Discover our partners! – University of Calabria (UNICAL)

University of Calabria (UNICAL), established in 1972, is one of the few residential university campuses in Italy and one of the largest one with over 30.000 students. The teaching staff is composed by more than 900 scientist. Research activities are carried out within 14 Departments. The University has consolidated relationships with other international research and education center; provides scientific backup for many projects in the Region of Calabria collaborating with public and private sector.

Within RURALIZATION are involved the researchers operating in the Center for Rural Development Studies (CeSSR), active in the Department of Political and Social Science. CeSSR has a long experience of study and research on rural development and migration issues and provide its expertise to support development processes in the rural territory, combining a practical dimension with a theoretical one. UNICAL is leading work package 5 on “rural new comers, new entrants into agriculture and successors”. This includes analysis of data and literature on this specific topic, the execution of 30 case studies on promising practices and the confrontation of their outcomes in other 20 areas. The UNICAL team will also carry out research in the Italian context in the other work packages.

Silvia Sivini is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Environment and Territory since 2004. She graduated in Economic and Social Science and has a PhD in Sociology. She has participated in several research projects, both at national and international level. Her research interests include: alternative agro-food networks, local governance, rural tourism and rural development process. She is the coordinator of the Centre for Rural Development Studies (CeSSR). She teaches in Bachelor and Master Degree and in Phd programme. She has also supervised several PhD students on subjects relating to rural issues.

Annamaria Vitale is Associate Professor in Sociology of Development. In 1993 she had her PhD in Sociology and in 1994 her Master of Arts in Development Studies at the London University. Her present research focus is on social movements, rural development processes and innovation in agriculture. She has participated in several research projects both at national and international level. She is member of the Centre for Rural Development Studies (CeSSR). She teaches in Bachelor and Master Degree and in Phd programme at UNICAL. She has also supervised several PhD students on subjects relating to rural movements and rural development.

Antonino Campennì  (PhD) is Assistant Professor of Sociology of Environment and Territory at the Department of Political and Social Science. He participated to national and European research projects on partnership for rural development, measures to contrast social exclusion at the local urban and rural levels, global migrations  in the Italian labour market. His research interests are also related to: youth condition and unemployment, adult unemployment, factory work and industrial labour relations, asylum seekers and refugees in Southern Italy, social research methods, visual sociology.

Giovanni Passarelli is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of, where he teaches Economic Sociology and Social Research Methods. He successfully defended Ph.D. thesis in the 2002. In 2008 becomes Associate Research Fellow at the Research Centre Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), University of Oxford. In 2010 he has been visiting researcher at the Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He participates to several research project of the ISFOL – Institute for the Development of Vocational Training for Workers as labour market expert. 

Alessandra Corrado (PhD) is Associate Professor of Sociology of Environment and Territory at the University of Calabria (Italy). Her research interests include: international migrations, labour and migration, agri-food systems, agroecology, and rural development processes. She participated in several national and European projects related to the fields of migration, rurality and social inequalities. She collaborates with the Italian National Rural Network, the Agriculture and Migrations Network (AGROMIG), and the European Coordination of Via Campesina (ECVC). She is member of ICAS – Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies.