UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Urban Quality and Urban Culture, notably in Africa (1005), established in 2013 at the University of Rome-La Sapienza (Italy)

Fields/Disciplines

Architecture; metropolitan and territorial planning, socio-anthropology and economics.

Objectives

• The specific objectives of this Chair are to:
• ensure and promote public awareness on the importance of environmental sustainability, cultural diversity and access to knowledge for social inclusion;
• contribute to the development of capacities in teaching, researching, designing and planning urban and territorial settlements, with the aim of promoting a multidisciplinary scientific approach in the field of sustainable urban quality for the inclusion of vulnerable minorities such as persons with disabilities and environmental sustainability;
• provide guidelines and methodology to researchers, political and technical representatives and policy-makers, experts, designers and planners with national and international experience through the organization of conferences, workshops and the setting up of laboratories, web-based teaching and research platforms, at the national and international levels, to explore the contents and meaning of urban quality in different cultural and economic contexts for social inclusion of all groups of society including the most vulnerable;
• foster the exchange of knowledge in a South-South and North-South-South dynamic and strengthen cooperation between stakeholders, at national and international levels, through the exchange of data and know-how on policies and practices among divers urban cultures, using e-learning and e-collaboration tools; and,
• set-up cross-regional and sub-regional research projects and create an international network allowing the enhancement of research at the local and national levels and thus encouraging regional integration policies for sustainable urban quality adopted also to persons with disabilities and environmental sustainability.

Host Institution

University of Rome-La Sapienza

UNESCO Sector/Office responsible for the Chair/Network

Culture; Social and Human Sciences

Contact: Professor Lucio Valerio Barbera, UNESCO Chairholder

University of Rome-La Sapienza

Piazzale Aldo Moro 5

Rome  00185

Italy

E-mail: lucio.barbera(at)uniroma1.it