project on the “Città Vecchia” [Figure 5] envisages reopening to the public
the use of the area surrounding the “Scaletta Calò”, which is now walled
up, at the same time as the renovation of an old aristocratic palace to be
used as accommodation for university students and the redevelopment of
the external areas of the council houses in Via Garibaldi. A.di.S.U. Puglia,
through an agreement, will manage the housing service.
A new “University of Brindisi building complex” [Figure 6] has been
planned in Brindisi. This will form a social, cultural-historical, and
service fabric continuum. In particular, the former building “Marconi”
will be used in the project as a residence for off-site university students
and visiting professors, and the interior will be rearranged to
accommodate rooms for the disabled, single rooms with bathrooms, an
administrative area, study rooms, hall-reception, a breakfast room, etc.
In addition, the branch of the former “Marconi” Technical Commercial
Institute, in Maglie Street, will be used as a university canteen with 150
seats.
The flagship project in the city of Foggia is the digital hub involving the
“Miale Barracks” [Figure 7]. It takes the form of a radical regeneration and
re-functionalization of the entire urban area. For years, it has been
disconnected from most other urban areas and the educational and
training activities in the surrounding and neighboring buildings. The
“Miale Barracks” is set to become a hub of excellence for innovation,
technology transfer, research, and higher education. In this place, a
virtuous relationship will be formed between research, cultural growth,
innovation, economic development, and social welfare. There, the
university, together with its partners, will make available to the territory
human resources and knowledge dedicated to a plurality of activities in
support of companies operating in the territory, contributing to

32
  National Innovative Programme for Housing Quality: financed by the National Recovery and
Resilience Plan with EUR 2.8 billion, it aims to reduce suburban decay, make public housing more
energy efficient and carry out urban regeneration to improve people's quality of life.
                                                       URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024   196



technology transfer and digitalization of young people to support and
stimulate them in the creation of start-ups and spin-offs, and of higher
education for the benefit of trainers, companies and stakeholders in the
territory.
The experimental and innovative services for students with disabilities
covered the entire Apulian regional territory. The project started from the
document “A two-level accompanying service for students with physical
disabilities and SLD in the university pathway”, which analyzes the
Disability and SLD Services in the five universities and was drafted by the
Scientific Coordinator of the topic “Disability and material and
immaterial accessibility of university structures and urban spaces” within
PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA, with the support of the Disability
Delegates from the five Apulian universities. It is envisaged to finance
innovative projects to foster the socialization and integration of the
students mentioned above with the school and local community,
facilitating their participation in cultural and sporting and providing
artistic opportunities, forms of autonomy, and inclusion. One more
action is the increase of social entrepreneurship to ensure personal
services, addressing one or more public notices to non-profit private law
entities who can offer them.




           Figure 2| Working group of the 'Fuori Sede' workshop in Lecce, 2021.
                     Credits: PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA w.g.
                                                        URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024              197




Figure 3| Render of the winning project of the design competition for a new student residence
                  in the former “Convent of the Carmelitani Scalzi” in Lecce.
             Credits: https://concorsiawn.it/residenzauniversitaria-lecce/home.




 Figure 4| Render of the winning project of the design competition for the renovation of the
                          “ex Galateo” building, as part of PINQUA.
                    Credits: https://www.leccesocialhousing.it/#risultati.
                                                           URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024             198




   Figure 5| The strategies of the project “Re-inhabiting the Old City of Taranto”, within the
                                     framework of PINQUA.
              Credits: https://www.mit.gov.it/nfsmitgov/files/media/notizia/2022-
                                  04/Rapporto_Pinqua_web.pdf




Figure 6| The design of the new “Brindisi University Headquarters” building complex, as part of
                                           PINQUA.
              Credits: https://www.mit.gov.it/nfsmitgov/files/media/notizia/2022-
                                 04/Rapporto_Pinqua_web.pdf
                                                            URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024           199




              Figure 7| The “Miale Barracks” that will host Foggia's new digital hub.
 Credits: https://www.bonculture.it/urban-politics/investigazioni-e-lezioni-lunifg-rivitalizza-la-
                              caserma-miale-e-il-centro-di-foggia/


