Research groups

CRIA’s research activity is structured into four major research groups that compose the scientific core of the centre. Each research group assembles researchers from all four institutional divisions and is coordinated by two scholars, developing activities related with its specific thematic scope, promoting academic discussion, debates in the public sphere, and intra-group dialogue.

Circulation and Place-Making

Circulation and Place-Making investigates the movement of people and cultural forms, the relation between mobility and immobility, and cultural creativity. It particularly focuses on migration/emigration and religious transnationalism and imagination. This research group aims to explore the role of flow and movement in contemporary cultural configurations and its connections with the politics of making roots and identities.

Environment, Sustainability and Ethnography

The activity of the Environment, Sustainability and Ethnography (DASE) Research Group focuses mainly on ecological issues, understanding them as culturally interpreted and constructed phenomena. The theoretical and applied research produced by the group is based on the notion that “sustainability” implies the recognition of the necessary interconnection between nature and culture.

Livelihoods, Politics and Inequalities

This RG undertakes an in-depth ethnographic examination of various aspects, such as production, distribution, consumption, reproduction of resources, regulatory processes, and factors that give rise to or transform inequalities.

Practices and Politics of Culture

Practices and Politics of Culture explores contemporary objectification and uses of culture, ranging from the economic to the touristic. Particular emphasis is placed on the politics and ethnology of heritage in order to understand how culture is conceived as a resource, and how it impacts on communities and creates new ones.