New Forms of Relationships Between the University and the City: Padua, the UnicityLab Project, and the Idea of an Urban Center

Michelangelo Savino; Patrizia Messina; Lorenza Perini

doi:10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16797

Authors

Michelangelo Savino University of Padua

Michelangelo Savino Full professor of "Urban Technique and Planning" (ssd ICAR/20) at the ICEA Dept.of the University of Padua. Graduated in Urban Planning from IUAV in Venice (1987), Phd in Spatial Planning (1995). Since 2007 he has been co-director of Archivio di Studi Urbani e Regionali, a journal of spatial studies. Since 1996 he has been working on the relations between cities and universities, mutual impacts and urban regeneration processes promoted by universities.
Patrizia Messina University of Padua

Patrizia Messina Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Padua, Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies, where she teaches Local Government, EU Policies for Local Development and Governance of Networks for Sustainable Tourism. PhD in Political Science (University of Florence), She is Deputy Director of CISR - Interdepartmental Center for Regional Studies "Giorgio Lago"; coordinator of the UNICITY Laboratory on University and City of Padua and director of the Master's Degree in Manager of Sustainable Local Development. Since 2017 she has been the promoter of SHERPA srl, a spin-off of the University of Padua (www.sherpaslr.it)
Lorenza Perini University of Padua, Italy

Lorenza Perini Researcher, she teaches Gender, Eu politics and globalization at the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies (SPGI) of the University of Padua. A Phd in CONTEMPORARY HISTORY and another in PUBLIC POLICIES AND URBAN PLANNING. Research interests: Gender perspective approach in Public Policy Analysis; non-discriminating urban planning and urban policies

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.3034-8544/16797

Keywords:

Padua, Urban Center, UnicityLab, Medium-Sized City

Abstract

UNICITYLab (2019-2022) has been an interesting three-year experience of interdepartmental and interdisciplinary cooperation taking place at the University of Padua, which sought to study and analyse the forms and effects of the presence of a pluricentennial university in a medium-sized city. The UNICITYLab activities – beyond the exploration of the characteristics and conditions of the context –have been devoted to a crucial examination of the relationships between the two chief institutions in the City and their mutual policies to cope with emerging problems. It results in a lack of information about processes in progress or institutional and non-institutional networks; a general misunderstanding about issues to manage; no awareness about the need of cooperation. UNICITYLab has worked to present evidence of the situation and the need to put forward proposals for an innovative and incisive action, with the definition of a different role from the past, proactive, open, and collaborative, in the system of local relations. The organisation of a new place for discussion, collaboration, and co-planning, which we call the “Urban Centre” in a simplified way, currently seems to be a feasible solution.