3.4     Flagship Project Evaluations.

Sharing the research themes of PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA and
its flagship projects between the various institutional actors is considered
a success factor for the research. To date, municipal administrations have
“governed” their city policies, such as mobility, trade, housing, or urban
development, without fully considering the presence on their territory of
a university student community studying and living in the city. In addition
to generating economic flows, this community also conditions urban
services and mobility distribution. Using technical tables for each of the
five themes of PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA allowed all the involved
subjects to follow a very clear direction “together”. In this sense, the
project has also represented a “wake-up call”, which, until then, had not
been “deemed interesting” on issues that would have probably not
emerged otherwise; at least, it would have taken longer to explore them.
PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA, therefore, allowed administrations to
understand which actions to prioritize, channeling funds and resources
to them.
Further strengths were also highlighted: the flagship projects’
innovativeness and methodology are remarkable. Participatory planning,
which is one of the key concepts of action research, produced a dialogue
between urban and university on a regional scale, also involving student
organizations, economic and social forces, managers of urban services,
                                                       URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024         200



and cultural associations in the reflection: this is a transversal research
approach, which focuses on the welfare of students as citizens.
Participatory planning implies a different communication strategy: from
the defense of autonomy between universities and the city to an
awareness of desirable interdependence. Combining the right to study
and the right to the city has led a group of municipalities to reshape
proposals currently being drawn up, testing the opportunities that a
synergic relationship between residents and students can generate.
Undoubtedly, the housing emergency has played a decisive role in most
projects.
One of the most important intentions, which involved the majority of the
stakeholders, in addition to ensuring an increase in the number and
quality of student housing in Apulia, was to guarantee equal treatment for
all students in the region, independent of individual economic
possibilities. Student housing, in fact, is a key-vector through which social
inequalities can articulate and manifest themselves, reflecting a broader
global trend.33
Through the flagship projects on housing developed in cooperation with
A.di.S.U. Puglia, the aim is to generate an equal condition of well-being
and to avoid classism based on economic conditions. This contrasts with
the international growth of the commercialisation of the higher
education sector and the privatisation of student accommodation, which
has led to the emergence of a new type of “purpose-built student
accommodation” (PBSA).34 These are all-inclusive, high-quality student
accommodations that have raised the standard and also the price of
student housing, managed by private or commercial companies that
create      and     maintain       exclusive       student     communities.
Housing for off-campus scholarship holders in Apulia still covers a small
part of the demand. Against 1908 beds available in 2019/20, 4274
applications were received. This shortage becomes particularly acute in
Bari and Lecce, with more than 50% of those eligible remaining without
a bed. Combining the urgency of creating new accommodation places
with the sharing policies and expansion of university towns is crucial.
There was also often a lack of strategic alignment between the cities and
universities before the project started.
Concerning the workshop “FUORI SEDE"—off-site—, it must be pointed
out that until then, many residents of the Salesian neighborhood were
unaware of the intended use of the space of the Student House. Thanks to
the collective discussion, this space will now be able to open up to the city
and build its evolution together. The participatory planning process
applied in defining the new vision of the “E. De Giorgi” student house also

 Alice Reynolds, "Geographies of Purpose Built Student Accommodation: Exclusivity, Precarity
33

And (Im)Mobility," Geography Compass 14, no. 11 (2020): e12543.

34
  Therese Kenna and Ailish Murphy, "Constructing exclusive student communities: The rise of
“superior” student accommodation and new geographies of exclusion," The Geographical Journal
187 (2021): 138 - 154.
                                                           URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024          201



highlighted some limitations that were not apparent until then. In fact,
on the one hand, the institutional actors perceived participation in the
process as an “institutional duty”. On the other hand, the world of
associations and the city's non-institutional actors perceived
participatory planning as a top-down process. Subjects who had not been
involved in the university city's issues up to that point showed a critical
attitude     in      the     initial     phase      of     the    process.
The expansion and rethinking of a university residence or the conversion
of an existing building into a university residence is a process subject to
long timescales dictated by bureaucracy and the identification of
resources. Added to this is the time required for participatory planning.
Time is critical, as financial resources are often tied to very tight
deadlines. This is why some university towns in Apulia have been flagship
projects, and others have not.
The Lecce context has been a particularly active landscape for PUGLIA
REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA pilots: in addition to the workshop “FUORI
SEDE", the former “Convent of the Carmelitani Scalzi” being nominated
for the 5th Ministerial Announcement of L. n°338/2000 through the design
competition. Moreover, with the recovery of the former “Galateo
building”, part of the residence will offer student accommodation.
Following the two decrees issued in a few months by the MUR35 on NRRP36
resources, a new student residence, “Ex Hotel Zenit” was activated
directly by A.di.S.U. Puglia, and through the action of two private
individuals, three residences were activated in the hinterland of the
Ecotekne University campus, specifically in Arnesano (LE) and
Monteroni (LE), and one in the city of Lecce.

