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ENABLE MADONIE is the eighth edition of the itinerant Summer School promoted by the Laboratorio del Cammino (LdC), an inter-university network of researchers that develops research and teaching projects aimed at exploring the potential of walking in urban planning and design. The objective of this eighth edition is to understand how walking, seeing, listening, and slowly and deeply entering places are essential ways to practice an "alternative gaze" on inner areas—one that can go beyond statistical normalization and stereotypes about "internality".

Accompanied by professors, researchers, residents, and local actors, students will be guided to produce situated, plural, and co-produced knowledge of place in the Madonie Inner Area, blending methodologies and disciplines to reflect critically and constructively on the novel forms of human/nature interaction that unfold along the mountain ridge. Through the lens of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), participants will be encouraged to investigate the values that connect people and nature within the area's socio-ecological system. They will produce relevant technical descriptions as well as maps to conceptualize space in relational terms—highlighting conflicts and resistances, assembling data and perceptions, fragments and sparks of transformation.

The Summer School will take place from August 25 to September 4, 2025, and will consist of a walk through the territory, starting in Geraci Siculo and ending in Cefalù. It will be a path from the «lands of the bone» of the Madonie hinterland to the «lands of the flesh» (Rossi Doria, 1958) of the Tyrrhenian coast, in which participants will experience that «downhill history» (Calvino, 1946) which has marginalized mountain-rural areas, placing in tension the prevailing economic-cultural model and the alternative imaginaries that emerge along the roughly 30 km of traversed territory.

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THEME AND TERRITORY

The Madonie territory is a historical sub-region located in the northwestern part of Sicily, predominantly made up of mountainous reliefs that rise steeply from the coast to reach altitudes of up to 2,000 meters, reconnecting with the gypsum-sulfur plateau of the Nisseno hinterland. This territory hosts a concentration of protected areas, Sites of Community Importance (SCIs), and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) that form part of the Sicilian Ecological Network and the Natura 2000 Network—most of which fall within the boundaries of the Madonie Regional Park. It is a crossroads territory where plant and animal species from dozens of countries with very different climates coexist (Raimondo, 1989), along with tangible and intangible cultural heritage that is deeply and inseparably tied to place.

Despite this richness, the Madonie—an emblematic example of many inner areas in Southern Italy—grapple with a lack of services, demographic and productive decline, which have led to their classification among the peripheral and ultra-peripheral areas of the country (Department for Economic Development and Cohesion, 2013). Yet, subtle signs of counter-trends—“fireflies” of change—reveal an embryonic dynamic of transformation. These signs actualize the meanings and significance of memory traces embedded in the ruggedness of the land. They engage returnees and new inhabitants in experimenting with trans-scalar practices that bridge local and global dimensions, fostering coexistence between innovative practices and long-standing cooperative and community-based heritage management.

Contradictions, frictions, latent potential, and innovation fermentations all call for a shift in our gaze—one that can grasp the complexity of these new territorial ecologies emerging from a rethinking of ourselves as human beings deeply and responsibly interconnected with the non-human in a web of vital relationships.

Through the lens of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES), participants will be encouraged to investigate the values that connect people and nature in the socio-ecological system of the Madonie inner area. This starts from recognizing that CES are «the contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being in terms of identities they help define, experiences they enable to live, and capabilities they help develop» (translated from Fish et al., 2016: 4). This methodological choice will enable students to practice an “alternative gaze” on the Madonie inner area—one capable of going beyond statistical normalization and stereotypes of "internality" in a territory where it is difficult to draw boundaries between nature and artifice, culture and folklore, material and immaterial, modernity and backwardness, innovation and regression.

Students will engage with and challenge the concepts of community, identity, and development by walking from a more-than-human perspective. The aim of the Summer School is to identify the coordinates of these new forms of coexistence in order to propose possible visions, strategies, and project trajectories for the Madonie—ones that aspire to collectively build generative and regenerative, democratic and equitable solutions, shaped through multiple perspectives and bodies of knowledge.

Special attention will be given to interactions with residents, local actors, and institutional representatives to co-produce situated, plural knowledge of place—capable of disrupting dominant narratives about place and future, and of reimagining new forms and ways of living together territorially.

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PROGRAM

Two training days are planned—one held remotely and one in person before the start of the walk—which will provide participants with the knowledge and tools necessary to carry out the activities of the Summer School. Participation in both training sessions is mandatory.

The remote training session will take place on the afternoon of Monday, July 21, via the Zoom platform. The in-person training session will be held on Monday, August 25 in Palermo, at the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo.

The training will include: a seminar on methodological issues related to practicing urban planning through walking; a presentation on the territory to be crossed during the walk and the planning tools and policies that affect it; an initial discussion with participants to outline the objectives and methods of the work.

The Summer School will run from August 26 to September 4, 2025, and will consist of a walking itinerary from Geraci Siculo to Cefalù (PA), with overnight stops in Petralia Sottana, Collesano, Gratteri, Isnello, and Castelbuono. Each day, the group will walk a distance of 10 to 20 kilometers to reach the next stop where they will spend the night.

On Thursday, September 4, 2025, a final Study Day will be held in Cefalù (PA) at the Sala delle Capriate of the Cefalù City Hall, where the results of the Summer School will be publicly presented and assessed. Attendance at the Study Day is mandatory in order to receive academic credits (CFU). The outcomes of the research and design work will be published on the Laboratorio del Cammino website, and a selection will be featured in a subsequent publication.

