Received Sylff fellowship in 2016
Academic supervisor: Mara Benadusi
Current affiliation: Social and Political Sciences Department University of Catania
Vincenzo Luca Lo Re is an anthropologist with experience in research and action on transformation and spatialisation of social differences in the urban context. He is collaborating as a research fellow on Energy Commons Participatory Processes (Prin 2022 PNRR), Critical Resources Management, and Communities' Response to Contemporary Socio-Economic Frictions at the Department of Political Science, University of Catania. My work involves conducting ethnographic research to analyse the organisational forms and cultural representations of energy communities in the Simeto Valley area in Eastern Sicily (Southern Italy). Focusing on the friction and complexity of the energy transition, I consider it crucial to study the relationships between climate change and energy production and sharing processes. The political and economic structures of the current energy regimes are the subject of battles and attempts to change them by groups and associations recovering specific cultural forms (the community model) to counter the devastating impacts already experienced in Sicily (drought, desertification, floods).
He obtained a PhD in anthropology and urban studies at the Sapienza University of Rome. He conducted ethnographic research in Taranto and analysed abandoned spaces' recovery practices and ruination processes in the city's historic centre. In 2022, He collaborated as a research assistant with Professor Katherine Lambert-Pennington in the research project DEVELOPING ALTERNATIVES: TRANSFORMING THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT IN SICILY analysing local development actions and projects promoted by associations and inhabitants in the Simeto River Valley area. The themes of study and discussion proposed by the course stimulate my interest in broadening my training and knowledge in environmental anthropology and climate justice issues. The course's focus on practices in urban processes acquires value to his research path, characterised by the themes of urban and community resilience and the relationships between social practices of space recovery and urban regeneration processes. During the activities of the Recity project, he worked to critically analyse the concept of community resilience by observing the spatial practices and forms of territorial knowledge of fish sellers in the historical market of the city of Catania, affected by constant flooding and progressive erosion of neighbourhood commerce in favour of restaurants and tourist activities. The impacts of climate change are socially constructed and experienced by highlighting differences and models of cultural interpretation. Adopting a situated and attentive gaze at the practices that inhabitants and associations promote in the territories makes it possible to understand cultural representations regarding energy, the environment and change, and recovery and reconversion actions to respond to environmental impacts. In this sense, the concept of recovery offers possibilities for analysing the various forms of social adaptation and change concerning the perception of significant climate change.
From a professional development perspective, He collaborates with public institutions and social organisations to promote initiatives for the care and recovery of spaces through social involvement and activation processes.
The theoretical knowledge and innovative investigative tools helped analyse conflicts, frictions, and projects related to climate change and urban transformation.
Academic Achievements, Social Engagement Initiatives
TRAINING
2018-2022
PHD IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND URBAN STUDIES
DICEA DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY SAPIENZA OF ROME XXXIII CYCLE
RATING: EXCELLENT
Doctoral Thesis: Living in recovery: From rubble to social reproduction. An ethnographic analysis of waste and reuse in the Old City of Taranto.
2016-2017
MASTER LEVEL II URISE URBAN REGENERATION AND SOCIAL INNOVATION
IUAV VENICE UNIVERSITY
110/110
Master's thesis: From project to social enterprise. The shared value in the regeneration of community assets: Neighbourhood plots in San Berillo Catania.
2010-2014
MASTER'S DEGREE IN HISTORY AND CULTURE OF MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES
UNIVERSITY OF CATANIA
110/110 CUM LAUDE
Degree thesis: Exploring the urban elsewhere. Practices and representations of space in the San Berillo district of Catania
PROJECTS, CONTRACTS AND RESEARCH GRANTS
May 2024 - Ongoing
RESEARCH GRANT
RENEWABLE ENERGY COMMUNITIES: ETHNOGRAPHIC, VISUAL AND ETHNOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF CATANIA.
Mapping and ethnographic survey on energy communities in Sicily to analyze relational and organizational processes and the frictions inherent in the energy transition.
November 2022 - April 2024
RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
RECITY - RESILIENT CITY- EVERYDAY REVOLUTION, CODE ARS01_00592 NOP 'RESEARCH AND INNOVATION' 2014-2020
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF CATANIA.
Ethnographic research aims to identify and analyze social practices and socio-economic models adopted to promote resilience in urban settings.
May 2023
DOCTORAL THESIS AWARD
IV EDITION 2022 'LORENZO BARGELLINI' AWARD
Living in recovery: from rubble to social reproduction: spaces of waste and reuse in the old city of Taranto
February 2022 - July 2022
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
DEVELOPING ALTERNATIVES: TRANSFORMING THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT IN SICILY.
A RESEARCH PROJECT FUNDED BY FULLBRIGHT AND FONDAZIONE SUD
IN COORDINATION WITH DR KATHERINE LAMBERT-PENNINGTON, APP/DEPT OF ANTHROPOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS
Ethnographic research on the themes of local development and the friction between resource exploitation and environmental issues in the Simeto River Valley and the municipalities adhering to the River Pact. The work involved conducting qualitative interviews and participant observation, coordinating and scheduling research appointments, translating and verifying transcription, and entering data into qualitative analysis software.