4.       Discussion.

Action research is a form of self-reflexive investigation,37 which aims at
producing knowledge about a system while trying to change it, implying
transformation interventions through a cyclic process of research, action,
and evaluation in which those involved are at the same time participants
in the research.38 In this sense, the flagship projects of PUGLIA REGIONE
UNIVERSITARIA mark the triggering of fundamental transformations in
the regional territory at different levels: individual, social, and
organizational.39
Participatory design processes, national and international calls for


35
   Ministry of University and Research.
36
   NRRP - National Recovery and Resilience Plan is the program with which the government
manages the funds of the Next Generation Eu. It is the economic recovery and revitalization tool
introduced by the European Union to restore pandemic-related losses.
37
   Robin McTaggart, "Participatory Action Research: issues in theory and Practice," Educational
Action Research 2 (1994): 313-337.
38
   Meg Bond and Elizabeth Hart, Action Research for Health and Social Care (Open University Press,
1995).
39
   Francesca Falcone, Lavorare con la ricerca azione (Rimini: Maggioli, 2016).
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            202



tenders for the reconversion of the building stock, and a
qualitative/quantitative increase in the number of university
accommodation places in Apulia are direct feedback triggered by the
project, the development of which was built within the academic
boundaries, and then turned to the entire local university and urban
community – a university-territory relationship, now, authentically and
mutually transformative.40
The objectives, clear from the outset, in the desire to create an actual
network of relations between the university and urban communities in
Apulia, solid over time, sedimentary even after the project itself, and in
the declination in the territorial sphere of the five in-depth themes, have
guided the entire dynamics of the process, ever since the signing of the
memorandum of understanding in 2021. As mentioned in the preceding
paragraphs, the spontaneous evolution of PUGLIA REGIONE
UNIVERSITARIA led the research team never to be satisfied with the
obtained results or to slavishly follow the project's expected course but
start from the initial planning. Each action was followed by an evaluative
reflection, affecting the subsequent course of the various phases. In this
way, the initially conceived theoretical and somehow rigid approach has
adapted over the project itself. At the same time, the project itself has
been “modeled” and updated according to the real impacts of each step.
In the transition from the linear process to the spiral one, two years after
the start of the project, the group of stakeholders initially involved has
largely increased, involving additional agencies such as A.S.S.E.T. 41 and
“Puglia Valore Immobiliare”42, and new territorial authorities such as
some Provinces. This happened because the project spontaneously
expanded from its initial prospects, also thanks to the wide dissemination
promoted by the institutional partners. By moving from city to city and
activating conferences and meetings open to the city, an increasing
number of stakeholders became interested and curious about the topics
treated, believing that they could make a contribution to the research
themselves as well as gain important suggestions. At the same time, the
network expanded thanks to the work of the researchers involved, who
dealt with the topics in a concrete and direct manner, not just
theoretically, interfacing in the first person with the stakeholders and
partners they considered most suitable, involving them in the activities.
The external stakeholders, both private and public, always showed
interest and participation in the project, even launching several
experiments in the area as part of the third operational phase (as an
example, mention is made of the collaboration with the Cercoalloggio.it
digital platform for the “diffuse housing” project in the city of Taranto,
conceived           in         the         winter           of       2023).

40
   Laura Saija, La ricerca-azione in pianificazione territoriale e urbanistica (Milano: Franco-Angeli,
2016).
41
      A.S.S.E.T. Regional Strategic Agency for Sustainable Land Development.
http://asset.regione.puglia.it/.
42
   http://www.pugliavalore.it/.
                                                      URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024       203



As far as the involvement of the territories is concerned, while the initial
idea envisaged the participation of the individual cities where a university
is located in Apulia, other realities were subsequently voluntarily
included in the project, such as Brindisi, which is a branch of the
University of Salento and the University of Bari, and some territories that
do not directly host university campuses, but are cities of residence of
commuting students who, at the regional level, strongly express the need
for study venues not only in the cities where they attend the various
courses but also in those to which they return at the end of the day or on
weekends.
Similarly, the group of university institutions has been enriched and
complexified through interaction with several regional A.F.A.M. 43
institutes.
Consequently, even the results initially envisaged, referred in a generic
way to guidelines, actions, and experimentations, were later better
specified and, at present, refer to a more “theoretical” part—formalized
in a new “Agenda for the Right to University Studies”— which delves into
the specific objectives of each topic, the macro-areas of intervention and,
above all, some hypotheses of action to be taken by subjects such as
institutions for the right to study, regional and municipal authorities and
universities can carry out on the subject of the university-city
relationship, proposed in the light of the results of the analyses carried
out—setting up an observatory on university residences, mapping disused
urban areas potentially suitable for redevelopment, transforming
university buildings into environmentally and energy sustainable
buildings, entering into agreements with subsidized rates to encourage
the         use        of        public       transport,      etc.       —.
The “practical” section, on the other hand, includes all the flagship
projects described and the actions useful to sediment in the long term that
important “cloud” of relations created between institutions and
territories through the project—as an example, setting up permanent
consultation tables on the main issues addressed through the project—.

