The goal of the SoW project is to analyse and understand some of the global processes which are spreading in the "Souths of the World" (i.e. Africa, Asia, Latin America, Southern Europe) in collaboration with FEEM international partners. In particular, the project focuses on the problem of collective action in the cities of the Southern Hemisphere. Collective action requires political, social and environmental justice reform; it originates from distribution conflicts, identity and values frictions, and involves different populations, social and ethnic groups, religious minorities etc. Among the many challenges emerging from this issue, sustainable development is a key topic: in fact, the Souths address the theme of "how to save the planet" peculiarly in comparison with the Northern Hemisphere. Starting from this point of view, the project will compare the economic development models in the Souths; examine resilience in the context of the common global environmental crisis; finally, it will suggest a unifying concept that will start from 4 main drivers (demography, natural resources, destructive conflicts and events, corrective policies) and will result in an analysis of medium-long and short term impact, providing a new framework to understand the collective actions of the Souths of the world.

Following the construction of the international network, the analysis of the major problems related to the development of the Southern Hemisphere and the fall school promoted in 2019, for 2020:

1) By June 2020 a general framework paper will be drawn up to pose the problems, explore the international literature, make interpretative hypotheses and solicit answers from the various local units;

2) Numerous case studies developed by the partner universities on the various collective action themes will be presented at the fall school scheduled for November 2020 (rural-urban transition, migration, environment, natural resources, responses to emergencies, economic and social rebalancing policies, environmental, civil rights).

Related Contents:

• Special edition of magazine "Equilibri" magazine to be released in September 2020;
• FEEM Fall School “The collective action in the global south”, November 2020, FEEM website.