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HOW TO PARTICIPATE

The Call for Applications to participate in the Summer School is open from May 5 to June 6, 2025. Students enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in the following fields are eligible to apply: Urban and Regional Planning; Urban Studies; Architecture; Landscape Architecture; Geography and Territorial Sciences; Design; Building-Architecture Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering, and other related fields. Applicants must be enrolled at one of the partner universities of the Summer School: Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano, University of Camerino, University of Cagliari, University of Molise, University of Palermo, University of Basilicata, University of Bologna, University of Florence, University of Parma, University of Trieste, University of Pavia, University of Naples Federico II, LAUD / Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkey).

Students from other universities may also apply, although their acceptance will be subject to limited availability. A maximum of 30 participants will be admitted.

To apply, candidates must submit the following materials by June 6, 2025 to the email address laboratoriodelcammino@gmail.com:

• An academic curriculum vitae

• A motivation letter

• Two design works representative of their academic background

The Summer School will be conducted in Italian. Non-Italian applicants must indicate their Italian language proficiency in their CV.

Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by the organizers by Thursday, June 16, 2025.

During the Summer School, participants will work in groups to produce: an instant report in a freely chosen format, and a diary-map in A1 vertical format summarizing the outcomes of their research and activities

Groups will be inter-university in composition, meaning they will include students from various universities in the network.

At the end of the Summer School, participants from the LdC partner universities will be awarded between 3 and 6 university credits (CFU), depending on their home institution's curriculum. Credits will be granted based on the educational outputs, which will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee of the Laboratorio del Cammino during the Final Study Day scheduled for September 4 at the Sala delle Capriate of the Cefalù City Hall.

Each student group will be supported by two mentors, who will assist in developing the work.

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COSTS

Participation in the Summer School requires the payment—due at the time of registration—of expenses related to accommodation and the rental of a van with a driver for luggage transport. The estimated cost is approximately €175 per person. Travel to Palermo is at the participant’s own expense.

During the walk, the group will sleep in tents set up in public spaces or facilities made available by local administrations, or in hostels, campsites, or other budget-friendly accommodations. Participants are expected to demonstrate flexibility and a spirit of shared living, while respecting individual needs and values.

Most meals will be prepared by the group, using a shared fund collected at the start of the Summer School by the organizers.

For more information, please email: laboratoriodelcammino@gmail.com

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Summer School promoted by:

Laboratorio del Cammino – Associazione di Promozione Sociale

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Dipartimento di Architettura (DARCH), Università degli Studi di Palermo

Dipartimento di Scienze, Progetto e Politiche del Territorio (DiST), Politecnico di Torino

Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano

Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura, Università degli Studi di Trieste

Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura (DIA), Università degli Studi di Parma

Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura (DICAr), Università degli Studi di Pavia

Dipartimento di Architettura (DA), Università degli Studi di Bologna

Dipartimento di Architettura (DiDA), Università degli Studi di Firenze

Scuola di Architettura e Design (SAAD), Università degli Studi di Camerino

Dipartimento di Bioscienze e Territorio, Università degli Studi del Molise

Dipartimento di Architettura (DiARC), Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

Dipartimento per l'Innovazione Umanistica, Scientifica e Sociale (DIUSS), Università degli Studi della Basilicata

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale e Architettura (DICAAR), Università degli Studi di Cagliari

Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design (LAUD), Bilkent University

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EQuiStiamo Associazione di Promozione Sociale – Progetto Vaghe Stelle

Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti (AASO)

Progetto Fiori

Ikonemi Centro indipendente fotografia di paesaggio

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Under the patronage of:

Comune di Castelbuono

Comune di Cefalù

Comune di Collesano

Comune di Geraci Siculo

Comune di Gratteri

Comune di Isnello

Comune di Petralia Sottana

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Organizing Committee

Annalisa Giampino e Filippo Schilleci (Università di Palermo), Antonio Giovanni Minutella (Edizioni Arianna), Luca Lazzarini e Serena Marchionni (coordinatori LdC).

 

Scientific Committee

Cristiana Rossignolo (DiST/Politecnico di Torino), Marco Mareggi, Chiara Merlini, Andrea Rolando, Luca Lazzarini (DAStU/Politecnico di Milano), Filippo Schilleci e Annalisa Giampino (DARCH/Università di Palermo), Luciano De Bonis (Dipartimento di Bioscienze e Territorio/Università del Molise), Anna Maria Colavitti e Sergio Serra (DICAAR/Università di Cagliari), Chiara Rizzi e Maria Valeria Mininni (DIUSS/Università della Basilicata), Massimo Sargolini e Flavio Stimilli (Università di Camerino), Elena Mucelli e Stefania Rossl (DA/Università di Bologna), Maria Rita Gisotti e Elena Tarsi (DiDA/Università di Firenze), Michele Zazzi e Barbara Caselli (DIA/Università di Parma), Elena Marchigiani e Sara Basso (Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura/Università di Trieste), Andrea Membretti e Roberto De Lotto (DICAr/Università di Pavia), Maria Federica Palestino e Gilda Berruti (DiARC/Università di Napoli Federico II), Hatice Karaca (LAUD/Bilkent University), Daniele Cinciripini e Serena Marchionni (Ikonemi), Daniela Allocca (Progetto Fiori), Marcella Turchetti (Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti), Pierangelo Miola (EQuiStiamo/Progetto Vaghe Stelle).

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