— Landscapes


What we need, then, is ‘real utopias’: utopian ideals that are grounded in the real potentials of humanity, utopian destinations that have accessible waystations, utopian designs of institutions that can inform our practical tasks of navigating a world of imperfect conditions for social change.

Erik Olin Wright


United Kingdom   France   Italy
  • — Regno Unito Public engagement, social impact, inclusiveness
  •           Campsbourne Community Collective, Haringey, Londra.        
              Queen’s University, Belfast.  
  • National context and higher education system        With a population of around 69 million, the United Kingdom has a wide and well-distributed network of universities across the country, with a strong concentration in the London area. Universities enjoy a high degree of autonomy and considerable freedom in defining their organizational structures, research priorities, and development strategies. 
  • Many UK universities actively participate in international research networks, collaborating with partners across multiple countries and contributing to large-scale scientific projects. The system is also characterized by its strong capacity to attract international students and doctoral candidates, as well as by a diversified funding model combining public resources allocated through evaluation-based mechanisms with external funding sources.  In terms of investment, the UK allocates a significant share of its resources to Research and Development, which amounts to around 2.5% of GDP, thereby reinforcing the role of universities in the country’s socio-economic development.

     Community engagement in the United Kingdom       In the United Kingdom, community engagement is promoted in multiple ways and has long been a central component of universities’ missions. Since the 1990s, national policies have encouraged the public role of universities and dialogue between research and society, encouraging institutions to integrate community engagement into their strategies and everyday practices. A key milestone was the Concordat for Engaging the Public with Research (2011), which established shared principles and clarified the responsibilities of research funders in fostering closer and more sustained relationships between science and citizens. In recent years, this orientation has been further strengthened by the public engagement strategy developed by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which aims to “break down the barriers between research, innovation and society” and to make science more inclusive and accessible.
    Within this framework, public engagement encompasses a wide range of activities, including collaborative research, citizen involvement, public dialogue, and events held in festivals, museums, laboratories, libraries, and schools. A key reference point is the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, established in 2008, which supports universities and research institutions in developing engagement practices by providing operational resources, self-assessment tools, and tailored guidance. The Centre also promotes position papers such as the Manifesto for Public Engagement and recognition tools like the Engagement Watermark, which highlight institutions particularly active in this field. 
     Community engagement is supported by a broad range of funding opportunities provided by public agencies, research councils, philanthropic foundations, and universities themselves. National programs fostering dialogue between science and society, thematic initiatives on public issues, and dedicated funding streams make the UK a particularly favorable context for engagement practices. In this landscape, the social value of research is further reinforced by the Research Excellence Framework (REF), which recognizes societal impact as a key evaluation criterion and includes community engagement among the ways universities demonstrate their value to society.        
     
     Universities involved in the PLACES project*         The two UK universities involved in the PLACES project adopt partially distinct approaches to community engagement, while sharing a common emphasis on relational continuity. Field interviews indicate that, in both institutions, engagement with local communities is grounded in the development of trust-based relationships and sustained partnerships over time.         In the first university, engagement with the local context is articulated through ongoing collaborations with local authorities, alongside structured interactions with community committees, which facilitate exchanges between researchers and civil society. These partnerships are progressively built through practices of active listening, the identification of shared objectives, and the adaptation of collaborative arrangements to the specific needs of different groups (for instance, in areas such as education, poverty, or environmental issues). This approach contributes to the consolidation of stable and enduring local relationships.        In the second university, greater emphasis is placed on the relational groundwork that precedes the initiation of projects. Dedicated teams and liaison roles operate continuously to establish and maintain trust with local organisations, associations, and third-sector actors, taking into account the constraints under which these actors operate. Within this framework, particular attention is devoted to shaping collaborations that are both realistic and mutually beneficial, thereby creating favourable conditions for the activation of joint initiatives as new opportunities emerge. 

                * To protect the privacy of the individuals and institutions involved, the names of the universities have been anonymised. 
  • — Francia Open science, participatory research, sharing
  • Foucault Pendulum, National Museum of Arts and Crafts (MUAM/CNAM), Paris.
    Continuing professional development workshop, CNAM, Paris.

