Educational Objectives

The programme focuses on various aspects related to urban and landscape planning and design, with a special attention to the relationship between spatial planning and design, and regional government. It explores methodologies, approaches, policies and tools for the analysis of contemporary regional urban planning processes (bio-regional dynamics, polycentric models, metropolitan and post-metropolitan morphotypologies), and for the construction of integrated and participative strategic scenarios and regional projects. It also carries out an in-depth analysis of environmental questions with a special focus on the ecology of the region and regional policies regarding sustainability.

The programme fosters a critical approach to planning strategies, inquiring on the multiplicity of interpretations and scientific contributions, from an international perspective that is both comparative and integrated, aimed at finding those strategies that are more adequately adaptable to the local contexts in question. It orients the educational and training processes towards on-field research methodologies, promoting contact with the various stakeholders active in the region.

It focuses especially on the following research areas:

• the project of the city ,with reference to the subjects of public space, the regeneration of the urban fabric, infrastructures and accessibility, the re-qualification of historical centres, the redesigning of suburbs and fringe peri-urban areas, and the relationship between private and public city;
•  the project of the territory and the landscape, with reference to the “territorialist project”, which is oriented towards ascribing added value to the region through modes of social governance of the territory's production, understood as a highly complex living system, comprised of places (or regions) which have been distinguished by a specific history, character, and a long-running structure; 
•  Regional Design, as an approach to spatial design and planning, with the purpose of determining extensive regional areas in which to identify a strong and shared strategic vision, that may serve as a reference point for both social and economic development policies and for the government of the region;
•  urban and regional policies, with reference to the following fields of study: urban and strategic intervention tools for the contemporary city, theoretical and applied research in the fields related to participative and interactive planning and design; environmental assessment, both in terms of strategies and risks, regarding urban and regional planning and infrastructure programmes; 
• Critical Planning, with the purpose of developing a critical vision of urban and regional planning and design, through the exploration of the roots, of the theory and practice of planning and design, tracing the radical and unsettled paradigms, and ascribing value to minority and alternative traditions; 
• planning for cooperation with the Global South, with reference to educational and research activities related to the subject of the transformation of and interventions in the cities of the Global South, with a direct commitment by partners, in university and extra-university contexts, both in Italy and abroad, to the promotion of, and active participation in projects of cooperation for development.

Training Programme

Objectives

The Training Programme aims at satisfying the following objectives:

(1) to train young researchers that are capable of both interacting with the international academic community and facing the social questions emerging from a variety of contexts;

(2) to build national and international networks for training and education in research, establishing contacts and creating opportunities for collaboration with other PhD programmes in Italy in the field of urban and regional studies;

(3) to increase studies on research methodologies for PhD training, with a special focus on the recognition and use of research agreements in the field studied, as well as on established 'knowledges' (techniques or theories);

(4) to orient PhD education towards the questions and problems related to research, focusing on the commitment on inter-disciplinary analysis and the centrality of the social usefulness of scientific research;

(5) to guarantee the interconnection between research, learning and action, fostering the integration between teachers, PhD students and social demands, in the construction of the educational offer and seminar activities;

(6)  to build a relationship between the PhD programme, public institutions, and enterprises, both public and private, with the purpose of establishing the number and quality of research and career opportunities for PhD Candidates in various fields.

Activities

For that purpose, the programme organises its educational offer according to 5 types of activities and cycles of lectures:

1. A cycle of lectures on research methodologies, which includes:
   1. lectures given by the teaching staff;
   2. analysis of finished dissertations;
   3. participation in courses and seminars organised at the national level for the PhD programmes in urban planning and regional policies;
2. courses centred on:
   1. a presentation of the research fields and of the approaches used by the teachers involved in the PhD programme;
   2. a presentation of the frameworks (active research projects, funding opportunities, collaboration with other entities, etc.), in which PhD Candidates may develop their personal research projects;
3. a class in English devoted to the study of key words in urban studies, with the purpose of fostering the internationalization of the programme, favouring the presence of foreign PhD Candidates, and creating the conditions for the mobility of PhD Candidates within the framework of the Erasmus Plus programme and other international agreements and programmes devised for third cycle students;
4. thematic seminars proposed by the PhD Candidates themselves from within their own research fields;
5. local, national and international seminars, including those organised in conjunction with other PhD programmes;
6. discussion workshops concerning the development of research projects and PhD dissertations.

Teaching staff

Camilla Perrone
Francesco Alberti
Leonardo Chiesi
Giuseppe De Luca
David Fanfani
Giulio Giovannoni
Valeria Lingua
Fabio Lucchesi
Giancarlo Paba
Raffaele Paloscia
Daniela Poli
Claudio Saragosa
Iacopo Zetti
Alberto Ziparo

PhD candidates

Cycle XXVIII

Cycle XXIX

Cycle XXX

Cycle XXXI

Examination topics