November 2019 - November 2020
COLLABORATION IN RESEARCH AND LABORATORY ACTIVITIES
PROJECT MEMO MEMORY IN MOTION - PROJECT FUNDED BY THE MINISTRY OF CULTURAL ACTIVITIES CULTURE URBAN FUTURE
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING AT 'SAPIENZA' UNIVERSITY
OF ROME,
WE ARE CARRYING OUT THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED ACTIVITY OF DEVELOPING WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES WITH THE STUDENTS OF THE LICEO AMALDI IN TOR BELLA MONACA ROME WITH PARTICULAR REGARD TO THE STUDY OF THE URBAN PRACTICES OF SPACE USE AND THE MEMORIES OF THE INHABITANTS RELATING TO THE MAIN URBAN AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS THAT HAVE OCCURRED OVER TIME, RELATING TO THE RESEARCH PROJECT 000330_19_PNP_CELLA - PROJECT ME.MO.
MARCH 2016 - APRIL 2017
RESEARCH GRANT
SYLFF FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM FOUNDATION
IDEA-ACTION PROGRAMME P. ARRUPE INSTITUTE "URBAN LEADERS. GOVERNING CITIES: UNDERSTANDING THE FUTURE, STARTING FROM THE MARGINS
Research on urban marginality and governance tools. Analysis and mapping of space practices in the San Berillo district of Catania. Design of urban regeneration paths for the analyzed context through territorial involvement and animation activities, specifically regarding social inclusion and cultural integration.
From December 2023 to date
Professional collaboration expert technical assistance as a Junior expert with administrative support functions and operational support to the social service QSFP FOUNDATION POVERTY PAL 2020 in Social Policies Department Municipality of Catania Via Dusmet Catania
August 2022 to December 2023
Expert technical support for Civico Zero - Save the Children NGO Assistance and Protection of vulnerable minors and young adults to coordinate and organize individualized work and housing autonomy programmes; Collective training and orientation workshops; Mapping and building collaborations with local organizations and companies
From September 2021 to July 2022
Specialist technical support expert to Special Immigration Office - Sicilian Regional Council in SuPreMe Project - Emergency funding to Italy under the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (FAMI). This collaboration aimed to strengthen a territorial referent for awareness-raising, activation, and animation of quality work networks that support prefectures in designing interventions for safety, health, legality, transport, and the social and housing settlement of migrant workers.
From July 2019 to June 2022
Multistakeholder networks expert conducted in Integrated Regional Plan to Multicultural and Welcoming Sicily for networking and integration of the service system. This project aimed to support and facilitate formal and informal networks active in the Catania area between public and private actors in providing services and activities addressed to third-country nationals with migration backgrounds.
From January 2018 to December 2018
Assistance and specialized technical support to Unit Neighbourhood Contracts and Urban Regeneration—Project Management Development and Strategic Coordination Plan Peripheries Municipality of Milan for neighbourhood workshop monitoring and development actions in the process of promoting and accompanying the active protagonism of the inhabitants in taking care of public and semi-public spaces in urban contexts with social fragility and cultural integration problems ERP neighbourhoods (Gratosoglio, Molise-Calvairate, Ponte Lambro, San Siro) of the Municipality of Milan are characterized by a high number of citizens of foreign origin.
From September 2015 to October 2017
Community organizer in social promotion association "Trame di Quartiere" in the process of territorial animation for the co-design and reuse of abandoned spaces and properties; Coordination of research and analysis activities on spatial practices and intercultural relations; Urban community mapping; Design and activation of processes of participation and network of services for social innovation.
Summary of Support Program Activities
The project is based on a multi-sited ethnography of energy power regimes and their potentially alternative governance through the activation of ‘energy communities’, new approaches to ‘energy sources as commons’, community paths toward reducing energy waste and socio-environmental responsibility. The inquiry intends to explore the consistency of re-appropriation and awareness about the production and management of energy in contemporary societies and the coherence of alternative energy productions and concerned community management with the new Green Transition Agenda (2030/2050) and SDGs.
The main activity of the project is mapping the process of REC in the Sicily region to represent the complex field of local and super-local actors involved in the process of adoption, selection and discussion about the crucial and dramatic contemporary issue of energy and environmental/economic/social sustainability to find shared, participatory and sustainable solutions.
Individuals and social groups manage energy in our daily lives concerning cultural interpretations and social needs. People cannot be considered merely as end users of energy but as people who make choices, suffer limitations and seek solutions. Within e-energy transition processes, renewable energy communities (RECs) can produce and share electricity by favouring using renewable energy sources. The focus is on the fact that these energy initiatives are not only made up of citizens who jointly seek to produce and consume sustainable energy locally but that these initiatives generally reject the use of centrally produced fossil and nuclear energy and embrace local egalitarian values.
The project aims to develop ethnographic and normative research about REC and associated contemporary decision-making processes about adopting, implementing and managing renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic / agro-photovoltaic / wind-power sources/biomass and so on. The objective of the project is to understand how the process of design, construction and social involvement of RECs is taking shape in the context of the Region of Sicily (Southern Italy), specifically investigating the following points:
1 Agency A d Communities Empowerment
2 Anthropocene Entanglements/Frictions
3 Energy Narratives And Discourses
4 Participation, Shared Rules And Legal Pluralism
