Profile

Gloria Pessina is assistant professor of Urban and Regional planning in the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. She holds a PhD in Spatial Planning and Urban Development with a focus on Environmental and Territorial Sociology from the same university. From 2010 to 2015 she conducted transdisciplinary research on the politics of water management and urban design in Western India, thanks to the support of various institutions, including the Vastu Shilpa Foundation for Environmental Design and Research (Ahmedabad), the Center for Urban Equity (CEPT, Ahmedabad), the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex, UK) and Politecnico di Milano (Italy). Following her interest in flows across multiple geographical scales, she started research on the social and territorial dimensions of energy transition in marginal areas of Italy, which was later included in the Excellence Project on Territorial Fragilities funded by the Italian Ministry for University and Research (2018-2022) and hosted by the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at Politecnico di Milano. Within this research, she is particularly interested in investigating national and supranational policies leading to the creation of industrial poles in Sardinia in the past and in the present. Currently, she takes part in national and European research projects on energy transition and production territories in areas characterised by the presence of water, combining analysis of urban and territorial policies, political ecology, and environmental history. 

At Politecnico di Milano, she teaches Urban Planning at the School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Civic Engineering and “Strenghtening Critical Spatial Thinking at the PhD school. In the last years she was Visiting Scholar in several international institutions, including the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich (2021), the ISMED-CNR in Naples (2023-2024) and the Instituto de Estudios Urbanos y Territoriales/Pontificia Univesidad Católica in Santiago de Chile (2024). With the French environmental historian N. Brenu (ENSA Nantes), Visiting Scholar at DAStU/Politecnico di Milano in 2023, she organised the cycle of seminars “Which environmental history for urban studies?” and the italo-french conference “For an environmental history applied to urban and landscape studies”. She edited volumes on production territories, inequalities and toxic legacies, and authored chapters and articles on spaces of water and energy, authoritarian governance and environmental violence. She serves as editor for the journal Meridiana since 2024 and for the magazine Lo stato delle città (Napoli Monitor) since 2019. 

Publications

Main publications 

• Armondi S., Pessina G., forthcoming, Critical Spatial Thinking and Extreme Events. Tools for multiple disciplines, Springer, Cham.  

• Brenu N., Pessina G., Tiganea O. (eds.), 2024, “Eredità tossiche/Toxic legacies”, Officina journal of architecture, technology, and environment. Special issue accessible at: https://www.officinajournal.it/officina/index.php/journal/issue/view/officina47 

• Pessina G., 2023, “Accidental ethnographies of energy transition. A project to decarbonise Italy’s power stations as recounted by an urban planning consultant”, Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa, Special issue “Ethnographies of energy production in times of transition” (edited by N. AlKhalili and G. Pessina): 247-274. Abstract accessible at: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.3240/107988 

• Fior M., Kërçuku A., Mattioli C, Pessina G. (eds.), 2022, Fragilità nei territori della produzione, Franco Angeli, Milano. Preview accessible at: https://books.google.it/books/about/Fragilit%C3%A0_nei_territori_della_produzion.html?id=sWmnEAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y 

• Pessina G., 2022, “Environmental violence” in Pellizzoni L., Leonardi E., Asara V. (eds.), Handbook of Critical Environmental Politics, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham: 347-361. Chapter accessible at: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-critical-environmental-politics-9781839100666.html 

• Geroldi C., Pessina G., 2021, ”Power stations and petroleum heritage in Italy: the case of Porto Tolle” in Hein C. (ed.), Oil Spaces. Exploring the Global Petroleumscape, Routledge, New York: 243-262. Chapter accessible at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9780367816049-18/power-stations-petroleum-heritage-italy-chiara-geroldi-gloria-pessina  

• Pessina G., 2021, “Fragilità, rischi ambientali e presidio del territorio. Prospettive transdisciplinari a partire dalle aree interne / Fragility, environmental risks and territorial safeguard. Transdisciplinary perspectives from inner areas” in C. Dezio et al. (eds.), Le Aree Interne Italiane. Un banco di prova per interpretare e progettare i territori marginali / Inner Areas in Italy. A testbed for interpreting and designing marginal territories, ListLab, Trento. Preview of the book accessible at: https://www.listlab.eu/en/catalogo/libri-collane-tematiche-main-series/serie-babel-urbanization/aree-interne-italiane-inner-areas-in-italy/  

• Coppola A., Del Fabbro M., Lanzani A., Pessina G., Zanfi F. (eds.), 2021, Ricomporre i divari. Politiche e progetti territoriali contro le disuguaglianze e per la transizione ecologica, Il Mulino, Bologna. Book accessible at: https://www.eccellenza.dastu.polimi.it/2022/06/27/il-volume-ricomporre-i-divari-e-da-oggi-scaricabile-online/ 

• Pessina G., 2019, “The Brand-new Riverfront and the Historical Centre: Narratives and Open Questions in Contemporary Ahmedabad, India”, European Journal of Creative Practives in Cities and Landscapes, Special Issue: “Water Resilience: Creative Practices – Past, present and future” (edited by Hein C., Mager T., Rocco R.), 2(1): 65-92. Article accessible at: https://cpcl.unibo.it/article/view/8746 

• Pessina G., 2018, “The ‘Missing Conflict’ of the Sabarmati Riverfront. Authoritarian Governance, Neoliberalism and Water in Ahmedabad, India”, PA.CO. Partecipazione e Conflitto, Special issue “Ten Years of PACO” (edited by Mattoni C. e Parks L.), 11 (3): 692-716. Article accessible at: http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/article/view/20225

Projects

• 2025 – 2027 | Member of the DAStU-Politecnico di Milano research unit for the Driving Urban Transitions 2023 (Horizon Europe) project “InterPED – Regenerating Intermediate Territories through Positive Energy Districts” (PI: Fabio Vanin, Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Belgium; partner: Politecnico di Milano/Italy; Politehnica University of Timișoara/Romania; Universidade da Beira Interior/Portugal) – https://dutpartnership.eu/funding-opportunities/dut_call_2023/projects-suggested-for-funding/positive-energy-districts-projects/  

• 2024 – 2025 | Member of the ProdAction research group in the framework of the activities of the Competence centre for Antifragile Territories at DAStU/Politecnico di Milano – https://craft.dastu.polimi.it/en/antifragility-lab/4  

• 2023 – 2025 | Member of the DAStU-Politecnico di Milano research unit for the PRIN 2022 project “PLanETs. Production landscapes through energy transitions: industrial heritage preservation, socio-political processes and potential reuse in Lombardy, Sardinia, and Calabria” (ERC: SH5_8; PI: O. Tiganea; 2023-2025; partner: Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria; Università degli Studi Cagliari) – https://www.dastu.polimi.it/prin-planets/