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Creating Learning Opportunities for the Cities: Community Engagement and Third Mission in the University of Catania

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Entrepreneurial Learning City Regions

Abstract

Starting from a review of relevant reports and research experiences to provide a wider context for the analysis, this chapter aims to examine the extent to which the University of Catania is just in the city, or a part of it and contributing actively to its development. In particular, we discuss the impact of University activities in the areas of social or community engagement, intended to address critical societal issues and contribute to the public good. To better understand the level of University engagement within its wider community, this chapter is based on the analysis of the wider third mission activities of the University, to highlight the commitment of the University to perform research. The aim is to cope with some problems of the city and the surrounding region and the consequent ability of the University to disseminate the results of such research within the community.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The VQR indicators in the Italian context (2013) is the first tool to evaluate Italian universities and their third mission activities, suddivise in attività di valorizzazione della conoscenza and “social and cultural third mission”.A new report on universities third mission activities has been published in 2017, evaluating TM activities carried on in 2011-2014 (http://www.anvur.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=799&Itemid=597&lang=it)

  2. 2.

    Research activities of professors and researchers have been considered only if carried on within research groups or research centres. A database of research themes of the more than thousand researchers of the University of Catania is still not available.

  3. 3.

    http://www.cooparchimede.it/GrestOrto.htm.

  4. 4.

    For more detailed information on Officine Culturali, see Section “Universities and Societal Tensions: The Place for Public Engagement” in this chapter.

  5. 5.

    I chose to exclude the activities addressed to University staff and students, although designed to tackle some of the problems of the territory, and to analyse only those, which involve the city. This is the case of MOMACT (http://www.momact.unict.it/) that carries out activities for the sustainability, but aimed only to University staff and students: Pi.Per. service (Personalised plan of a home-University sustainable transport)s; “Pro.Bici” (bike-sharing system, now suspended due to lack of funds); Fiat Likes U"Project (car-sharing project for students).

  6. 6.

    In the program of the Rector elected in May 2013, as regards the relationship between universities and the local territory, we read: “A strategy of concentric diversification is needed, whose aim should be … an active role played by University as a place of cultural promotion and construction of critical knowledge in the territory, while collaborating with other institutions… I believe that, in this context, the priority value should be to commit oneself to action, together with the public and private institutions of the town, to become a “cultural system”, even though within the limits of available resources. In addition, cultural initiatives-both the ones taken by the Athenaeum and the ones it is involved in-should be enhanced, so as to promote culture and the creativity of young people in all its forms.

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  1. University of Catania, Catania, Italy

    Roberta Piazza

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  1. Roberta Piazza
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  1. Strategic Regional Collaboration, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

    Judith James

  2. Department of Adult Continuing Education, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

    Jean Preece

  3. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany

    Raúl Valdés-Cotera

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Piazza, R. (2018). Creating Learning Opportunities for the Cities: Community Engagement and Third Mission in the University of Catania. In: James, J., Preece, J., Valdés-Cotera, R. (eds) Entrepreneurial Learning City Regions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61130-3_14

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