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The Rural Commons Festival committee invites you to present contributions for Rural Commons Festival 2021 | Da Ovest a Est. The Festival is organized by a team composed by researchers and scholars from Università degli Studi di Trento, Università Politecnica delle Marche and Eurac Research, in co-production with the association Camposaz and other local associations. The festival is supported by Fondazione Caritro, the municipalities and associations involved. All events will be held in three valleys of the Province of Trento over three consecutive weekends from May 21st to June 6th, 2021.
The Rural Commons Festival will explore the open concept of rural commons by sharing competences and experiences in different fields. It will investigate rural and mountain areas of Italy and Europe, which have a long tradition of collective management of natural and built resources and of cooperative models of economy. These areas are also showing emerging collective practices of care for the communities, economies and habitats. Commons can be defined as a collective response to shared needs and desires expressed by a community. This concept might refer to different fields such as local economy, landscape, habitat, spatial, social, cultural and natural resources. Research has been conducted on the relevance of the commons for societies and economies of rural areas, from different perspectives and using different approaches and concepts. For this reason, there is the need to link and create synergies among the different academic fields and the non-academic and practitioner world, to enable a concerted recognition of the commons for the present and the future of rural and mountain regions. With this multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral perspective, the Rural Commons Festival aims at becoming a moment of encounter and exchange, especially in this time of forced distance due to the pandemic. The idea is to reconnect old and new practices, to learn by doing, to explore new methods and tools of a collective care of different mountain areas. The festival will be a journey from the Western to the Eastern mountain valleys of Trentino in Italy.
Among different activities, the Rural Commons Festival integrates an itinerant research symposium conceived as a transdisciplinary platform that aims at sharing and producing knowledge on rural commons.
All practitioners and researchers are invited to present innovative experiences, studies and research on spatial transformation, communities and (new) economies, social innovation, and invisible practices. Three thematic tracks will drive the discourse and conversation between practices and theories, and to describe the topic. Applicants are welcome to address their positions, to share their experiences, unresolved questions, matters of care and inspiration to one of the proposed festival tracks.
TRACK 1
chairs: PAOLA GATTO, ANDREA MEMBRETTI and Cristina Dalla Torre
Val Giudicarie
21.05.2021
Rural commons & resources: rethinking values and innovating collective institutions
The issue of innovation and transformability of collective resource management is not yet receiving all the attention it deserves, especially in relation to its many potential in natural resource management, rural development, social inclusion and innovation. Rural commons, under certain circumstances and transformations, could represent an efficient and viable model of resources management that offer society opportunities for inclusive access to natural resources and for regional development. The main hypothesis that guides this strand is that only if they innovate and transform, rural commons will be able to be resilient systems and promote sustainability in resource use, community engagement and regional development. What innovations and transformation enhance sustainable collective governance of resources and improve quality of life in the region?
Panelists:
Giulia Cutello – Eurac Research: “Montagne Vitali a path of building vision and rethinking common spatial resources”
Alissa Diesch - Leibniz Universität Hannover: “Commoning, the Village and the Megacity”
Kris Krois – Free University of Bozen-Bolzano: “Com´on relations! Visualization of social relations in alternative food networks”
Elena Enrica Giunta – Politecnico di Milano e SEV: “Co-futuring for Alps´ habitat at 2040”
Antonio Manzoni – Scuola Superiore Sant´Anna; Vivero-Pol, Jose Luis – Université Catholique de Louvain: “Mapping the food commons in Europe”
Nicola Martellozzo – University of Turin: “Ecosystem services in the Fiemme Valley: a new management approach for the forest commons of the Magnificent Community of Fiemme”
Margherita Pasquali, Chiara Chioni – University of Trento, Department of Civil Environmental and Mechanical Engineering: “Hydrological resources in Val di Sole (Italy): a key element for developing sustainable landscapes”
Klaus Prätor – Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Humanities: “Commodifying Land and Nature”
TRACK 2
chairS: Bianca Elzenbaumer, Oona Morrow, Lucie Sovova
Vallagarina
28.05.2021
Rural commons & community economies: a practice and theory exchange
In this track, we will explore how rural commons and rural community economies are being and can be mobilised in order to create irresistible futures for as many living beings as possible. We will especially focus on how feminist, decolonial and post-humanist thinking, and practice can nourish the ways in which rural spaces are (re)produced and lived. As rural places don’t stand for themselves, we will engage with the interdependencies between rural and urban spaces and how these can become empowering for actors working towards eco-social transformation along all the rural-urban continuum. This strand especially welcomes practitioners and researchers with an interest in feminist, decolonial and posthumanist approaches to commons, community economies and rural spaces.
