We are now organising SPIRE Baia Mare Launch Conference, which is aimed at creating understanding and awareness with respect to SPIRE’s upcoming activities, and it will bring together international experts with the local partnership, local politicians, elected members as well as the wider group of stakeholders and local target users.

The Urban Innovative Actions project SPIRE (Smart Post-Industrial Regenerative Ecosystem) proposes a revolutionary approach to the reuse of heavy metal-contaminated land in the former mining capital of Romania, through adaptive phytoremediation and the creation of new urban ecosystems, as a long-term strategy for sustainable local economic development.

Join us in Baia Mare on 1-2 April, we are welcoming applications from speakers and attendees!

Register here: https://forms.gle/nywQkLtRSJCcTRzM9

The way in which the multi-ethnic – and rather blighted – neighbourhood of Via Padova in Milano has been addressed by politicians and the media over the last decades seems to fit within a revanchist framework. Between the late 1990s and the early 2010s the debate mainly concerned the reproduction of fear and the embitterment of punitive measures against newly settled foreign migrants (I wrote about this here).
Years later, also due to a growing presence of the so-called urban creatives, a gentrification process seems to have been triggered, as Chiara Vitrano, Ph.D. and I found out in our working paper (available here).
My position is that the displacement of the poor is not the solution for the regeneration of deprived urban neighbourhoods. Rather, we should aim at redressing imbalances and improving the quality of life for the most disadvantaged people, possibly fostering an inclusive participatory planning approach.

Today I am happy to announce the launch of my new Instagram profile!
​It is a growing collection of European cities' photographs that I will use to tease the debate on key contemporary urban issues, challenges, and best practices.
You are all welcome to follow @pietroverga.urbanresearch and leave your comments!