5.      Concluding Reflections.

The term “action”, in the context of research, marks a specific step of the
experimental sequence, specifically referring to the phase of
involvement of the workgroup in solving concrete problems and not only
“knowledge problems”, making the notions acquired during the analysis
applicable, and returning practices aimed at real changes on societies and
territories.44 The PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA project, therefore,
could be considered a research action project because it determined
changes in realities through an objective and rigorous knowledge of the

 Higher education in art, music and dance.
43

 Kate Louise Mc Ardleand Peter Reason, "Action research and organization development," in
44

Handbook of organization development (Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2008).
                                                             URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024            204



territorial context of the investigation and direct actions on relative
territories.45
From the reconnaissance presented, aiming to assess the contribution of
the flagship projects as an action research phase of PUGLIA REGIONE
UNIVERSITARIA, the value that field experimentation has provided to the
project can be seen. Indeed, the flagship projects aimed to stimulate
dialog and interaction between complementary systems, which usually
have difficulty coming into contact: academic institutions and
administrations, the student and urban communities, economic and
social forces, urban service managers, and cultural associations. The
multi-actor approach experienced during the project and the
relationships built will hopefully remain a legacy of the project. Sharing
these intentions strengthened the common idea and the will to succeed in
bridging the gaps present in the area and begin to overcome the major
problems detected—for example, the shortage of student
accommodation—by looking at the right to study as a right to the city, as
a tangible result of the research.
However, not all the workgroups on the five research topics have
imagined and implemented concrete projects: the examples described in
the previous paragraph represent only a part of the flagship projects that
the PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA workgroup has proposed. As an
example, the initiatives planned by the workgroup on the topic of
culture—like the Festival of Culture—have not been tested yet due to a lack
of funds, while the workgroups on the topics of sustainability—mobility
and/or energy efficiency— and the right to university study are currently
lacking flagship projects, even though topics are greatly relevant and
urgent at a world level. The misaligned timing of the research groups has
been a limitation of the project, and in some cases, this has been reflected
in the actions on the ground.
The resources allocated by the NRRP46 for the co-financing of actions
aimed at acquiring the availability of beds for university students allowed
university cities to activate new accommodation places, but without
having the necessary time for a participatory planning process, as in the
case of PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA.
Administrations still have some limits in sharing strategic choices, such
as conditioning university development from an urban and educational
point of view. A case is represented by the degree courses that require
frequent attendance in university laboratories and facilities—an example,
Nursing Sciences—, which are not covered by essential student residence
services.
The intention of the third phase of PUGLIA REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA is
to strengthen the involvement of local administrations and territories in

45
   Laura Saija, La ricerca-azione in pianificazione territoriale e urbanistica (Milano: Franco-Angeli,
2016).
46
   NRRP - National Recovery and Resilience Plan is the program with which the government
manages the funds of the Next Generation Eu. It is the economic recovery and revitalization tool
introduced by the European Union to restore pandemic-related losses.
                                                                  URBANA Vol. 1, N. 1, 2024   205



research, which would otherwise be limited to academic boundaries. This
is not only about five universities collaborating in scientific research and
knowledge exchange but also interacting and confronting the five
university cities to give concrete feedback to the developed reflections.
Similarly, involving administrations and other territorial stakeholders,
the aim is to provide guidelines on the right to study to channel resources
and funds in the best possible way, pursuing the mission of increasing
Apulia's       attractiveness       as      a       university        region.
The data obtained from the outcomes of the flagship projects of PUGLIA
REGIONE UNIVERSITARIA47 were collected and analyzed only
qualitatively and are accessible from the website dedicated to the project.
Future research will allow clustering of the contents, highlighting the
actors involved, places, areas, and themes, and the state of progress of the
research, also attempting to monitor the impacts in the medium to long
term.

Attributions

The contribution is the result of a joint reflection by the authors.
In particular it is attributed to: G. Mangialardi the “UNIVERSITIES AND
URBAN TRANSFORMATION” chapter; to C. Danisi the “ACTION
RESEARCH. SOME EXAMPLES” chapter; to A. Maroccia the “a. The
research” paragraph; to G. Mangialardi the “b. The method” paragraph;
to M. Cataldo the “c. The action” paragraph; to M. Cataldo and C. Danisi
the “d. Flagship Project evaluations” paragraph; to C. Danisi the
“DISCUSSION” chapter; to G. Mangialardi the “CONCLUDING
REFLECTIONS” chapter.

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