The festival days in the Vallagarina valley also constitute the final public event of the research project Alpine Community Economies Lab. This research project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 795641.
Panelists:
Safouan Azouzi- University of Rome: “Design and Commons in the Anthropocene - alternative scenarios to increase the resilience of rural communities in Tunisia”
Angelica Pianegonda, Mattia Andreola - University of Trento: “Food as a common good in a common space - developing a Community Supported Agriculture between urban and rural contexts, the case study of Trento”
Neža Peterle, Gaja Mežnarić Osole - Trajna collective: “Notweed paper - innovative paper made from invasive plants”
Luca Pinnavaia - Infiorescenze & Khora Laboratory: “Practicing [local development] through common resoucers - notes for upcoing changes
Metaxia Markaki - ETH Zürich: “Astochorikos” (paysan-citadin). Exploring the rural-urban commons of the “uninhabited” mountainous regions of Greece
Julia Udall, Julia, Thomas Moore, Katharina Moebus - Sheffield School of Architecture Urban Commons Research Group: “Rural Reflections on an Urban Commons Handbook”
Johannes Reisigl - independent artist: “Towards a Commons Assembly”
Emanuele Sommariva - Università di Genova, Department of Architecture and Design; Joseph Claghorn - University of Sheffield: "Slow Trails. Exploring integrated networks of cycleways and footpaths as a catalyst for rural development"
TRACK 3
chairs: Sara Favargiotti, Maddalena Ferretti
Terragnolo
4.06.2021
Rural commons & HERITAGE REGENERATION: collective design approaches for new forms of habitat
The track will explore the effects of commoning practices on the built and natural heritage of rural settlements. In this line of argument, heritage is not meant as an extraordinary landscape, a listed building or a protected structure, but it also embeds ordinary architectures and common spatial resources that are part of the everyday life of the rural community. Through research findings, examples, and case studies we aim to shed a light on numerous collective practices, design approaches, and operative actions that are significantly transforming our territory, unveiling experiences of spatial transformation and dynamics of innovation in rural and mountain contexts that can perhaps suggest other ways to shape, manage, and enhance our habitats.
Panelists:
Giulia Menzietti - Università di Camerino: “Ancient paths, new routes”
Riccarda Cappeller - Leibniz Universität Hannover: “Agencies, Initiatives and Networks provoking a Cultural Regeneration in the Periphery”
Fulvia Calcagni, David Giacomelli, Claudia de Luca, Matteo Giacomelli - La Sapienza, Association Borgo Futuro, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Università di Camerino: “From built and natural heritage to intangible heritage and cultural practices: commons management in a community-based rural regeneration process in Marche region”
Valentina Coraglia, Davide Chiesa - Politecnico di Torino, Case Bernard: “Case Bernard, when a private operative home can evolve in a shared community school on the territory”
Benedetta Di Leo, Francesco Chiacchiera - Università Politecnica delle Marche: “Rur-ban Waterlines. Water-related Heritage as generator/reactivator of public spaces”
Federica Scaffidi - Leibniz Universitaet Hannover: “Rural commons as a reservoir of creativity and resilience”
Alessandra Battisti, Alberto Calenzo, Asia Barnocchi, Livia Calcagni - La Sapienza: “Strengthening the role of cultural heritage in local rural sustainable development”
Angela Cicirelli, Mariavaleria Mininni, Miriam Romano, Maddalena Scalera - Università degli Studi della Basilicata: “New geographical and cultural trails in Basilicata. 'Stone cultural landscapes' as a tool for dynamic regional planning”
Silvia Parentini - Università degli Studi della Basilicata: “Convivium-Park. The role of local communities in preserving Basilicata's rural landscapes”
Caterina Rigo - Università Politecnica delle Marche: “Commons, heritage and innovation: a slow alternative path for the Marche rural regions”
Maria Giada Di Baldassarre - Università Politecnica delle Marche: “Unveiling resilience reserves. The case study of the Appennino Basso Pesarese-Anconetano, SNAI pilot inner area of Marche Region”
Xavier Ferrari Tumay, Chiara Olivastri, Giovanna Tagliasco - Università di Genova: “Redesign Transhumance Heritage”
Maria Valese, Alessandra Battisti - TU Delft, La Sapienza: “Strategies and actions for increased resilience of cultural heritage in inner areas. The regeneration project for the marginal area of Piaggine”
Caterina Valiante - Politecnico di Milano: “Preserving communities: practices of reuse of scattered heritage in rural areas”