    National context and higher education system With a population of around 66 million, France has a well-structured higher education system comprising universities, grandes écoles, and research organisations. Universities constitute a central component of the public research system and maintain close collaborations with major national research institutions such as CNRS and INSERM, sharing laboratories, projects, and research activities. 
  • Universities are distributed across the entire territory: alongside large institutions located in major urban centres, there are universities embedded in diverse regional contexts, often playing an active role in local cultural and social life.  In terms of investment, France allocates a significant share of resources to Research and Development, with total expenditure amounting to around 2% of GDP. In recent years, growing attention has been devoted to the public role of universities and their contribution to fostering dialogue between science and society.
     Community engagement in France In France, community engagement is situated within an institutional framework that is still evolving. While the importance of dialogue between universities and society is widely recognized, community engagement is not always explicitly defined as an autonomous and priority domain of academic activity. More often, the relationship between universities and society is framed within the so-called “third mission”, which in the French context closely aligns with the concept of open science (science ouverte), understood as a more transparent, accessible, and sharing-oriented approach to research.  Unlike in other European countries, there is no single, widely shared definition of community engagement. Activities directed toward the public are described through a plurality of overlapping terms and categories, making the boundaries between practices less clear. This lack of a unified conceptual framework makes it more difficult to translate community engagement into structured and recognizable practices within universities, which often develop initiatives in flexible and experimental ways. Since 2021, a significant impulse has been provided by the policy named Science avec et pour la société, which explicitly promotes the idea of science “with and for society”. Through dedicated measures and investments, this policy has supported science communication activities, participatory research, collaborations with local actors, and initiatives fostering interaction between researchers and citizens, contributing to greater visibility and recognition of universities’ engagement efforts.  Engagement practices in France are far from marginal. Collaborations with museums and cultural institutions, open laboratories, science events, educational activities, and interactions with citizens and schools are widespread and contribute to making science more accessible. Many initiatives emerge from the direct involvement of researchers, departments, or research groups and develop in response to local contexts and audiences.
     Universities involved in the PLACES project* The two French universities involved in the PLACES project demonstrate different ways of building relationships with local communities. Field interviews highlighted distinct approaches.  The first university, resulting from the merger of a university and a research institute, has developed more structured forms of collaboration with its territory. Through an office dedicated to participatory research, the institution promotes dialogue between researchers and citizen associations to identify local needs and co-develop solutions, alongside initiatives led by individual researchers.  At the second university, engagement with the local context is primarily built through case-by-case collaborations based on personal relationships and mutual trust. Researchers start from the needs of local partners and seek common ground between different interests to initiate joint projects. This is complemented by the implementation of the Science et Société (SAPS) plan, which promotes dialogue between research and society through dedicated engagement initiatives.  Overall, the observed experiences show that community engagement in French universities takes diverse forms, ranging from more structured models to more flexible practices strongly rooted in local contexts.

    * To protect the privacy of the individuals and institutions involved, the names of the universities have been anonymised.
  • — Italia Dialogue with local communities, trust-based relationships, meaningful collaborations
  • Open lecture Urbanismo affettivo [“Affective Urbanism”] and exhibition of the project Italia di mezzo [“Middle Italy”], CRAFT Space, Politecnico di Milano.
    Rectorate, Politecnico di Milano.

    National context and higher education system With a population of around 59 million, Italy is among the major European countries in terms of demographic and economic size and presents generally advanced social and economic conditions. 
  • The higher education system, rooted in a long historical tradition, includes both public and private universities distributed across the national territory and plays a central role in higher education and knowledge production. However, this role is shaped by a structural limitation: Italy invests relatively little in research and development compared to other comparable European countries, with total expenditure around 1.5% of GDP.  Within this context of limited resources, universities operate under highly differentiated conditions, resulting in a heterogeneous system where large institutions in major urban centres coexist with universities located in areas characterized by greater socio-economic fragility.
     Community engagement in Italy In Italy, community engagement is carried out through activities aimed at bringing research outside traditional academic contexts, including public events, science communication initiatives, projects involving citizens, activities with schools, and collaborations with local authorities and third-sector organizations. The goal is to make science more accessible and to foster dialogue between those who produce knowledge and those who live within local communities.  Compared with other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, this approach to university–society relations developed somewhat later. For a long time, community engagement has been considered secondary to universities’ traditional missions of teaching and research. In recent years, however, community engagement has gained clearer recognition and has progressively been incorporated into the evaluation systems of universities’ third mission.   A key step was the inclusion of these activities in the Valutazione della Qualità della Ricerca (VQR) starting from the 2011–2014 cycle, the main national exercise assessing university research performance. Since 2018, under the guidance of the Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca (ANVUR), universities have begun to document their engagement activities more systematically.  These activities now influence, although to a limited extent, the allocation of a portion of public funding. Despite these developments, many initiatives still rely on the direct commitment of individual researchers or departments, also due to the lack of dedicated resources.
     Universities involved in the PLACES project* In the Italian context, the community engagement practices observed in the two universities involved in the PLACES project are primarily based on the continuity of personal relationships between academics and civil society actors, and on the gradual construction of dialogue with local communities.  Field interviews highlighted the importance of building sustained relationships over time and sharing common goals to initiate meaningful collaborations, especially in the early stages.  In both case studies, engagement takes shape through a combination of informal channels and more structured spaces: direct contacts and personal networks are complemented by forums, public events, and institutional initiatives promoted by universities. Festivals, spaces made available by universities and local administrations, as well as collaborations with associations, schools, and third-sector organizations, represent key settings where interaction between universities and communities becomes concrete and visible.  Overall, community engagement in Italian universities appears as an evolving process, strongly shaped by local specificities.

    * To protect the privacy of the individuals and institutions involved, the names of the universities have been anonymised.