Fellows Profile

Received Sylff fellowhip in 2017.
Academic supervisor: Massimo Massaro - Prof.ssa Barbara Pizzo
Academic achievements, social engagement initiatives:
Throughout the project proposal, we wanted to put into practice a process that will lead to the reduction of the phenomenon of social and material vulnerability by promoting the empowerment of citizens.
This type of approach has encouraged citizens to act in their own right to strengthen social cohesion with the aim of improving spaces and managing participation in their own neighborhood.
Current affiliation: Volunteer at Associazione Laboratorio ZEN Insieme (Palermo, Italy)

I graduated in Urban Planning and Environmental Territorial (Master Degree) at the Polytechnic School of Palermo (2015).
My working activities have always paid particular attention to citizens and city-users, offering workshops on active citizenship and participation through the most modern and widespread social research techniques (Focus groups, neighbourhood walks, Planning for Real, Mental Map, Qualitative Interviews, Storymaps, Participant Observation, etc.).
In the 2017-2018 I had the opportunity to deepen my analysis of social and material vulnerability in marginal urban areas of contemporary cities thanks to a Sylff fellowship from the Tokyo Foundation.
I am a dynamic, professional person who is constantly looking for new challenges for the acquisition of new skills.
I am looking for an environment where I can give my contribution and increase my professionalism.

The topic of marginal urban areas and the care of their various vulnerabilities has been examined through a multi-disciplinary approach that has made it possible to analyze the phenomenon at both a national and international context with the application of instruments at a local scale.
The research was made using the typical tools of urban planning analysis including reading and the application of socio-demographic and economic indicators, and the consequent application of participation techniques and the involvement of citizens.
The implementation of a functional analysis has led to research into the identification of alternative forms of measurement and representation of the phenomenon through statistical data from the census sections of Istat on a sub-municipal scale.
The mappings that are shown have a very high level of communication enabling them to address - in a transversal way - political decision-makers, technicins and the population.
Throughout the project proposal, we wanted to put into practice a process that will lead to the reduction of the phenomenon of social and material vulnerability by promoting the empowerment of citizens.
This type of approach has encouraged citizens to act in their own right to strengthen social cohesion with the aim of improving spaces and managing participation in their own neighborhood.
One of the operational tools provided by the community is the neighbourhood committee, a tool with which it is possible to take action against political decisions made from above, through the participation and involvement of all stakeholders interested in improving the living conditions of the neighborhood.
The goal that the community has set itself is to break the isolation of the ZEN in order to reach a real negotiation with the institutions so that they see the inhabitants as initiators who are responsible for the processes that concern them as residents and as communities.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunobuffa