«What they need (…) is a quality of mind that will help them to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world and of what may be happening within themselves» |
Charles Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination
“Sociological Walks” are our way to give to small groups of ESA Torino 2013 participants (on a first come first served basis) the opportunity to exert sociological immagination exploring some of Torino’s most relevant sociological traits.
In this page you can find a brief presentation and a short trailer presenting each of the four sociological walks we have implemented.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To join the “Sociological Walks” programme, please check one of the 5 walks proposed during the registration procedure or, if already registered,
please send an email to: info@esa11thconference.eu (we’ll be sending a reminder by email to those already registered for the conference).
1. “Torino: the transforming city” – coords. Sergio Scamuzzi and. Manuela Negro
click on the image above to watch the trailer of the event
The great transformation of an industrial town: Torino from Gramsci and the liberal elite to the strategic planning; from the big automotive factory to the new technologies and food; from the town of working class to the town of Olympic games, turism and culture. Lingotto, in particular, is a symbol of Turin: it was an automobile factory built by FIAT and in 1985 it was transformed by the architect Renzo Piano in a modern complex, hosting shopping arcades, convention center, theatre, concert halls, and art gallery. We will visit this important example of industrial archeology (you can still see the rooftop test track used by FIAT to test finished cars), which now is a public space where dynamism, innovation, art and history are represented.
Availability: max 104 people (two full coaches)
Date: 29th August h 5.30 p.m.
Meeting Point: CLE, Campus Luigi Einaudi main entrance
The buses will stop in Lungo Dora Siena 100, in front of the Campus
2. “Waste and the city. Or the myth of Leonia revisited” – coord. Giuseppe Tipaldo
click on the image above to watch the trailer of the event
Using waste, waste management and local opposition to waste disposal facilities as a revelatory case, this sociological walk will take you in two symbolic places for waste management in the city of Turin: a brand new urban eco-centre (where images from the now closed landfill of “Base di Stura”, one of the largest in Europe, will be presented and discussed); then, we will move southbound, toward the just finished incinerator in the Gerbido area. Two suburbs, two different stories, an entire city in the middle to explore and live, like Italo Calvino’s LEONIA, in his romance Le città invisibili (“The invisible cities”).
Availability: max 52 people (one full coach)
Date: 29th August h 5.00 p.m.
Meeting Point: CLE, Campus Luigi Einaudi main entrance
The bus will stop in Lungo Dora Siena 100, in front of the Campus
3. Porta Palazzo district – coord. Arianna Santero
click on the image above to watch the trailer of the event
Porta Palazzo is one of the oldest district of Turin, nearby the city centre. Over the decades several waves of migration have shaped this urban space, which has however maintained its commercial vocation. The tour will lead us to explore some traces of marginalization processes, informal economy, conflicts and perception of insecurity, but also gentrification, social innovation (ex. cohousing “Numero Zero“) and public investments (ex. Ue project “The Gate-living not leaving”).
Availability: max 52 people (one full coach)
Date: 29th August h 6 p.m.
Meeting Point: CLE, Campus Luigi Einaudi main entrance
The bus will stop in Lungo Dora Siena 100, in front of the Campus
4. “WATER, from the river Po to our glasses: how the water we drink is transformed” – coord. Filippo Barbera
click on the image above to watch the trailer of the event
Water is no one’s property; it rightfully belongs to all of humanity and to the earth itself.
One of the main challenges we are facing nowadays is to consume water while ensuring the sustainability of natural systems and the environment, so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come.
SMAT Group has the major responsibility in Turin of managing and providing drinkable water in the city.
Walking through the water treatment plant of SMAT will bring you across the entire water cycle: from the monitoring activities – namely quality and safety of the collected water – to the treatment and distribution of drinking water.
Availability: max 52 people (one full coach)
Date: 29th August h 12.30-14.30
Meeting Point: CLE, Campus Luigi Einaudi main entrance
The bus will stop in Lungo Dora Siena 100, in front of the Campus
5. San Salvario district – coord. Marinella Belluati
click on the image above to watch the trailer of the event
The ideal entry into San Salvario is the Porta Nuova railway station, opened in 1861 and for a century and a half point of arrival of migrants, tourists and travelers. The facade of the station is one of the symbols of the architectural style that characterizes the neighborhood: the Art Nouveau buildings that dot San Salvario will accompany our walk.
San Salvario and in particular the Valentino Park was the scene of the birth of cinema and the great Universal Exhibitions. The district celebrated at that time the triumph of science and technology, as evidenced even today by the Botanical Gardens and the university museums recently gathered in the Museum of Man.
Today the neighborhood is instead driven by a renewed interest in design and contemporary art, which finds expression in numerous workshops and in the experience of asylum Bay, the multiethnic kindergarten working with the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rivoli.
But you will discover that the true spirit of San Salvario is religious. The neighborhood is the reference point for historical and religious minorities to new faiths brought to Turin by migrants. All this and far more will expect you during this uniuqe “sociological walk”.
Availability: max 52 people (one full coach)
Date: 29th August h 6 p.m.
Meeting Point: CLE, Campus Luigi Einaudi main entrance
The bus will stop in Lungo Dora Siena 100, in front of the Campus