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DAY THREE
Workshop
ONE EARTH FOR EVERYONE:
Winning the game, losing the planet
10:00 - 13:00 Room 4 P.le della Vittoria
This workshop explores the socio-economic dimensions of Nature, for instance by using the Prisoner’s Dilemma to examine how natural resources are distributed. The event will be structured into two parts:
1. The first part will trace the historical evolution of resource allocation and examine issues such as exploitation, colonialism, resource sovereignty, and environmental policy.
2. The second part will engage participants in a simulation where they are divided into two country groups and assigned roles representing different stakeholders.
Through multiple rounds of decision-making, they will experience the dynamics of cooperation and defection that shape resource distribution outcomes.
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Maria Arvaniti
Maria Arvaniti works on a variety of applied theory topics, mostly related to environmental applications. Her current research focuses on behavioural anomalies such as temptation preferences and present bias, the strategic aspects of such problems, and the design of optimal policies in the presence of uncertainty and political constraints.
Maria also works on topics related to environmental agreements and strategic delegation, as well as the optimal management of natural resources and the role of learning in the presence of uncertainty regime shifts.
Maria has a PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick and a Bachelor's in International and European Economic Relations from the Athens University of Economics and Business.
Giuseppe Pignataro
Giuseppe Pignataro is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Bologna. He primarily works on topics related to economics, with a particular focus on inequality and poverty, public policy, and the economics of information, with a thematic emphasis on microeconomic theory.
His publications and research include “Algorithmic Inequality: The Dark Side of Digital Efficiency” and “Equality of Opportunity: Welfare and Public Policies”.
He holds a PhD in Economics and Public Finance from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, a Master’s degree in Political Economy from the University of Turin, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business from the University of Catania.
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Conference
LAND GRABBING AND THE ROLE OF PRIVATE ENTITIES
Neo-colonial dynamics and possible alternatives
17:00 - 19:00 Room 1 Teaching Hub
The conference aims to examine the link between the exploitation of natural resources and land, the role of transnational private entities, and the persistence of neo-colonial structures in contemporary international relations. The event will be organized into three parts.
1. The initial section is dedicated to a historical-political analysis of the decolonization process in the Global South, from colonial rule to modern dependency dynamics.
2. The second point will analyze the impact of large companies on the ecological transition and resource management, seeking to understand how to transform sustainability from an obligation into a development strategy.
3. The last part will explore the phenomenon of land grabbing and how it undermines the autonomy, security, and environmental integrity of developing countries.
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Maura Benegiamo
Maura Benegiamo is a researcher in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pisa who has conducted scientific collaborations in Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America, focusing on extractivism, environmental conflicts, agricultural policies, and the governance of ecological transitions. Her interests include the transformations of capitalism and neoliberal governance in the context of the ecological crisis, with a particular focus on socio-ecological impacts, transformations of work, decolonial political ecology, and socio-technical transformations connected to the valorization of nature.
Her works have been published in various national and international scientific journals, and she co-directs the Ecologia Politica series for the Orthotes house. She is the author of La terra dentro il capitale. Conflitti, sviluppo, e crisi ecologica nel delta del Senegal (Orthotes, 2021) and Land, Capital and Extractive Frontiers. Social Conflict and Ecological Crisis in the Senegal River Delta (Bristol University Press, 2025).
Annalisa Cavallini
Annalisa Cavallini is a researcher and activist at A Sud, an association committed to environmental and climate justice. She holds degrees in Political Science and International Relations and in Development Cooperation Sciences. She is a co-author of the paper, GIS in international cooperation issues: the land grabbing phenomenon (GEOmedia 2013). As part of her research work with A Sud, she deals with environmental conflicts and climate migrations.
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Davide Chinigò
Davide Chinigò is Senior Assistant Professor in African History and Institutions at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna. His research examines the political and social history of development in Africa, focusing on state formation, agrarian transformations, and international cooperation. He has carried out fieldwork in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and South Africa, and collaborates with African and European institutions on agrarian transformation, state- and nation-building; social movements; industrial and labor policy; the just energy transition, and space science. He is the Book Reviews Editor of The Journal of Modern African Studies, and Research Fellow
in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University.
Miguel Angel Mellino
Miguel Mellino is an Associate Professor and lecturer in "Postcolonial Studies and Interethnic Relations" at the University of Naples "L'Orientale". Among his publications, Marx in the margins. From Black Marxism to Postcolonial Feminism (Alegre 2020), Governing the Refugee Crisis. Sovranism, neoliberalism, racism and acceptance in Europe (Deriveapprodi 2019), Stuart Hall: Culture, Race and Power (ombre corte 2015), Postcolonial Citizenships. Belongings, Race, and Racism in Italy and Europe (Carocci, 2012), Post-Orientalism. Said and Postcolonial Studies (Meltemi, 2009); Culture and Power. Conversation on Cultural Studies (with Stuart Hall, Meltemi, 2006), and Postcolonial Critique. Decolonization, Capitalism, and Cosmopolitanism in Postcolonial Studies (Meltemi, 2005). He also edited Frantz Fanon's political writings, The Fifth Year of the Algerian Revolution (Deriveapprodi, 2007) and For the African Revolution (Deriveapprodi 2006), and A Discourse on Colonialism by A.D. King.
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